Raspberry & Rhubarb Swiss Roll

Sweet and creamy with ‘minimal squish’ while being sliced, Raspberry & Rhubarb Swiss Roll is Spring’s breath of fresh air recipe.

This recipe adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

PIN Raspberry & Rhubarb Swiss Roll

Do you adore raspberry desserts the way I do? Find inspiration!

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Chocolate Raspberry Tart

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Seriously, if I can pull off the best Swiss roll recipe ever, so can YOU!

Have an occasion coming up that you’d like to experiment with a nice dessert for? Not into experimenting, just need a dessert and to “get it done?” Raspberry & Rhubarb Swiss Roll is a splendid Springtime dessert that requires little to no baking expertise. How do I know this? Because I am not a baker. I prefer cheater recipes.

This recipe “cheats” in that it does not require whipping and folding in the egg whites separately. That’s right, this shorted step means you save time while still achieving the spring that a good Swiss roll sponge requires. Oh, and I have added polka dots. Pink polka dots. Seriously, if I can pull off the best Swiss roll recipe ever, so can YOU!

For times that I cannot use a blender or large food processor, this mini blender works impeccably. A gift from my Mom, I don’t know how I managed without it before now. Kitchen necessaries, click image for pricing.

I’ve assembled Swiss rolls that loose their fillings when sliced. Not this one!

For ever and ever, I shied away from recipes that visually looked too involved. A Swiss roll was definitely one of those recipes. That is, until I was gifted a prized easy Swiss roll recipe from my Aunt.

The original recipe was for a raspberry jelly roll recipe. Raspberry desserts have always been among my favorites, so I took an interest in this cake roll because of the ingredients. Fresh raspberries, a wee bit of cream cheese, several tablespoons granulated sugar, some powdered sugar, and a handful of eggs.

I’d watched her do this. Watched her roll cake using a kitchen towel, then unrolling to add the filling. How hard could this be?

I first tasted a Swiss roll at my Aunt Carol’s home in Bernardsville, New Jersey. I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven…

When I was very young, a dinner invitation to my Aunt Carol and Uncle Warren’s house was very exciting. It was hard to believe that adults would willfully request that somebody else’s kids join them at a dinner party.

I remember those dinner parties well. My Aunt would set her beautiful dining room overlooking their vast property for the dinner to be enjoyed in. Only her finest bone china and prized serving pieces went onto her sideboard and table.

My Mom would drive the fear of God into me before we ever left the house on how she expected me to behave. I was always careful NOT to touch anything aside from my fork and my milk glass on Aunt Carol’s table. I understood invitations to visit were privileged.

My Aunt’s impeccable taste was obvious in every thing and every person she knew. Nothing in her chemistry was ever a shortcut. And the first time she prepared and served her raspberry jelly roll with that sweet and creamy raspberry cake filling, my excitement must have spoken to her. It seemed from then on, she set out purposely cooking food that only Martha Stewart was capable of dreaming up.

I attended a baby shower where I saw and tasted a beautiful cake with pink polka dots…every cake should have pink polka dots! I show you how to do it RIGHT HERE!

And her “Jenny, will you assist me in the kitchen” requests began as simple tasks for her to know where my interest in cooking and baking stood. From dolloping whipped cream atop her triple chocolate shortcut mousse that Jackie Kennedy served in the White House, to helping her roll her individual raspberry red rhubarb Swiss rolls recipe, I was good for the elementary step every time. She treated me like I was an adult, and she indulged my senses keeping me a child.

The greatest lessons we learn are almost always attributable to somebody who loved us and made it feel like an adventure instead of a teachable moment…

On a trip to Europe some time ago, I was served a meat Swiss roll. It was out of this world. AND, it was beautiful. Gorgeous really. And immediately upon it being placed on the table in front of me, I thought of my Aunt Carol.

Now many years passed away, her lessons and flamboyancy are still as sharp in my mind as the day I witnessed them. I still had her raspberry Swiss roll recipe in my big tome of recipes, but had never made it. In fact, I’d never even read through it. Suddenly, I was sad.

It make not seem to some that conquering a Swiss roll is a big baking achievement, but…it absolutely is if you are not a seasoned baker. That person? That’s ME.

As I looked down at the beautiful meal I was about to consume, my eyes welled. My Aunt might very well have eaten at this exact café, as I was in her and Uncle Warren’s territory here in France. They spent as much time here as they did in the States after all. I knew she’d be happy that I was experiencing Europe. I thought to myself, if I managed to make it all the way here, surely I could attempt the one thing she baked for me each and every time I visited her home.

Just as this meat Swiss roll recipe had to be learned by our Chef, I too would learn how to make sponge roll for Carol’s raspberry jelly roll cake. And, as it would be, I mastered that raspberry cake roll. I swore it was the BEST EVER Swiss roll recipe. That is, until I made it BETTER!

Celebrating the success of baking a PERFECT Raspberry & Rhubarb Swiss Roll

So, yeah…this began as a raspberry rhubarb Swiss roll, and would end up a quasi painted Swiss roll recipe. That’s because after attending a baby shower for a friend, I was impressed by a raspberry lemon cake with polka dots, rolled like a jelly roll.

When I asked the hostess who’d baked it herself what her one tip would be, she only answered “to allow the sponge to cool completely after rolling the spiral.” Not much to go on, however some minutes after arriving home, I was seeking out my Aunt’s recipe. Now, where had I put that?

I would rate my first go-round with her ‘how to make Swiss rolls’ as somewhere around a 1 on a scale, 10 being the best. Subsequent tries meant “living the recipe.” And so I did, each attempt requiring review from two people who had tasted and LOVED my Aunt’s raspberry Swiss roll, my Mom and Dad. Let’s just say I was advised that I needed A LOT of practice…but, not any more!

All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC