There are a few kinds of roulade in Austria and they all involve rolling one thing up inside another thing and then cooking it, slicing it, and eating it. Or, you might cook something, then roll stuff up inside it, slice it, and eat it. There’s a beef roulade which has pickels, onions, bacon, and mustard rolled up in a thin slice of brisket. Not being much of a meat eater, this holds zero appeal for me, but I can see how carnivores might enjoy it, probably with a side of mashed potatoes made with cream and real butter — that I like. That roulade is served as a fancy main, it’s a special occasion dish.
Luckily, cake requires no such ceremony. I’ve had several different kinds of dessert roulade and if you’ve ever had a bûche de Noël, you’ve had at least one. That one is a bit special, it’s a seasonal French Christmas cake, chocolate with some kind of cream filling. I’ve had a chocolate sponge cake roulade filled with raspberry mouse and covered in chocolate ganache. It was not a holiday though it tasted like one.
A roulade is more about technique than ingredients. If the roulade is a yeast dough, you typically roll the stuff up inside it before you bake it, if it’s a sponge or more delicate batter, you bake the thin sheet cake and then roll it. Mine was a yeast dough, walnut paste rolled up inside. It came came mit schlag — with a dollop of whipped cream — and some chocolate sauce.
Post roulade, we took a stroll by the lake, as one does. You have to do something between cake eating sessions and going for a walk is nearly as much an Austrian national past-time as cake eating is.