Swiss roll!

Hello God's people, hope your week started well. We are going to talk about the history of "Roulade" and the filling that goes into the sponge. Some call it Jelly roll but we call it Swiss roll! Just another story and some mouth watering pictures.

A Swiss roll or jelly roll (or cream roll when so filled) is a type of sponge cake roll. A thin cake layer is made of flour, eggs, and sugar and baked in a very shallow rectangular baking tray, called a sheet pan. The cake is removed from the pan and spread with jam or cream, rolled up, and served in round cross-sectional slices.

                                               You don't have to over fill it!
The origins of the term "Swiss roll" are unclear. The cake originated in Central Europe, but not in Switzerland as the name would suggest. It appears to have been invented in the nineteenth century, along with Battenberg, doughnuts and Victoria sponge.
     

                                             Some add jam to the chocolate too!
The shape of the Swiss roll has inspired usage as a descriptive term in other fields, such as in optics and blues music

The earliest reference for a rolled cake spread with jelly was in the Northern Farmer a journal published in Utica, NY in December 1852. The recipe was called “To Make Jelly Cake” but it reads: “Bake quick and while hot spread with jelly. Roll carefully, and wrap it in a cloth. When cold cut in slices for the table.” The description is for a Jelly Roll. The name Jelly Cake comes from another cake recipe that was made up of 5 to 6 thin layers of cake with jelly between each layer. It made a thick, high cake. Jelly Cake (layer cake) is an old English recipe.

                                               It can be stuff with fruits too!

For many years there was no clear distinction between the name Jelly Cake and Jelly Roll to describe a rolled cake spread with jelly in America. During the period from 1852 to 1877 it was called: Jelly Cake (1852), Roll Jelly Cake (1860), Swiss Roll (1872), Jelly Roll (1873), and Rolled Jelly Cake (1876). The name “Jelly Roll” eventually becomes the common popular name in America.

The name Swiss Roll appears to be British but did the name originate there? A bill of fare dated June 18, 1871 for the Union Steam-ship Company’s R.M.S. “Syria” listed Swiss Roll. That bill of fare was published in the 1872 book A Voyage from Southampton to Cape Town, in the Union Company’s Mail Steamer “Syria” in London. So far this is the earliest British reference to a rolled cake. That same year 1872, The American Home Cook Book published in Detroit, Michigan listed a recipe for Swiss Roll. This raises the question in what country did the name Swiss Roll originate? In the 1894, American Pastry Cook published in Chicago, there is an unusual arrangement of recipes. It started with Jelly Roll Mixture followed by Swiss Roll, Venice Roll, Paris Roll, Chocolate Roll, Jelly Roll (Roulade) and Decorated Jelly Rolls. Each recipe utilized the basic Jelly Roll cake made from the Jelly Roll Mixture. In turn, each recipe was completed and finished in a different way thus distinguishing several European versions. In this cookbook, the Jelly Roll has a different name in each country. Several 1880’s to 1890’s cookbooks from London, England used the name Swiss Roll exclusively making it the popular name for the rolled cake recipe in England

It needed a sophisticated name and we British are good for that!