Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up Cake

Hi there! I've been trying to figure out for several days now how I was going to start this post....since it's been about a year since I've been active on this blog. Sorry about that. It's been a long, hard year but I'm ready to get back to baking and sharing recipes!

Here is my year in review: The Hubble came home from Afghanistan. We moved to Florida. We took Little Butt to Disney World for her 6th birthday. Little Butt graduated Kindergarten and began First grade (which we found out is an advanced level of First grade). Baby N turned 2 and started daycare. The Hubble was promoted. And me...I started Graduate school. So yeah...not busy at all right?? 

Since we are so busy and I'm going to be somehow squeezing baking time into all of this, the blog is going to change. I'll no longer be sharing step-by-step pictures. And I may only post once a month. We'll see how much I can do. Just bear with me and together we'll get through these next 2 years while I'm in school. Ha!

Now let's talk about cake! I made this cake for the Cake Slice Bakers group. Now let me preface this by saying I was LESS than thrilled that this was the cake that was chosen for the month of September. I hate roll cakes. Monica from Lick the Bowl Good and I talked about how unhappy we were with the vote. Maybe you remember the last roll cake I did? Ugh! This one wasn't too bad though....at least not the rolling part. 

Do you ever start to get down on yourself? It's important to remember your wonderful attributes at times like that. As I was making this cake, I felt like I had never baked. I made so many "rookie" mistakes it was incredible. The recipe has you separate eggs. You are to whisk the egg whites and add ingredients to the yolks. As I was trying to make dinner, help Little Butt with her homework, AND get the cake in the oven, I ended up adding the ingredients to the egg WHITES wasting SIX eggs. 

The recipe also includes a butterscotch sauce that is whipped into heavy cream to make the filling. I made the butterscotch sauce the night before and put it in the fridge overnight. When I pulled it out of the fridge the next day it was as hard as a rock! Paloma from Cake Slice Bakers suggested I put the bowl of sauce into a bowl of warm water to try to get it to soften. When I thought it was soft enough I threw it into the bowl of heavy cream and started whisking. Well...introducing that stuff to cold cream was a BAD idea! It quickly became as hard as rock candy and ended up breaking my whisk attachment. 

I was so annoyed with all the wasted eggs by then that I strained the chunks of butterscotch hard candy out of the cream and started over with the sauce. I paid more attention the second time around and the sauce came out beautifully. And it was delicious!

The rolling of the cake was much easier than I thought it would be. My fear was definitely not needed.

As I was dealing with all of that and telling myself how stupid all these mistakes were, I stopped and told myself that my perseverance is one of my strengths. I'm not one to give up easily. I rise to a challenge and refuse to back down when things get tough.

I took this cake to class with me and everyone seemed to like it. The cake was light and airy. The butterscotch cream was sweet and velvety. The sliced almonds provided a nice crunch and texture. I do love texture. :-D 

This cake was much easier to make than anticipated and it yielded a lovely looking cake. Rustic, different, but fairly impressive. So if you like stuff like this, go ahead and make it and impress your friends! Monica has a great set of pictures that shows how easy the rolling process actually is. And don't forget to run over and check out the other Cake Slice Bakers and how they did with this cake.

I'll be back!

Butterscotch Roll-Up Cake

From Vintage Cakes via Lick the Bowl Good

Butterscotch Sauce:

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon whisky

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Cake:

1 cup sifted cake flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup canola oil

4 egg yolks, at room temperature

¼ cup water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling:

1 ½ cups cold heavy cream

½ cup natural sliced almonds, toasted plus more for this outside of the cake, if desired

To make the butterscotch sauce: Melt the butter over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Dump in the brown sugar all at once and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to simmer and changes from a wet sand consistency to a liquid that fives off a lovely molasses smell and looks like taffy, approximately 3 minutes from the time it comes to a simmer. Drizzle ¼ cup of the cream into the mixture and vigorously blend the cram into the sugar and whisk in the remaining cream. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow the sauce to boil, whisking occasionally, until it has darkened, about 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes before adding the whisky, vanilla, and salt. Refrigerate until cold.

