Introducing the dreamiest roll cake you will ever meet! My Strawberry Shortcake Swiss Roll is so soft, light and fluffy with a fresh strawberry vanilla cream filling, covered in Chantilly cream and topped with strawberry shortcake crumbs. This cake disappears fast because it is so light and so delicious that people just can't stop eating it. The sponge cake is based on my classic Vanilla Swiss Roll Cake recipe which I love because it is easy to make since it doesn't require separating eggs. There are few steps so you can whip it up in no time! It is nice and flexible for easy rolling. The freshness of the berries with this light vanilla sponge makes this a lovely Spring cake, although I often serve it during the Christmas holidays as well! This vanilla sponge cake recipe itself is very versatile and a great canvas for an array of flavorful fillings such as cream cheese frosting, whipped ganache or chocolate mousse to make all kinds of delicious desserts.
WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE
- EASY to make - this Swiss Roll Cake (also called a "roulade") is very easy to make. You just beat the whole eggs instead of separating them, and then add the rest of the ingredients. I would recommend using a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this recipe.
- Soft and tender vanilla cake - the vanilla sponge cake is super soft! It has a tender crumb texture and it stays moist with the cream filling. It doesn't dry out.
- Strawberry vanilla cream filling - the filling is SO delicious! I mix homemade strawberry compote into vanilla whipped cream and it is absolutely irresistible. Make sure you read on below to see my tip for stabilizing the cream.
- No cracks - this roll cake recipe never cracks when I make it. Follow the instructions, be careful not to over-bake and you will have success too!
- Strawberry shortcake crumbs - this extra topping is so special and really drives home the "strawberry shortcake" theme.
INGREDIENTS FOR SWISS ROLL CAKE
- All purpose flour - simple all-purpose flour works just fine in this recipe. If you have pastry flour, that will give an even softer texture, but I promise it is not necessary. Adding too much flour is the most common mistake for roll cakes and leads to tough and dry cake. The most accurate way to measure flour is using a scale. If you don’t have one then fluff your flour with a spoon, spoon it into your measuring cup and use a knife to level it off.
- Granulated sugar - simple white sugar will keep this cake sweet, tender and moist.
- Pure vanilla extract - vanilla is essential to this sponge cake so use a nice natural bourbon vanilla extract.
- Eggs - you'll need 4 whole eggs to make the sponge cake. Good news is you don't need to separate them!
- Oil - just a few tablespoons of oil will keep this cake soft and flexible. Butter tastes delicious, however it will make the texture more crumbly and difficult to roll the cake. Also, this cake is meant to be kept refrigerated due to the fresh cream filling, and oil will stay liquid when cold to keep the cake soft while butter would firm it up.
- Vinegar – this may seem like a strange ingredient, but it helps balance the taste of the cake since it isn't too sweet and it helps to soften the texture.
- Whipping cream - the filling is so easy to make with just cream, sugar and vanilla. Make sure you use cold heavy cream with minimum 35% milk fat content.
- Strawberry compote - you'll make a quick and delicious strawberry compote from fresh strawberries, sugar, corn starch and a bit of lemon. First you mix some into the cream filling, and then you spoon some on top before you roll the cake to get bursts of strawberry in each slice.
- Strawberry shortcake crumbs - a mixture of flour, sugar and butter makes a buttery shortbread-like topping for the cake. The key is freeze dried strawberry powder to coat the crumbs and make it look like the coating on the Good Humor strawberry shortcake ice cream bars!
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS
- STEP 1). Whip the eggs. Beat eggs for 3 minutes on medium-high speed until frothy and pale in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large mixing bowl if using an electric hand mixer.
- STEP 2). Beat in sugar. Gradually add sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes longer, until it nearly triples in volume and is very thick, pale and fluffy and billowy like shaving cream or marshmallow fluff. When you lift the mixture up with the beater and it slides back down into the base mixture, it should fall back onto itself in folds or ribbons rather than sink down into it. Mix in salt.
- STEP 3). Add wet ingredients. Combine milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla and then mix it into the whipped eggs gently.
- STEP 4). Combine dry ingredients. Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly.
- STEP 5). Mix wet and dry ingredients. Sift the dry ingredients again over and into the bowl with the egg mixture and use a large rubber spatula to carefully fold the dry ingredients into the whipped egg mixture just until combined without over-mixing.
