Raspberry Pistachio Roulade (Rolled Cake)

Raspberries, pistachios, and white chocolate cream are delightful in this easy Raspberry Pistachio Roulade ( or rolled cake). You will never want a store-bought cake roll again after trying this delicious recipe. A cake made in an hour is what we love during the busy holiday season.

While I love traditional cakes, making rolled cakes is my favorite. This Raspberry pistachio roulade (aka Pistachio Swiss roll) is a classic example of how to upgrade a regular cake roll to a decadent dessert that becomes a winner of the table.

Enhance a cheese cream frosting with white chocolate, spread fresh red berries on top of the creamed biscuit, cover the cake all over with the delicious frosting and top the roll with chopped nuts and red fruit. Easy peasy? Yes.

This bright-colored pistachio rolled cake served with a cup of tea or coffee is sure to bring the holiday spirit to everyone who eats it.

Raspberry pistachio roulade is a beautiful and tasteful combination of tangy raspberries with nutty green pistachios (by the way, the strawberry/pistachio combo in Pistachio Dacquoise With Strawberries is another delight).

Reading The Flavor Bible and getting the knowledge of how to pair your favorite fruit will allow you to create your own mouthwatering and unexpectedly delicious flavor combos.

Variations of pistachio rolled cake

• Replace raspberries with fresh strawberries cut in quarters and leave the rest of the recipe unchanged.
• Pair raspberries with milk or dark chocolate, switching white chocolate in the cream recipe for the chocolate of your choice.
• If you are not a fan of pistachios, replace these green nuts with almonds. Decorate the cake with toasted flaked almonds and fresh raspberries.
• If you go for strawberries, you might want to pair these berries with walnuts.
• Raspberry/hazelnut is another possible combination.

Why pistachio roulade (rolled cake) recipe works

• This rolled cake requires minimal work and yields ten substantial servings.
• It is made in one hour. It is guaranteed!
• Adding ground pistachios to the biscuit adds additional flavor, texture, and a beautiful soft green color to the cake.
• Raspberries are nicely married to pistachios, together creating one of the best flavorful combinations in the French pastry world.
• Easy decoration of the cake does not require pastry tips and piping decoration skills.

How to make raspberry pistachio roulade step by step

Preheat oven to 390 F/200 C. To make the roulade, grind pistachios in a food processor until fine and set aside. Place egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 4 minutes until the mixture becomes whitish (photo 1). Pour the hot water along the sides of the bowl, add ground pistachios and gently mix with a rubber spatula (photo 2).

In a separate bowl, sift flour with salt and add into the egg yolks/sugar/pistachio preparation. Combine with the spatula (photo 3). In a clean bowl, place the egg whites and beat till soft peaks. Add the beaten egg whites into the pistachio mix in three times. Add almond extract and mix again (photo 4).

Pour the dough on a non-spill baking sheet (photo 5) and bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Remove the biscuit from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes (photo 6).

To roll the biscuit, sprinkle the top of the biscuit with 2 teaspoon (10 g) powdered (icing) sugar and cover with a kitchen towel. Flip the biscuit over, so that the towel is now down on a table. Peel away the non-spill silicone baking sheet and dust the surface of the biscuit with the rest of powdered (icing) sugar.

Take the short end of the biscuit and roll it up with the kitchen towel inside. Cool the biscuit down for 10 minutes, being rolled up. Unroll the sponge and let it rest at room temperature. The sponge might have curly ends or surface cracks: it is acceptable.

To make the chocolate cream, melt white chocolate cut into pieces in a bain-marie and set aside to let it cool down. Meanwhile, beat the softened butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds, add cream cheese at room temperature and whisk until smooth (photo 7). Add melted white chocolate and continue to whisk until creamy. Finally, add the cold whipping cream, almond extract, and whisk on medium-high speed till the cream forms soft waves (photo 8).

To assemble the rolled cake, spread two-thirds of the white chocolate cream on the surface of the biscuit and even with the bent spatula. It is practical not to spread the cream on one of the short ends of the sponge at the width of 2 cm. Arrange fresh raspberries (leave 15 raspberries for the decoration) over the cream (photo 9) and roll the biscuit from bottom to top, starting from the short end of the cake covered with the cream (photo 10).

Cover the cake all over and spoon it out with the back of a tablespoon or the end of the bent spatula (photo 11). Sprinkle top of the cake with chopped pistachios and arrange 15 fresh raspberries in a line (photo 12). Transfer the rolled cake on a serving platter.

Expert tips

1. Make the white chocolate cream one day in advance and keep in the fridge. Take it out 30 minutes before use.
2. Serve the roulade on the day of baking, although you could store the cake in the fridge for up to one day. Make sure to take the cake out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.
3. Use a store-bought self-rising flour or make it by adding two teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt for each 1 cup (150 g) plain flour. Sift dry ingredients together into a bowl before using it. You can simply use all-purpose flour as well.
4. Using almond extract does boost an additional nutty flavor; you can omit this ingredient if you do not have it.

More delicious rolled cake recipes you will love

• Nutella Cake Roll (aka Nutella Swiss Roll)
• Rosewater Meringue Roulade
• Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Roll
• Browse all the Cake Recipes

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The recipe was adapted from https://www.nigella.com. It was originally published in December 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.