Carrot Cake Swiss Roll

It was my mum’s birthday recently and she came around for her dinner a day early – on the Sunday. Cast your mind back to last year and you may remember that it’s a tradition that I make mum a carrot cake for her birthday every year. It’s her favourite dessert, and I try and make it a bit different every year. Last year’s was a loaf cake.

This year, I toyed with a few ideas, carrot cake bars, cupcakes, but I settled on a carrot cake swiss roll. I had never made a swiss roll before and really wanted to give one a go.

I found a recipe over at Crazy for Crust. It looked daunting at first but it was much, much easier than I anticipated.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

150 grams granulated sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons cinnamon

75b grams plain flour

2 medium carrots

Icing sugar (for rolling)

Adapted from Crazy for Crust

Filling:

170 grams, full-fat cream cheese, softened

55 grams unsalted butter, softened

250 grams icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Adapted from Crazy for Crust

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180^oC. Line a large (10”x15”) baking sheet with edges, with greaseproof paper. Grease the sides of the sheet. Grate your carrots and set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the eggs, vanilla, sugar and oil until the mixture is pale, slightly thick and creamy. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined and then stir through the carrots. Spread the entire mixture on the baking sheet. It is a sticky mix, so an off-set spatula really helps to push the mix right into the corners.

Place into the oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile dust a clean tea towel with plenty of icing sugar. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven invert the sheet onto the tea towel. Remove the sheet and greaseproof paper (carefully). Lay new greaseproof paper on top of the exposed part of the cake.

Starting with the short end of the cake, roll it very tightly within the tea towel. Leave it to cool completely, at least one hour.

Meanwhile make your filling, beating together the cream cheese and butter. Add the vanilla and cinnamon, mixing through. Lastly, add the icing sugar and stir it until dissolved. Place this into the fridge to firm up slightly. I didn’t do this part, and the frosting was too sloppy. Hey ho, live and learn!

When the cake is cooled, unroll and remove both the towel and greaseproof. Spread the filling all over the inside of the roll, and then carefully re-roll. You will probably get some cream cheese leakage, so don’t worry. Just scoop it up and enjoy later!

Transfer the roll to your plate or board, seam side down and dust more icing sugar over the top. There you have carrot cake swiss roll! I cut mines with a serrated knife and then served it with some skooshy cream (as we call it here).

Mum was very happy with her dinner and particularly the swiss roll. Any suggestions for next years variation of carrot cake will be gratefully received!