Strawberry Cream roll

What could be more irresistible than the heady combination of  strawberries and cream? 

Talking about strawberries and cream, always transports me back to the days when I was newly married in Pune (really seems ages  back). I used to wait anxiously for hubby dear to come back home from his classes (he was doing his BE from the College of Military Engineering) and we would just hop on to our Kinetic Honda and set out for long drives to Munshi dam, Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar and stop enroute at the strawberry farms where they served excellent freshly plucked strawberries with cream in a tall glass.Yummy !! Still can't forget that taste. Those were indeed the days...unburdened by any worries and without a care in the world - just surviving on fresh air and love (also because back then I didn't know how to cook.)

Coming back to the present and to the strawberry and cream roll I made -  being my first attempt at making a swiss roll, sadly, wasn't as perfect as I would have liked it to be, but the scrumptiously delicious taste made up for all the other flaws.

The Swiss roll cracked in the middle when I was trying to roll it up - Thank God there was whipped cream to camouflage the gaping crack - But I will definitely have a go at making it again and this time with a bit more perfection.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon white sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. 

Line a 15 by 10 by 1 inch Swiss roll pan with butter paper.
Beat the eggs until thick and lemon colored. 
Gradually add 1 cup white sugar, beating constantly. 
Stir in the hot water and vanilla essence. 
Gently fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 15 minutes. It should be springy to the touch, and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the pan.
Lay out a tea towel, and sprinkle it with confectioners' sugar. 
Turn the roll out onto the towel. Take off the paper. Cut away crusty edges. 
Roll the cake up in the towel, and leave it to cool.

To make  the filling

Whip cream, sugar and vanilla essence till the cream is stiff and hold its shape.
Unroll the cake and generously spread the filling over it. Sprinkle the chopped strawberries on the whipped cream.
Roll up the cake again and chill for 2 hours.

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