Strawberry Cream Roll

I waxed nostalgic about cake rolls in this post, so if you'd like to learn about my deep and meaningful connection to them, you can go there. Like the cake roll I tested in that post, this one was not familiar to me. However, I had a feeling it would be good. I mean, how can you go wrong with cake, strawberries, and cream? Turns out, there are ways, but thankfully we avoided disaster in the end. 

Here’s what happened.  And also, here's . . . 

How to make Strawberry Cream Roll

The process for this cake roll was very similar to the last cake roll I made. First, I sifted together the dry ingredients. 

 Next, I beat the eggs. From my experience with the other cake roll, I knew they wouldn’t thicken like the recipe said until the sugar went in. So I beat the eggs until they were light and fluffy. 

I then added the sugar. I beat this mixture until it was nice and thick and mounded around the beaters. That was my cue to add the water and vanilla. 

Next, I folded the sifted ingredients into the egg and sugar mixture, gently lifting and stirring until no streaks of flour remained. My goal was to keep the batter as light and airy as possible. 

I prepared a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan by spraying it with nonstick spray and lining it with parchment paper. I’ve found this to be best way to ensure that the cake comes out cleanly without sticking to the pan. 

I spread the batter as evenly as possible and then popped the pan into the oven. I baked it until it was golden brown and a toothpick came out clean--about 15 minutes.    

I turned the pan over onto a towel that I'd sprinkled with powdered sugar and heard a satisfying plop as the cake fell out. 

Then, I suffered a dilemma. People were coming for dinner, and I wanted to be sure there were enough slices of the cake to go around. Should I roll it from the narrow side or the long side? Last time, I did the narrow side. This time, I opted for the long side, thinking I'd get more pieces that way. Here it is, rolled and ready to cool. 

While the cake cooled, I whipped the cream with some powdered sugar and vanilla. There were no directions for this on the recipe card, just “whipped and sweetened.” The strawberries were also to be sweetened, so I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons over them, stirred, and tasted them to see if it was enough. For that batch of strawberries, it was.   

The cake didn't take long to cool. I unrolled it and got ready to assemble it.  

I placed the strawberries on the cake, leaving the juice that had formed in the bowl so that the cake wouldn’t get soggy. I then spread the cream over the strawberries.  

Here was where things nearly went south. The whipped cream was almost too much for the job, and when I rolled the cake, some of it squeezed out.  

 I think that if I'd rolled the cake from the short side, the swirl would have helped hold the cream in. Also, the cake roll would have been sturdier. As it was, the cake made only one revolution around the filling and it felt like it was about to break when I tipped it onto a cookie sheet to chill. I positioned it crease-down so that the innards would stay in and placed it in the fridge until we were ready for the big reveal.   

The Verdict

With hardly any swirl at all, the look of it was underwhelming. 

 However, the taste was as delicious as I'd expected. As I said, it’s hard to go wrong with cake, strawberries, and cream. The whole family liked it, and the small chunk that was left over kept well in the fridge. I'll make this one again, but next time, I'll roll it from the short side to achieve more of a swirl. I might also use less whipped cream so that it doesn't escape.

If you'd like to try it yourself, click on the link below the recipe card to download and print it out. This one is a bit tricky but it's yummy!