A jelly roll (known outside of the United States as Swiss roll) is a cylindrical cake containing jelly or jam. It is made by baking a long flat thin sponge cake, coating the surface with jam and sometimes cream, and rolling it up. It is usually served in circular slices. A Swiss roll made with a chocolate flavoured sponge and containing a chocolate fondant is sometimes called a chocolate log.
The term jelly roll is also sexual slang, used to indicate variously, a lover, intercourse, or the sexual parts. The expression appears in numerous jazz and blues songs, such as "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of this Jelly Roll" by Clarence Williams (which was recorded by Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and many other singers in the 1920s), and Billy Eckstein's powerful "Jelly, Jelly", with the line "Jelly roll killed my pappy, and run my mother stone blind", from the 1940s. Then there is the nickname of Jelly Roll Morton. See also jelly bean.