Strawberry Sponge Cake Roll

 

I was looking for some ideas to celebrate this year strawberry season, and I decided there is nothing better then a ‘Strawberry Roloda’ (Strawberry Sponge Cake Roll). The cake is light and sweet, and you can decorate it however you’d like, to pay a special tribute to strawberries. The cake is perfect for garden parties, casual teas with neighbours, or posh evening dinners. Delicious!

Prep time: 30 min, easy

Cook time: 10 min

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

Pastry

3 eggs

2 tablespoons powder sugar (icing sugar)

3 tablespoons wheat flour

2 tablespoons potato flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon vanilla sugar

Cream

Large cup of double cream

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon gelatine

500 g strawberries

Lemon juice, shot of vodka or strawberry jam (to moisture the pastry)

Decoration 

7 small strawberries

100g dark chocolate

(We will also use some cream from above)

Method:

Pastry

1.     Beat egg whites. My trick is to add little salt to them, so they whist better.

2.     When egg whites are stiff, keep beating and gradually add sugar, then egg yolks. The consistency should be dropping.

3.     Sift some flour mixed with baking powder into the bowl. Cream all the ingredients.

4.     Pre-heat the oven to 190C. Put the mixture into a baking tin. The tin should be about 28 – 34 cm long, 20 – 25 cm wide. Bake on a baking paper or greased tin. Spread the mixture over the tin so it’s smooth. Bake for about 10 minutes.

5.     Take the pastry out of the oven and leave to cool down for a while.

6.     Spread some vanilla sugar over a clean, linen tea towel, and put the still warm pastry on it.

7.     Roll the pastry with the tea towel and leave it to cool down in this shape.

Cream

1.     Wash and peel strawberries. Pick up 7 small and prettiest ones for decoration and put them on a side. From the rest of them, take half and blend them. The other half chop into small cubes.

2.     Melt gelatine in ¼ cup of hot water and leave to cool down.

3.     Whip double cream so it’s stiff. Mix in some sugar.

4.     Take out 2-3 spoons for decoration, put it into the fridge.

5.     To the main cream, add blended strawberries and still warm gelatine. Mix them together.

Rolada

1.     Unfold the sponge pastry.

2.     Spread some lemon juice, vodka or strawberry jam over it to moisture the sponge. I used lemon juice this time, but the other options are very good too, and give your cake a special personality.

3.     Make a layer of chopped strawberries on the pastry.

4.     Spread some pink cream over the pastry. Make sure your layers are not too thick; otherwise it can be difficult to close the cake.

5.     When the layers are ready, start rolling the cake, in the tea towel. Roll it so it closes. Spoon out the excessive cream. Hold it for a while so it sticks together.

6.     Leave it to rest for a while. Cut the edges on both sides so they’re smooth.

7.     Now you can put your cake on a serving dish and decorate it! I used some melted dark chocolate to make a pattern on the top, and then put some of the leftover cream and decorated with strawberries. You can be really creative here!

8.     To serve, cut in slices. But make sure your guests can see the whole masterpiece first! Enjoy!