Swiss Roll

First sift the flour and baking powder into a roomy mixing bowl, lifting the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.

Then add the butter, eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract, and using an electric whisk mix to a smooth creamy consistency for about one minute. Next, spread the mixture evenly in the prepared tin with the back of a tablespoon and don’t worry if it looks a bit sparse because it will ‘puff up’ quite a lot.

Bake it near the centre of the oven for 14–15 minutes or until it feels springy in the centre.

While it’s cooking you can prepare everything for the rolling operation. First of all you need a damp tea towel spread out on a flat surface (and a second one ready for later), then on top of the tea towel you place a sheet of baking parchment that’s about 2.5cm larger than the tin. Then sprinkle caster sugar all over the paper. As soon as the Swiss roll is cooked, lift it out holding the sides of the liner and turn it onto the paper immediately. Now carefully and gently strip off the liner, take a sharp knife and trim 3mm from all round the cake. This will make it much neater and help to prevent it from cracking. Cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave for a couple of minutes, then remove the damp cloth and spread the cake with jam. Then with one of the shorter edges of the cake nearest to you, make a small incision about 2.5cm from the edge, cutting right across the cake, not too deeply; this will help you when you start to roll.

Now start to roll this 2.5cm piece over and away from you and continue to roll, holding the sugared paper behind the cake as you roll the whole thing up. When it’s completely rolled up, hold the paper around the cake for a few moments to help it ‘set’ in position, then transfer the cake to a wire cooling tray. Dust with a little more caster sugar before serving. If you’ve never made a Swiss roll before, I can assure you this sounds much more complicated than it actually is. The whole operation should only take a few minutes.