To make the cake: Spray a 12 x 16 inch jelly roll pan with nonstick baking spray (with flour), line it with parchment paper, and then spray the parchment paper with more nonstick baking spray. Center a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 325⁰F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ¾ cup of the sugar in a large bowl, then whisk the ingredients by hand. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, yolks, water and vanilla. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and briskly stir with a rubber spatula until just smooth.

In the clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and gradually increase the speed to high, whipping until the whites just form a soft peak. With mixer on medium speed, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar in a slow stream. Return the mixer to high and continue whipping until the whites just begin to hold firm, shiny peaks.

With a rubber spatula, fold a third of the whites into he batter, using as few strokes as possible. Add the remaining whites, folding until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly touched and is barely golden in color, 16 to 20 minutes. Cool the cake on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

To make the filling: Begin by placing the bowl of a stand mixer and its whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 minutes. Fit the cold bowl and whisk to the mixer and whip the 1 ½ cups of cold heavy cream and 1 cup of the cold butterscotch sauce together on low speed until the ingredients are blended. Gradually turn the mixer up to high speed and whip just until the cream holds soft peaks but is not yet stiff.

To assemble the cake:  Keep the cake in its pan and orient the pan so the longer side is closed to you. Cut the cake with a serrated knife into four equal pieces measure 4 by 12 inches. Cut through the underlying parchment paper with a pair of scissors in the same places that you cut the cake so you have four quarters of cake [with parchment paper attached] that can each move independently.

Leaving the cake in the pan, spread a bit more than half of the butterscotch cream evenly over the cake and sprinkle with the toasted almonds. Refrigerate the remainder of the cream while you roll up the cake.

With the pan still oriented with the longer side closest to you, lift up the nearest edge — both cake and paper — of one of your 4 strips. Using the parchment paper as the cake’s support, begin to tuck the cake into a roll and continue tucking [and peeling away the parchment paper] while gently rolling the cake away from you into a roll. Place the rolled cake upright on a serving plate, so the spiral of cake and filling is visible at the top. [Don’t worry, it gets easier from here.]Lift the next cake strip, using the parchment paper to support it, and wrap the strip around the roll on the serving plate, beginning where the outside edge of the first cake left off, in order to create a bigger roll. Continue with the next two strips, beginning the wrap where the last left off, to make one enormous rolled up cake.Finish by frosting the sides with the reminder of the cream [you might need to give the cream a few turns with a hand whisk to stiffen it up], leaving he top free to show of the spiral of cake and cream. If you desire, you can pat more almonds into the sides of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour and up to one day, lightly wrapped in plastic. Just before serving, warm the remaining butterscotch sauce and drizzle it over the individual servings.

Well wrapped and refrigerated, this cake keeps up to 3 days. 

Ultimate Lemon Roll

Well...I meant to post this recipe on Friday.

I wanted the last day of August to be met with a lemony goodness kind of cake. I feel like September should be for all things apple.

But alas, it's about 100 degrees here today. So it doesn't yet feel like apple season.

When I lived in NY we would be preparing for all manner of apple festivals by now. Not in Texas.

And let me tell you, getting up early all week long last week to get Little Butt off to school was pretty killer.

I don't think I read the fine print on the stay at home mom contract. I thought I would never have to wake up to an alarm again. I was wrong.

And my goodness, Little Butt is NOT a morning person. By Thursday we were pretty much screaming at each other. That day ended with me being called by the school and having to go pick her up because she threw a fit and wasn't allowed on the bus.

Friday went by without a hitch though so that's good.

Actually, this cake was supposed to be posted on the 20th of August (that's how late I really am). This was the top voted cake for the Cake Slice Bakers! It took me a while to make this cake but I'm glad I did.

I made this cake for my mom's birthday (her belated birthday celebration, are you sensing a theme here??). Her true birthday was taken up by Baby N's birthday celebration but I made this cake for her later. I didn't want her to think her special day wasn't important.

My mom's favorite flavor is lemon so I thought this would be the perfect cake for her. I wasn't wrong. She loved it!

The cake is fluffy and sweet with a little zing from the lemon. But the star of the show is the lemon filling. Not one person didn't want to eat that stuff with a spoon! Basically, the filling is a lemon curd with some whipped cream folded in. It was amazing!

I will warn you though, this is not a cake for the feint of heart. This cake is extremely lemony. If you love lemon, it will be great! If you don't, I would pass on it.

I happened to love it. Happy belated birthday mom!!

