Jelly Roll Cake

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It’s New Year’s Eve, and I am a believer in the superstition that the way you spend your day is an indication of how your year will be.  So rather than doing a super complicated recipe with tonnes of ingredients and hours of prep work and decorating, I thought I’d share something that’s simple, elegant, delicious and easy: Raspberry Jelly Roll Cake.  You must have something yummy to celebrate with, but who’s got time to be baking all day when there are hairdos to set, winged liner to master, and a fabulous red lip awaiting tonight’s festivities!

I chose to give this a raspberry filling simply because I had lots of raspberry jam leftover from Baby J’s Frozen Winter Wonderland Third Birthday Party cake, but you can fill it with any kind of jam or cream or chocolate you’d like.

As you’ve probably predicted if you read my recipe posts, this one comes once again from my favourite baker, Anna Olson.  I first saw her make it on the TV show “Bake” which I used to watch at 4am while doing cardio during bikini contest prep—there’s something about watching cooking shows when you’re training and dieting that somehow satisfies the sweet tooth!  The recipe is from the book “Bake With Anna Olson” and even though I’ve never tried a jelly roll cake before it turned out on my first try, super easy, and even Baby J helped!

This will give you one 10 inch (25 cm) cake which serves 12-16 people.

Anna Olson’s Classic Jelly Roll Cake

Ingredients:

4 separated room temperature eggs

0.25 cups sifted icing sugar, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

0.75 cups cake and pastry flour

0.66 cups raspberry jam

 

Jelly Roll Cake Directions: 

one: preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 15 x 10 jelly roll pan with parchment paper.  Whip the egg yolks and icing sugar on high for about 4 minutes until they have doubled in volume and hold a ribbon when the beater is lifted, then whip in the vanilla.

 

two: in a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with the salt on low until foamy, then turn to high and add the sugar, whipping until you’ve got a medium peak.

 

three: sift half of the flour into the egg yolk mixture and fold it in by hand using a whisk.  Then fold in half the egg white mixture, and then the remaining sifted flour.  Switch to a spatula and fold in the rest of the egg white mixture until it’s all evenly incorporated.  Spread this level into the jelly roll pan.  Bake for 12 minutes until it springs back when pressed gently in the centre and allow to cool for 2 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack.

four: loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a spatula, sift a layer of icing sugar over the entire surface, and cover with a tea towel lining up the edge of the towel with the edge of the cake.  Place a second pan (I used a similar sized cutting board) over top and flip the whole thing upside down to remove it from the pan.  Peel off the parchment paper and dust this side of the cake with icing sugar.  Using the tea towel for support, roll up the cake from the short edge like a cinnamon bun and let it cool wrapped up in the tea towel like a tube.  This makes the cake want to stay rolled up later without cracking.

five: unroll the cake and spread an even layer of stirred jam (stirring makes it softer) over the surface.  Roll it back up and dust the top with more icing sugar.  Cover and leave at room temperature to store until devoured.  Anna says it can be prepared up to one day in advance and left in an airtight container or plastic wrap at room temp, NOT in the fridge.

There you have it, a super easy and really pretty little cake!  I doubled the recipe and made two and it worked perfectly fine…and was eaten very quickly!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a great final day of 2018.  But more importantly, I hope you have a fantastic beginning to 2019, our best year yet!  I’ve done resolution posts for 2017 and 2018 but instead of doing a full post this I’m simply going to resolve to work on a few particularly challenging yoga poses, try to run another half marathon (weather and newborn baby permitting!) and nail some awesome vintage hairdos.  Nothing ground breaking because, well, I have a brand-new sweet baby coming this year so aside from having a wonderful healthy pregnancy and enjoying a newborn baby I’m not putting any pressure on myself to achieve anything more!

Tell me what kind of resolutions you are making this year in the comments—anybody have any baking resolutions?!

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Kitchen Aid Mixer in Aqua Sky (Martha Stewart’s signature colour!): I got it a few years ago at Bed Bath and Beyond but it’s a tricky colour to find in Canada, it’s currently available at Best Buy!

Kate Spade Oven Mitts: Winners/Home Sense

Nativity Set: Got this years ago at the Hallmark

Owl Scentsy Warmer: Scentsy

Rae Dunn Drink Up Dish: Winners/Home Sense

Camera: Huawei P20 Pro