Easter Creme Egg Swiss Roll

I love the look of a rolled cake. Not only is it fun and whimsical, you're guaranteed whipped cream and chocolate with every bite. That's my kind of cake! But even better.... this Easter Creme Egg Swiss Roll marries the Chocolate Swiss Roll with Easter Creme Eggs; you just can't go wrong with that union!

I just adore that classic and tasty combination of the light sponge cake and whipped cream filling in this Chocolate Easter Cake Roll. Who wouldn't? This recipe is very popular during Easter, obviously, but great any time of year for Easter creme egg lovers! And it makes a great centrepiece for you Easter table.

Jump to:

• 🥘Ingredients
• 🔪Instructions
• 🎥 Videos
• 🍽Equipment
• 💭 Difference between Swiss Roll, Jelly Roll and Roulade
• 👪 Serving size
• 🥗 Pairing
• 🌡️Storage
• 🍰More Creme Egg Dessert Recipes!
• ⭐ Comments & Reviews
• 📋 Easter Creme Egg Swiss Roll Recipe
• 🐇More Easter Recipes

In a May 2019 post Martha Stewart proclaims that rolled cakes are ready for a revival- I couldn't agree more! She says, "when sliced, the spiral sweets look graphic and modern, yet still retaining a nostalgic charm." You can read more about the revival of rolled cakes HERE.  I have always loved rolled cakes and have made several holiday yule logs over the years.

🥘Ingredients

This is essentially a chocolate Swiss Roll (with a chocolate sponge cake) with a whipped cream Easter Creme Egg middle. For this Easter Swiss Roll, you'll need the following simple ingredients:

• butter (unsalted)
• eggs (at room temperature)
• all-purpose flour
• white granulated sugar
• unsweetened cocoa
• salt
• whipping cream or heavy cream (35%+)
• vanilla extract
• Cadbury creme mini eggs
• chocolate frosting

*See printable recipe card for quantities

🔪Instructions

If you've never made a Swiss Roll cake, don't be intimidated-it's really quite straightforward. In fact, it's so straightforward that my son's Grade 9 cooking class made this Chocolate Swiss Roll as a lesson. This is a really fun cake to make with your kids but my son actually made it by himself for Christmas dessert this year! That's how simple it is- you just have to follow my step-by-step instructions.

How to make a Swiss Roll

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F/218 degrees C. Place parchment paper on a 17X12 sheet pan (jelly roll pan) and grease with butter. If you don't have a jelly roll pan, you can use a regular baking sheet (my son did this when he made it at Christmas and it turned out just fine)
2. Bring and inch of water to simmer in a medium saucepan. Whisk eggs and sugar in a heatproof large mixing bowl, then place on the simmering water. Make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl at any time. *alternatively, you can do this in a double boiler, if you have one
3. Using a hand mixer or standing mixer, at medium speed, continuously beat the egg mixture until the eggs are thick, pale yellow and warm to the touch (120 degrees F) It should feel like hot tap water.

4. Remove the egg bowl from the heat and continue beating on a high speed until the mixture is thick and airy, and has reached the ribbon stage. This means that when you drag and drizzle a spoonful of liquid, it shouldn't settle back into the liquid for a good 5-10 seconds. Mix in the melted butter.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and gently fold it into the eggs with a rubber spatula
6. Spread the cake batter onto the buttered parchment, leaving approximately an inch from the edges of the parchment. Bake the cake for 8 minutes until springy to the touch.

7. Sprinkle cocoa on a large piece of parchment paper while cake is baking.
8. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, flip it onto the cocoa covered parchment paper.
9. Remove the parchment paper that the cake was baked on by gently peeling it off. Then trim the parchment around it, leaving a 1 ½ - 2 inch border.

10. IMMEDIATELY gently roll the cake up in the parchment paper into a log while it's warm. *you can also do this using a clean kitchen towel or tea towel (I just find the parchment paper easier).
11. Keep rolling up.
12. Leave it in a rolled up state until cool (this is like muscle memory for cakes). You can set this on a cooling rack.

