Show your loved ones how much you care about them this Valentine’s Day with this decadent yet simple to make Raspberry Chocolate Swiss Roll.
Have you ever made a swiss roll cake? Looks kinda tricky, huh? Well, it’s actually quite easy! Now, you can’t just take a regular cake recipe and roll it up. It’s gotta be a sponge cake.
How is a sponge cake different than a regular ole cake? It’s primarily made up of flour, sugar, and eggs. There’s NO butter or oil! This composition helps the cake hold together well and not crumble when rolling. And surprisingly, it’s still moist!
After you make the batter for this cake you pour it into a large jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper. It only takes about 14 minutes to cook. After it’s done you immediately turn the cake out onto a towel heavily coated in powdered sugar (this is so it doesn’t stick). Then you roll the cake up in the towel, starting at the short side. Let it cool completely and then you unroll it and spread the amazing raspberry cream filling on.
I typically make my raspberry frosting with fresh berries, like in my Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes. Unfortunately you can only add a couple tablespoons fresh mashed berries before it gets too thin. To get an intense raspberry flavor and still retain that perfect smooth texture the key ingredient is freeze dried raspberries. You blend them to a powder and add it to your frosting.
Naturally flavored and colored! So so good! You can get them at Amazon or Trader Joe’s.
Once you spread the filling on, roll the cake right back up (without the towel of course). Cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to firm up for 3 plus hours. Before serving, top it with the ganache, whipped cream and fresh berries. Refrigerate until ready to plate, slice, and serve.
With a moist chocolate cake, strong raspberry cream filling, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, and fresh berries this cake is sure to impress! Enjoy!
More Berry Chocolate Favorites
- Chocolate Ganache Raspberry Tarts
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- Raspberry Stuffed Brownies
- Chocolate Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries (No Bake)
- Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Butter Cream
Raspberry Chocolate Swiss Roll
Ingredients
Batter
- 4 eggs divided
- ½ cup granulated sugar + ⅓ cup, divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup water
Filling
- ½ cup freeze dried raspberries
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar divided
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Ganache
- 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Topping
- 6 ounces raspberries fresh
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F if using a dark pan). Line a 10×15 inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat egg whites until soft peaks (peaks fall when you lift the beaters). While mixing, slowly add in the ½ cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks on medium speed for 3 minutes, add the ⅓ cup sugar and vanilla and beat 2 more minutes.
- In another mixing bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Alternately add flour mix and the ⅓ cup water to the egg yolk mixture in the stand mixer. When thoroughly mixed (scrape down sides of the bowl), fold the chocolate batter into the egg whites a little at a time. Keep stirring until completely combined.
- Spread batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes until toothpick comes back clean and cake springs back when lightly touched.
- Meanwhile, prepare a dish towel coated thoroughly in powdered sugar.
- When the cake is done, immediately invert it onto the towel. Remove the parchment paper and then starting at the narrow end, roll it up. Let it cool completely.
Filling
- Place freeze dried raspberries in a blender and pulse into a fine powder (yields about 2 tablespoons).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat heavy whipping cream and ¼ cup powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Remove whipped cream into a separate bowl.
- In the stand mixer bowl (no need to clean) fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in ¾ cup powdered sugar, raspberry powder, vanilla, and salt.
- Fold in 1 ½ cups of the whipped cream until combined and place the remaining whipped cream the fridge to use as a garnish on top (you may need to whip with a whisk if it loses stiffness).
- Carefully unroll the cake. Spread the raspberry filling evenly over the entire surface and then roll the cake back up the same way it was rolled before.
- Place cake roll on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Ganache
- Heat the 6 tablespoons whipping cream in the microwave for 45 seconds or until hot and then add the chocolate chips. Cover and let it sit for two minutes and then stir until smooth. Let the ganache come to room temperature (about 5-10 minutes) before pouring and spreading over the cake.
- Let the ganache cool on the cake for about 5 minutes and then top with the whipped cream (the leftover from the filling) and fresh raspberries. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Slice and serve. Store leftover cake in the fridge.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Recipe source: Garnish & Glaze original frosting; Chocolate cake from Hershey
More Valentine’s Day Desserts:
Raspberry Brownie Cheesecake Trifles
Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Butter Cream
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I’m going to attempt to make this tonight. I’m gonna try cream cheese , cool whip and raspberry jello mix for the filling. Hope it turns out okay. It’s for my sons 16th birthday!
Happy 16th Birthday to your son!! Let us know how it goes!
A beautiful dessert that is absolutely delicious and full of flavor! I was unfamiliar with freeze-dried raspberries, but it was an inspired idea to use them to make sure the filling texture wasn’t too wet. The cake itself is sturdy yet wonderfully tender to eat. I have made this now twice, and both times I was proud to serve this to my family and guests.
That is so wonderful Shaja! Thank you for sharing and I’m so happy to hear you were proud to serve it to your guests.
Hi I love this cake! I was wondering how I put the ganache on the cake without making a mess on the plate and if there were any easy tricks (other than just cleaning the plate up after). Would love any advice! I also added a tiny bit of sifted raspberry powder because there was so much left over. It added a great extra pop of color on the chocolate ganache!