- STEP 6). Bake. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan in a thin layer. Bake for 12-15 minutes until it springs back when pressed gently. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 3 minutes so it is easier to handle.
- STEP 7). Roll. Dust top of cake evenly with icing. Run a knife along the edges of the pan to release the cake, then invert it onto a clean kitchen towel or another large piece of parchment paper. Gently peel off the top layer of parchment. While the cake is still warm, gently roll it into a log starting from the short side and incorporating the kitchen towel or parchment as you are rolling. Let the cake cool completely in this rolled shape.
- STEP 8). Fill the cake. Unroll the cake, spread the filling over it leaving about ½ inch border. Spoon some of the compote randomly over the filling and then gently roll up the cake again. Transfer to a baking tray and refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
EXPERT BAKING TIPS
- Use a neutral tasting oil like pure sunflower oil for the cleanest flavor to let the chocolate taste stand out.
- Do not reduce the sugar - this sponge cake is already low in sugar naturally, and the right amount of sugar will make it stay soft because it binds water so that it stays tightly in the batter and doesn't evaporate excessively during baking.
- Have your eggs at room temperature - this is very important to ensure they whip up quickly and to their most potential.
- Keep an eye on the baking time - set a timer for the first time stated in the recipe and check for doneness. The cake should spring back when pressed gently with your fingertip.
- Use cold cream for the filling - very cold cream will whip better than room temperature cream. Also, make sure you do not over-whip or it can turn grainy. Keep mixing at medium speed - it may take longer but you will get lovely fine air bubbles for a silky filling.
- Make the strawberry compote ahead of time - you can prepare the compote up to 3 days in advance to save you time on the day you're making the cake.
RECIPE FAQ
Sometimes to make sponge cakes (like Genoise), you will place the bowl with eggs and sugar over a water bath to heat it before whipping it. Why? Heat slightly denatures the proteins in egg whites which means that it makes them change from a tight coiled up shape (like a spring, or a slinky) to a loose shape. Basically, heat unravels them! This increases the surface area that is exposed to air so that the protein strands can bind to air more easily. However, I wanted a recipe that didn't even require this step to make it extra simple for you!
1. Room temperature eggs: For this recipe you don't need to use a water bath nor separate eggs, but you cannot use COLD eggs. Your eggs must be at room temperature.
2. Use oil instead of butter. While I use butter in most of my recipes, oil makes the best roll cakes. That's because oil is liquid at room temperature so the sponge will stay flexible even when it cools down. Butter is firm at room temperature so when it cools it will harden and make the sponge more susceptible to cracking as you roll it. This cake rolls so easily. Just watch the video to see how simple it is.
Yes, for this recipe, DO sift the dry ingredients. Actually, sift them twice! Since this is a relatively wet batter, it is important that the dry ingredients are incorporated evenly without having to mix too much. Over-mixing will deflate all the air bubbles from the egg foam. Sifting the flour will ensure there are no lumps and the flour particles are evenly dispersed so that the they absorb into the batter quickly.
Sifting will also ensure that the flour doesn't lump into the batter. Instead it will gently fall onto the egg foam. If you were to dump all the dry ingredients over the whipped eggs, then they would just sink to the bottom immediately and most likely leave you with a lumpy batter. I always sift half of the blended dry ingredients over the wet mixture, fold it in, then sift the remaining dry ingredients and fold them in. This creates the most homogeneous batter without having to mix excessively which would otherwise knock a lot of the air out of the batter.
Most of us store eggs in the fridge (at least if you live in North America), so planning ahead is important for baking to ensure your ingredients are all at room temperature. You can pull them from the fridge and leave them at room temperature for 1 hour. Here's a shortcut: take your eggs from the fridge and place them in a bowl. Submerge them in very warm (not boiling) water from the tap for 10 minutes. This will be enough to use in any recipe that calls for room temperature eggs (which is most of Scientifically Sweet recipes).
Some recipe instructions ask you to bake sponge cakes for roll cakes at a higher temperature, such as 375 or 400 degrees F. I find that in doing this you get over-expansion of air bubbles which collapse quickly. The reason for this is because a sponge cake batter is so delicate and there is very little flour compared to moisture to hold the air bubbles in place. When large air bubbles collapse, it can create a dense sponge. I prefer to bake in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F for more even baking so you will have an even flat height for the whole cake.