Let's bake!

Let's start by making some lemon curd. Whisk together some egg yolks and sugar.

Then stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and butter. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly,  until thickened.

Press the mixture through a mesh sieve.

Then place over a bowl of ice water. Being very careful not to splash water into the lemon mixture, gently stir occasionally until the mixture is well chilled.

Using an electric mixer, whisk up the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Remove the lemon curd from the ice water (try NOT to eat it all with the extra spoon you are holding) and gently fold in a quarter of the whipped cream. Then fold in the remaining cream. Cover and refrigerate.

Now let's make the cake. Whisk together some cake flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.

Add in the flour, one quarter at a time, mixing just until combined.

In a clean mixing bowl, whisk together the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the remaining sugar then kick it up to high until the egg whites become stiff but not dry.

Quickly mix in a quarter of the whites into the batter.

Then gently fold in the remaining whites.

Pour batter onto a prepared pan and smooth it out. Bake it up.

While the cake is baking, get some parchment paper and sprinkle powdered sugar on it.

When the cake is done, you invert it onto that piece of parchment. This didn't work out too well for me. As I was trying to figure out how I was supposed to hold the cake in place, not burn my hands, and get it onto the parchment, it fell out. Half on the table, half on the parchment. Lots of colorful words flew...

But I rolled it anyway dangit! The broken pieces just got rolled up with the rest.

Once the cake is rolled up, let it cool completely.

Once cool, unroll the cake and spread the filling up to an inch of the edge of the cake.

And my broken end??? Just got worse. But I carefully spread filling on it...

Then started rolling back up the cake from that said. Go ahead and roll the cake back up, using the parchment to roll it along. Cut off about a quarter inch slice from each end to get rid of the crunchy edges. Place on a serving platter and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Right before serving, generously top with powdered sugar.

Slice, serve, and enjoy!!



Ultimate Lemon Roll
Adapted from The Cake Book

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

Lemon Filling

• 7 large egg yolks
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 Tablespoon pieces
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Lemon Cake

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white, separated
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Powdered sugar for sprinkling and for garnish

Directions:

Lemon Filling

1. Set a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Prepare a larger bowl 1/3 full of ice water and set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until well combined.
4. Stir in the lemon zest, juice, salt, and butter. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 7 to 10 minutes. The mixture should coat the back of a wooden spoon and leave a path when a finger is swiped along the center.
5. Remove from heat and immediately strain through the mesh sieve by pressing the mixture through with a rubber spatula. 
6. Place the bowl of lemon curd over the bowl of ice water. Carefully, so as not to splash any water in the curd, periodically stir the curd until it's chilled, about 15 minutes.
7. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form.
8. Remove the lemon mixture from the ice water. 
9. Gently fold a large spoonful of the whipped cream into the lemon mixture to lighten. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream.
10. Cover the mixture and refrigerate until chilled or up to 2 days.

Lemon Cake

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray an 11 1/2 x 17 1/2 inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper then spray the parchment with cooking spray as well.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sifted cake flour, 1/2 cup sugar baking powder, and salt. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, vegetable oil, water, and vanilla extract until blended, about 1 minute.
4. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, a quarter at a time, mixing until just blended.
5. In a clean mixing bowl, using the whisk attachment, on medium speed, beat the 4 egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
6. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
7. Increase the speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form but before whites are dry.
8. Using a rubber spatula, quickly fold a quarter of the whites into the batter. 
9. Gently fold in the remaining whites.
10. Scrape batter into the pan and smooth the top.
11. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, cake will start to brown slightly and springs back when lightly touched.
12. While cake is baking, place a sheet of parchment paper about the size of the pan onto a work surface and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.
13. Run a paring knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Carefully invert the cake onto the sugared parchment paper then remove the parchment on the bottom of the cake.
14. Starting with the short end, carefully roll up the cake and parchment paper. Let cool completely.
15. When cool, unroll the cake and fill with the lemon filling within an inch of the edges of the cake. Roll back up the cake, using the parchment to help it along.
16. Using a serrated knife, trim off the crusty edges from either end of the cake.
17. Place the cake on a serving platter and refrigerate at least one hour prior to serving.
18. Immediately before serving, generously sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake.
19. Slice, serve, and enjoy!!