Shane, I try not to ever use the fan setting when baking… I find the results vary greatly and it tends to overcook even with the prescribed temperature change. I love it for roasting meats and potatoes, but for baking sweets I tend to avoid it. Conventional > Convection/Fan for me.

I had all of my kitchen refitted a while ago and bought Miele appliances to future proof the kitchen with the UK “electricity revolution” currently being pursued by government. According to Mary Berry, a Miele oven is accurate to within one degree. There are many different settings on my oven. If one bakes an old recipe in a Miele Oven using the “fan” option, Miele suggests reducing the temperature by 10 degrees. I baked the Swiss Roll using the conventional oven setting.

When you get a chance to try it again, let me know. Hoping it turns out. As for the oven, great choice! I didn’t know Miele makes ovens, but all their products are top notch and very well regarded in Europe!

Bonjour Audrey,

Thank you so much for this email. I think you have diagnosed the problem! My tea towels are thick, cotton ones but they are not in the least “pliable” – they are as stiff as a board. I am sure they will last for years. Everything was perfect until I unrolled that tea towel after the first rolling of the sponge.

In the past, when I have made a Swiss Roll, I have used sugar coated baking parchment to roll it up and not had this problem. With the other recipes that I have followed, the Genoise has been made with leavening agents and it has not been anywhere near as nice as your recipe. If a less stiff tea towel does not do the trick, I might try rolling with baking parchment again.

I have a new Miele oven, which is very accurate and efficient, and a minute or two less in the oven sounds like the right way to go.

Nonetheless, the cake was delicious!

Great job, Shane! Sometimes the genoise is just a little finicky, but for a first attempt, it sounds like it was almost a complete success. Without being there and seeing what happened, it’s hard to know for sure (and sometimes it just happens, unfortunately). I would immediately try just rolling the genoise a tiny bit tighter in the tea towel. It could also just be 30sec-1min less in the oven that could prevent the crack. These would be my immediate first 2 things to adjust.

As for the sticking to the tea towel, first try using a different tea towel (not sure what the towel you used was made of, but try a “thickish” and very pliable tea towel, is possible. And then just a little more sugar might help.

It sounds like you’re doing everything almost perfect, and just needing to adjust very slightly for a perfect result. Good luck and enjoy!

Moi, je suis tres impressionne avec cette recette. J’écrirai en Anglais maintenant donc les autres peut lire.

I made the Genoise with comparative ease., It baked beautifully and the baking parchment peeled off without problem. I was a little nervous about rolling the sponge so that the sugar coated tea towel separated each layer of sponge. To my amazement, even clumsy me managed to do this without problem.

When I unrolled the tea towel, half an hour after resting it and letting it set, I was little disappointed. There was a deep split on the jam side of the sponge but I managed to spread the jam without breaking up the sponge. When I re-rolled the Genoise, I found that some of it on the presentation side had stuck to the tea towel.

Have you any idea where I went wrong. It will be eaten but I would like to strive for a better presentation on future bakes.

I love this site. Je suis Francophile!

Hello, Yvette. The recipe calls for 125g of sugar, which if not using a scale (and I highly suggest you do, for all recipes) you would need to weigh out 1/2 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons of sugar. 1/2 cup sugar weighs just about 100g, so we need the extra 25g also.

The tablespoon of sugar you use to sprinkle on the cloth is not included in the ingredient list.

So, yes. Use 125g of sugar in the batter (or 1/2cup PLUS 2 tablespoons) Happy baking!

Thank you, Dianne! I wouldn’t mind a nice slice of Swiss roll right now 🙂