If your sponge cracks when you try to roll it, it could be two things: it was over-baked and dried out, and/or it was too cold when you tried to roll it. Since this recipe is simplified with whole eggs instead of beating the eggs separately, it slightly lacks the flexibility from whipped egg whites. That's ok though, it still works! It's just important that you do roll it while slightly warm so the proteins are still flexible.
I have never had issues with this sponge cake cracking excessively. Sometimes when I'm distracted and it bakes a little too long, it may crack just at the surface as I roll it but it never cracks in half so that I can't still roll it. A few small superficial cracks will get filled with cream and won't even be noticeable, so don't even fret about it.
Store this cake in the fridge for up to 3 days. It will stay soft even while cold and the filling is stabilized by skim milk powder, so it holds up well! I actually love eating this cake cold.
Baking with strawberries
Looking for more recipes with strawberries? Try these:
More cakes
Here are more delicious cakes to bake:
Strawberry Shortcake Swiss Roll
Ingredients
Sponge cake:
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅔ cup 135g granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 142g all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoon 30ml sunflower oil
- 2 tablespoon 30ml milk
- 1 teaspoon 5ml apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon 5ml pure vanilla extract
Strawberry compote:
- 1 cup 130g chopped hulled strawberries
- 2 tablespoon 25g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon 15ml lemon juice or water
Strawberry Cream Filling:
- 1 cup 240ml 35% whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon 6g skim milk powder
- 1 tablespoon 12g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon 5ml pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon freeze dried strawberry powder (optional)
- ⅓ cup 80ml strawberry compote plus extra for dolloping
Topping:
- 1 cup 240ml 35% whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon 6g skim milk powder
- 1 tablespoon 12g granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Strawberry Shortcake crumbs from this Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake Bars recipe
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan and line it with parchment paper. You can also use a 17x11-inch cookie sheet and the cake will be slightly thinner and bake faster.
- Place your room temperature eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or in a large bowl if using a hand mixer) and beat on high speed for 3 minutes until very frothy and doubled in volume. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat for 4-5 minutes until pale, thick and tripled in volume. The eggs should reach the “ribbon stage” where it can hold a figure “8” as it falls back onto itself when lifted with the beaters. Mix in salt.
- Blend together oil, milk, vinegar and vanilla in a small bowl and gradually pour it into the egg mixture while mixing gently.
- Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Sift this mixture again over the mixer bowl with the beaten eggs in two parts and mix on low speed until just combined, scraping along the bottom of the bowl to evenly incorporate the ingredients. Do not over-mix, but do make sure the flour is evenly incorporated without any clumps.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes for a jelly roll pan (or 10-12 minutes for an 11x17-inch cookie sheet pan) until very lightly golden and it springs back when pressed gently. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for just a minute.
- Meanwhile, quickly lay a tea towel or a large piece of parchment paper onto a work surface. Sift icing sugar generously over the warm cake to cover the surface and then carefully but swiftly invert it onto the towel/parchment so the sugared surface is facing down. Carefully peel off the parchment that was baked with the cake. Then, tightly roll the cake up with the towel/parchment and let cool completely in this shape.
- Make the strawberry compote. Combine chopped strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally, then cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes until soft and juicy. Combine corn starch and water in a small bowl and stir it into the strawberry mixture off the heat. Bring it back to a boil while stirring for a 10 seconds then pour it into a clean bowl and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
- Make the filling. Combine cream and skim milk powder in a medium bowl and beat until it forms firm peaks. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add strawberry compote and fold it in gently.
- Assemble the cake. Unroll the cooled cake and spread cream over the surface, leaving about ½-inch border and about 1 inch at the very end. Spoon extra teaspoonfuls of strawberry compote randomly over the cream so you get nice pockets of strawberry when you slice into it. Carefully roll up the cake with the filling and then transfer it to a tray seam-side-down. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set the filling.
- Make the topping. Combine cream and skim milk powder in a medium bowl and beat until it forms firm peaks. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Spread it evenly over the chilled Swiss roll cake and top with strawberry shortcake crumbs before serving.
Mary Egan
What are strawberry shortcake crumbles?
christina.marsigliese
Hi Mary, great question - I forgot to add the link to those. It's the same recipe that I use for the crumbs on my Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake Bars. I've added the link in the recipe card now. Thanks!