Lemon Jelly Roll

Happy midsummer! I know it's mostly Sweden celebrating this odd holiday, but here, almost everyone does indeed celebrate. We, as most years, spent it with our friends, eating great food and a yummy strawberry-decorated cake. So, today, we had some other friends over for coffee and we wanted to do something fun and simple for "fika", which is what we Swedes call an afternoon snack to go with said coffee.

I am no master of jelly rolls, but I thought I'd give it a go. And success! It turned out really good. The above photo shows the plain cake, but we also served it with whipped cream, and of course, strawberries. Delicious!

(By all means make your own lemon curd if you feel like it. But I think it's fine to use a few short-cuts every now and then. Or hey, all the time, if you're so inclined.)



Lemon Jelly Roll
serves 6-8

3 eggs
140 g sugar
120 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
3 tbsp boiling water

Filling:
about 200 ml lemon curd

Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar. Fold this into the eggs. Finish by carefully adding the hot water and mixing lightly.

Spread into a jelly roll pan, lined with baking paper. Bake for five minutes at 225°C. Take it out, sprinkle with sugar and then invert the cake onto a second piece of baking paper. Remove the first one - it might stick a little so be gentle - and cover the still-warm cake with the jelly-roll pan while it cools off. This prevents the cake from drying out.

When it's cool, trim the edges. Spread the cake with lemon curd, and roll tightly, starting at a long edge.  Wrap in plastic, if you're not serving right away.

Serve with strawberries and whipped cream