An attempt to roll a cake

Cake roll with berries

Made April 23/24, 2011

For Easter, I decided to be adventurous and attempt a cake roll. They always look so pretty in the stores. I found a decent recipe and took a chance. Unfortunately, I didn't completely succeed and my cake broke on one side. I also had quite a few issues along the way as well. :/ But you learn from mistakes and mishaps ... so when I attempt again, I hope it comes out better :)

Ingredients

Cake:

- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar

Filling/Frosting:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

- Line a greased 15in x 10in baking pan with wax paper and grease the paper; set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- In a large bowl, beat eggs on high speed for 3 minutes.
- Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture becomes thick and lemon colored.
- Beat in water and vanilla.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt & fold into egg mixture until no dry ingredients are seen.
- Spread batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
- Cool for 5 minutes.
- Invert onto a kitchen towel dusted with powdered sugar & gently peel off the wax paper.
- Roll up cake in the towel jelly-roll style, starting with the short side.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.

- For the filling - combine the flour & milk in a small saucepan until smooth.
- Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes more.
- Transfer to a bowl; press wax paper onto surface of mixture.
- Cool completely.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in vanilla and salt.
- Gradually beat in milk mixture; beat for 5 minutes or until filling is light and fluffy.

- Unroll cake; spread filling over cake to within 1/2 in of edges.
- Roll up again, seam side should be face down.
- Refrigerate cake for 1 hour before serving.

Ready for serving

I seemed to have an issue with the towel and the rolling where parts of my cake stuck to the towel itself. So even though I thought I put a lot of powdered sugar on the towel, it didn't seem to help. Reading other cake roll recipes, they used wax paper or parchment paper instead; so I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time I try this. I also didn't like the taste of the filling as much; I feel like my flour and milk mixture didn't turn out like the book wanted. So I added in some puraied strawberries and the icing had more of a light flavor. Since my cake fell apart, I put the icing on top of my cake as well; you don't have to. It was just something that was a last minute thing for me. I also topped it with some strawberries for an added decorative touch :D

Even though the cake looked unappealing, the taste was there. So that's all that matters yes? :) Hope you guys had a lovely Easter!

(Recipe used: Taste of home)