This raspberry and white chocolate roulade with candied pistachios is summer on a plate for me. It is a fat free cake so easy to whip up with store cupboard ingredients and is so light and delicate. Perfect for a summer dessert or tea time treat.

Raspberry and white chocolate roulade with candied pistachios

This delightfully summery cake is so light and moist and packed with gorgeous juicy raspberry flavour you will be transported to some sort of Downton Abbey inspired picnic with every bite. Or it’ll take you to the perfect summer party. It will just make you feel a bit special just because it looks so darn pretty and tastes amazing. And the other great thing about this roulade is that it s super easy and quick to make.

What is the difference between a roulade and a Swiss roll?

Well folks, a Swiss roll is always a sponge cake with a filling rolled inside it. Whereas a roulade can be made from anything from pastry to bread or cake and it can be both savoury or sweet. So a Swiss roll can be called a roulade but only a sponge cake roulade can be a Swiss roll. Confused yet?

Ingredients for the sponge

This is a light as air fat free traditional Swiss roll sponge cake. It has only three ingredients;

eggs

caster sugar

self raising flour

Candied pistachios

I love pistachios and they go so well with raspberries and white chocolate. Apart from their taste there is that amazing green colouring too. The vibrant green of the candied pistachios goes perfectly with the rich ruby red of the raspberries and the creamy colouring of the white chocolate. It is all a winning combination whichever way you look at it.

I have used finely ground pistachios to sprinkle on to the roulade filling and the rest I roughly broke up with my pestle and mortar and then turned them into candied pistachios to decorate this charming roulade.

Simply make a sugar syrup and add the pistachios for 5 minutes then scoop them out on to baking paper to dry off.

Rolling a roulade

People can be nervous of rolling cakes for Swiss roll or a roulade. Will it all break and fall apart, will there be hellish cracks on the surface? The trick to rolling this roulade is to do it while the sponge cake is still warm. As soon as it comes out of the oven have a sheet of baking paper the same size as the one the sponge was baked on. Turn the cake tin over on to the new sheet of baking paper so tht now you have the bottom of the sponge facing you with the base paper attached.

Carefully peel off the base paper. Now on a short edge lightly run the back of a knife in a straight like about 2cm from the edge. Don’t cut through the cake. You just want to make an indent so it will be easier to roll.

Now starting at that end roll the cake up using the new paper which is underneath it. Leave it to cool completely on a wire rack. Then simply unroll, discard the baking paper and spread on your cake filling etc..

Cake filling and frosting

I used my basic cream cheese frosting both as a filling and also to decorate this raspberry and white chocolate roulade. Just two ingredients here; cream cheese and icing sugar. For the filling part I mixed most of my raspberries with half of the frosting mixture.

First I spread raspberry peach and eldrflower jam (of course you can use any raspberry jam you have to hand) on the sponge base and then carefully spread a layer of the raspberry rich creamy frosting. Next came that all important sprinkling of ground pistachios for extra flavour.

Assembling the raspberry and white chocolate roulade

Carefully roll up the filled sponge. It will be a tad messy with all that filling but don’t worry about it. Place it on a serving platter with the seem on the bottom and smooth side on top. Now it is time to use the remaining frosting (that you didn’t add the raspberries to) and that all important white chocolate.

Once you have slathered on the frosting add some raspberries on the top of the roulade and then sprinkle liberally with the candied pistachios. The colour contrast just looks amazing. Feel free to stop and admire your handiwork.

Finally drizzle the while thing with melted white chocolate.

How long will this cake last

This is a super moist and light cake that will keep for two days with a cake dome on top or other covering. Can you freeze it? Yes you can freeze the sponge itself before decorating. Do the whole rolling up business with the new baking paper and pop the whole thing into a freezer proof bag and freeze for up to three months. Defrost completely and then add filling, roll up and decorate.

Dessert or cake

Serve this gorgeous cake as the dessert at a summer supper party or as a fabulous tea time treat whilst sitting in the garden.

I love making pretty cakes that really don’t take much effort at all. I’m not into fancy cake decorating and like a more casual approach. So for me just slathering on cream cheese frosting and decorating with fruits and fresh flowers is the perfect way to go. There is no fancy skills or tools involved. Just use a palate knife or butter knife to smooth on the cream cheese frosting and then go all out dotting the cake with raspberries and those lovely crunchy candied pistachios.