Raspberry Lemon Roulade Recipe

This recipe makes two roulades.

A roulade, that is a rolled sponge cake, is one of the easiest desserts to make. The only ones I can think of that are easier or as easy are éclairs or perhaps a mousse. This recipe is for a lemon curd raspberry roulade. You can use cherry or what I do alot is mix 4 berries together to create a unique recipe. I decorate the outside of the roulade with a raspberry whipped cream, which I love. I would not recommend using a chocolate ganache as that would overpower the delicate filling. But if you're mad about chocolate, why not? Give it a try.

Before we begin, the hardest part of this recipe will be the cutting. The second hardest part will be rolling the roulade and keeping it nice and round.

The first step is to make the roulade sponge. The sponge cake is very similar to a pastry cream with flour. Brush the sponge with simple syrup. You can flavor the simple syrup if you wish.

The next step is to make the Lemon Curd.

Now, coat the sponge cake first with some raspberry jam or puree, depending on taste. I prefer a nice jam. Of course, you can make your own jam or reserve or preserve. I coat the whole sponge with the jam, enough to color the cake. And remember, this will be the inside of the roulade.

Make some whipped cream, using 1 cup of heavy cream and fold that into the lemon curd. Next, take the chilled lemon curd/whipped cream and spread it on the sponge.

What I like to do is to first pick a direction to roll the sponge and then coat the roulade leaving a 1/2 inch on three sides and about 1 1/2 inches in the direction of the roll, that is, at the end. That way, if you roll the roulade too lightly, you'll have some squish room. I like a 1/4 to 1/2 inch on the sides because I'm going to cut this off anyway and it's a little squish room. I like the 1 inch to 1/2 inch on the top so I can fold the center tightly.

Coating the sponge with lemon curd.

Now, gently roll the sponge into as tight a roll as you can manage, trying to make it nice and round. Then wrap the roulade in plastic and freeze. Freezing the roulade will make it easier to cut.

You may serve this dessert either completely thawed, it takes about 1 hour or you may serve it very chill. I like serving it almost frozen.

When you are going to serve the roulade, take it out of the freezer and decorate with whipped cream. I add raspberry liquor to my whipped cream and pipe it on with a decorating tip and then cut immediately. I also have the space and like plating immediately.

Now for the hard part, cutting. When I cut the roulade, I do not slice. I like to gently press down on the roulade and I make sure I dry wipe my blade before each cut so that the shipped cream does not stain the faces of the roulade. I also cut off the edges about 1/8 to 1/4 inch, so that each face is nice and flat.



There you have it. A beautiful dessert.

Lemon Curd

There are many ways to make Lemon Curd. Kim makes her lemon curd without gelatin. She cooks her lemon curd very slowly and stirs constantly. She uses just egg, sugar, lemon juice and butter. If you don't use gelatin, make sure you thicken the curd before refrigerating.

When I make Lemon Curd, I do it the easy way, unless I have vegetarians and make it with gelatin. I use sheet gelatin because that's what I like to do. You have to refrigerate this lemon curd for at least 2-3 hours to allow it to set well. This is more than enough lemon curd for 1, maybe two roulades.

1 1/2 sheets of gelatin
10 oz of sugar
8 oz of lemon juice
8 oz of butter
4 eggs

First bloom the gelatin in cold water. This will take a few minutes, at least 10, for the sheets. If you use powdered, look up the equivalent for sheet gelatin. Then combine the sugar, juice, butter and eggs in a bowl and place over a double boiler. Cook the curd, stirring constantly, until it thinks and reaches 165F. Next stir in the gelatin. You may strain the curd through a fine strainer if you wish for a smoother texture.

Let set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. This will thicken up your curd nicely.

Roulade Sponge Recipe

Sponge cake is a lot like pastry cream but with flour. Here's the recipe that I use.


This makes one full sheet pan. I like to use half sheets because it's more manageable and I don't have to cut the sponge. A half sheet will make about 5-8 servings depending on how thick you cut it. If you cut it really think you might be able to get more but I would not recommend it.

8 egg yolks
3 oz sugar
8 egg whites
3 oz sugar
6 oz cake flour, shifted.

We weigh everything in our kitchen and we usually use grams rather than ounces but I'm giving you this recipe in ounce approximations.

Whip the egg yolks and sugar together until stiff. Next, whip the whites and sugar until you get a medium peak. Fold the whites and yolks together and gradually add the cake flour.

Spread the batter onto a parchment lined 1/2 sheet, don't use a black sheet or you'll burn the delicate sponge and use the straightest sheet pan you have.

Bake at 425F for about 5 minutes or until set. In our kitchen, we first check the sponge at 6 minutes and then again at 7. At home, you may need to bake the sponge for 10 minutes. We usually don't go over 7 minutes. It will depend on your oven. Make sure you preheat the oven.

We let the sponge cool in the sheet pan because it's easier to handle but at home if you need to bake past 7 minutes, then remove the cake from the sheet pan immediately after baking. Don't let it cool too much. But be careful.