You could use some wax paper (or plastic wrap) on the plate around the outside of the cake, and remove when complete! Easy clean up :) Maybe other readers have other ideas as well.
Hi,
I’m west indian and when i saw your recipe i just would to try it.
it looks like delicious…well
I want to know what type of chocolate powder did you use? Is softened or unsoftened?
Sorry for my english i speak french…^^
Bonsoir,
Ma fille parle français, je parle seulement un peu! :) La poudre de cacao est non sucrée. J’espère que cela répond à votre question.
I just made made this and it is in the fridge setting the filling now. I have a question about the cake. I followed the directions when rolling the cake…right out of the oven onto a tea towel covered in powdered sugar. When I unrolled it slowly, the cake broke in two places. It seemed to settle during the cooling process. Im wondering if you’ve encountered this. I’m thinking about turning the cake several times during the cooling to keep it from settling, in the hopes the cake won’t break. Any thoughts?
Jay, perhaps you forgot to fold in the egg whites or over or under baked it? There should be no sinking (if that is what you mean by “settling”) since it is a sponge cake. Hope that helps!
Could the finished roll be frozen fo a week?
I haven’t tried freezing this. Please let us know how it goes if you do!
I would like to know how you get the cake from sticking to towel when cool
Thoroughly coating it in powdered sugar should keep it from sticking.
When I’m making a chocolate cake roll I coat the towel in coco powder. When I make a white/vanilla cake roll I use powdered sugar
Such a great idea!!
Cake was delicious but didnt look like the picture. I found it was missing gamache icing.
Where do you get freeze dried raspberries?
I find them at Trader Joe’s and Target all the time :-)
Hi,
If I want to make this ahead of time do you suggest making and filling the roll and then refrigerating it, or make the roll and then filling it on the day of? I would like make it a day ahead at least.
Thanks
This can be made 1 day ahead of time.
I have made this Swiss roll several times and it’s been a big hit. It taste as Good as it looks. I also cut up fresh raspberries and add it to the filling.
Is there an alternative for the freeze dried raspberrys?
You could use another freeze dried fruit such as strawberries. The freeze dried fruit really adds amazing flavor but if you can’t get it you could try a raspberry extract.
Raspberry jello mix works great!!
Made this recipe this evening for my cooking club. Is there an ingredient missing in the cake roll? The cake ingredients didn’t mix well with eggs whites. As a result the cake tasted clumpy and not smooth. We thought maybe there should have been oil or butter in the cake ingredients?
No ingredients missing. Sponge cakes don’t have butter or oil. Did you completely mix all the cake ingredients together before adding it to the stiff egg whites? And then did you mix them together completely? All the batter should have been brown (no white specks) when spreading it in the pan.
The chocolate batter ingredients would not mix with the egg whites. The chocolate batter was too thick. It was like oil and water trying to mix with the egg whites.
Can you also explain steps 2,3and 4. We were confused with the different bowls and which eggs were getting mixed. Maybe that was our problem. For example,
“First your beating eggs with a hand mixer then your beating eggs with the stand mixer. Are these the same eggs? Then your beatings eggs again with dry ingredients.
Did you forget to add the 1/3 cup water maybe? And sorry for the confusion. I just edited the instructs to be a little more clear. So you have 3 bowls- 1)where you are mixing the egg whites with an electric mixer 2) hooked to the stand mixer where you’re mixing the yolks, chocolate… 3) mixing the dry ingredients with a whisk. After getting everything mixed in the 3 separate bowls, you add BOWL 3 (with the dry ingredients) plus 1/3 cup water to BOWL 2 (the stand mixer with the yolk/chocolate). Once those two bowls are completely mixed, you add that to BOWL 1 (whites) and fold it together until completely combined.
We did add the water. I see our mistake with your edit. Much more understandable now. I plan on remaking! Thank you for your help!!
I don’t have time for the roll to sit for 3 hours in the refrigerator. Is there an alternative? Freezer maybe? What is he shorttest possible time to have the roll cool?
Jessie, You don’t HAVE to let it sit for 3 hours in there. The reason for it being in the fridge so long is to have the filling stiffen up so it cuts easier and isn’t so messy. You could probably get away with just having it in the freezer 30 minutes.
This looks awesome. Just waiting for an occasion to make it. The raspberry rose cake looks delicious as well. Thanks for the recipes.
Thank you Sue! Melanie makes such beautiful cake rolls!
This is so stinking cute I can’t stand it ~ sharing, pinning, and wanting a bite so badly!
Thank you for sharing! I wish we could share a slice over a cup of coffee!
This is absolutely gorgeous! I love raspberry and chocolate together, but have never had it in a beautiful rolled cake like this. Love this idea!
I agree… raspberry and chocolate are such a delicous match!
This looks so decadent! And what a creative use of freeze dried raspberries. I’ll have to try this!
What a perfect and delicious looking Swiss Roll – bravo:-)
I used to make cake rolls when my daughter was growing up, but she’s in college now and I haven’t done one in a while. That’s going to have to change! This is gorgeous — great tutorial too!
Enjoy Lisa!!