13. While cake is cooling, whip the whipping cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form, then add vanilla and sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
14. Crush the Easter Creme Eggs. TERRI'S TIP: I do this by placing them on a cutting board and placing a large plastic ziplock bag over them. Then I hit each egg a couple of times gently with a hammer or mallet to crush them, with the plastic between the tool and the eggs. * This is the best and cleanest way I have come up with to crush them. If you enlist your kids to help you unwrap and crush them, it goes much faster and it's fun for them! Mix the crushed Easter creme eggs into the whipped cream.
15. Unroll the cake, spread the filling all over, leaving a 1 inch border around all the edges.

16. Then gently roll the cake back up, leaving the parchment paper behind. * If it cracks a little, don't worry, as it will be covered in frosting. Trim about an inch off each end (the edges of the cake) to make it look neater.
17. Frost the cake with chocolate frosting, then drag the dull side of a butter knife across it all over to look like wood texture. Pipe grass around the cake with green frosting (see video in NOTES on how to pipe grass) * If you have never piped grass before, don't worry - it's one of the easiest types of piping to do (easier than most borders!)
18. Add eggs around the cake and serve with additional chocolate eggs on each slice and a little grass piped on.

🎥 Videos

•  How to pipe frosting grass
•  How to pipe grass WITHOUT a grass tip (decorating hack)

🍽Equipment

For this creme egg cake you will need an electric mixer or a stand mixer, and a 17x12 jelly roll pan for this recipe. It's wider than a typical baking sheet. You'll also need a tip for the grass frosting (#233), a coupler and a pastry bag. *See recipe card for recommended equipment photos and links

💭 Difference between Swiss Roll, Jelly Roll and Roulade

If you're wondering what the difference is between a jelly roll, Swiss roll and a Roulade well, it's not much. They are all sponge or chiffon cakes baked on a sheet pan (usually a jelly roll pan) and rolled with a filling inside. The big difference is the name; the French call it a "Roulade" while the Americans call it a "Jelly Roll" and the English call it a "Swiss roll." You can read more about the differences between Swiss Rolls, Jelly Rolls and Roulades HERE.  Despite the name "Swiss roll," the cake doesn't seem to have anything to do with Switzerland or the word 'swiss', unlike Swiss Steak,  which is named so because of its preparation method. Swiss Rolls appear to have originated elsewhere in Central Europe and were invented in the nineteenth century.

👪 Serving size

This Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake serves 8 but it was perfect for our family of 4 - everyone got a leftover second slice the next day! Although we were left wanting even more. However, if you want to make more than one cake, you can double or triple the recipe by clicking on the serving number and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient quantities will automatically adjust.

🥗 Pairing

Here are my favorite appetizers, mains and side dishes to serve with this Chocolate Easter roll cake.

🌡️Storage

Store leftovers of this Easter Roll Cake recipe in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. This cake does not freeze well, due to the whipped cream filling (the whipped cream will get watery when defrosted). If you are just storing overnight, you can simply cover the cake with plastic wrap.

🍰More Creme Egg Dessert Recipes!

It just isn't Easter without Creme Eggs and that's why I added them to this cake's filling. I used the mini Easter Creme Eggs, as they are easier to crush and roll up with the whipped cream. And it was perfect! I love Creme Eggs so much that I also created more desserts, including this Easter Creme Egg Icebox Cake (shown), my Mini Egg Cupcakes and this Easter Creme Egg Microwave Fudge.  They are all really fun and delicious Easter desserts or you can use leftover chocolate creme eggs to make them after Easter!

It's not easy to find an Easter cake with a full on Easter theme that looks and tastes as good as this show-stopping dessert! So if you're looking for Easter baking ideas, Swiss Rolls look great, are inexpensive to make and although the recipes are involved, if you follow the steps they are quite simple to make. If my 14 year old can master this Easter cake roll recipe, so can you! 

Happy Easter cake baking!

🐇More Easter Recipes