I never realised I hadn’t published this until today when I went looking for the cookalong recipes! But here it is.

Sundays. Sundays I equate with some kind of cake.

Now I don’t know how traditionally Irish this is to everyone else, but we would often go visiting on a Sunday, or have an odd few in. It’s always really pleasant to have neighbours pop in to see if you’re about on the way home from a drive, it’s something I love about living in the country! And for some reason, it would always involve the handover of a bag from the shop back the way containing a packet of jacobs something or others, and either an apple tart, or a swiss roll.

Now this swiss roll is courtesy of a certain Peter’s mammy again, and we had it on one of our annual Christmas visits in April-July. (This Christmas we managed it in December, unbelievable!). These nights normally end up with myself and Peter winning Scattergories as always, despite the other teams being completely biased against us. Because we would never, ever, EVER cheat. Or make an entire web page to prove that a game ‘existed’ in about 5 minutes.. Never. I’m telling you. So there. Ahem. I may be off topic. Also – having W for an Ice cream flavour – Wibbly Wobbly Wonder. Brill.

So anyway, a few years back Cathryn made us dinner before Scattergories wars began, and we had this glorious swiss roll after, a far cry from the prepackaged and slightly sorry ones that one would get in a shop. So I figured – if it’s a swiss roll I’m making, it’s going to be Cathryn’s. So I dutifully called her on cookalong day, and she gave me this recipe:

What you need

• 3 oz caster sugar, and a little extra for sprinkling
• 3 eggs
• 3 oz flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Filling
  • About 150ml (I think) cream, whipped lightly
  • A spoonful of sugar (makes the medicine go down!)
  • About 6 fresh strawberries, cut into slivers, and 1-2 more for decoration

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line a swiss roll tin.
2. So very simple, crack your eggs in a bowl and mix with the sugar until pale, thick and creamy. You need lots and lots of air in here to get this to be a nice light sponge
3. Add your vanilla.
4. With a large metal spoon, gently fold in your sifted flour, mixing until just combined.
5. Pour out and pop on  a flat surface in your oven. Cook until just golden and the sponge springs back when pressed lightly – about 8-10 minutes.
6. Now. This is rumoured to be difficult. It is not. Anybody can make this. What you need to do is act fast. Have a clean teatowel waiting for you that is lightly sprinkled with caster sugar. Tip out the sponge onto the towel, peel off the paper, and trim the edges. These you may eat. Yum. Then use the towel to carefully help you roll the swiss roll up WHILE it is still hot. Let it cool and then carefully unroll to fill.
7. For the filling, whip the cream so that its not too soft, stir in the caster sugar to taste-  you want it just slightly sweet, and stir in the slivered strawberries. Use this to fill the swiss roll – don’t overfill though! Then roll it back up, give it a dusting of icing sugar and pop a few strawberries on top for presentation.
8. Voila, a beautiful swiss roll that will be positively inhaled off the plate when it’s finished it’s photoshoot!