Jelly Roll Cake Unlike Any Other | Baking with Dorie

Starting off with the classic jelly roll cake recipe from Baking with Dorie, I ended up with a version that’s unlike any other cake I’ve made. A lot of the credits go to Dorie’s very sturdy sponge cake recipe. Most of all, my mini jelly roll cakes with vertical stripes are inspired by Ottolenghi’s lemon and berry stripe cake from his cookbook Sweet. I didn’t start with a plan, I went freelancing!

The path to jelly rolling begins with making the sponge cake. The recipe calls for 6 eggs, an even number which allows for halving the recipe easily. The process involves:

• Line a quarter-sheet pan (12 x 9.5-inch) with parchment paper
• Separate the eggs (3).
• The egg whites (3) go into a stand mixer to turn into a meringue with the added sugar (67g) and a squirt of lemon juice. Continue beating at medium-high until the meringue holds firm peaks.
• In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks (3) with lemon zest, vanilla and salt.
• Blend a quarter of the meringue over the yolk mixture. Then add the reminder into the bowl.
• Top with the dry ingredients: all purpose flour (34g) and cornstarch (16g). Using a flexible spatula, fold everything together.
• Turn the batter onto the baking sheet and spread it evenly across the entire surface.
• The final step is the easiest: bake the cake at 400°F until lightly browned from edge to center. The cake should have risen, and firm to the touch, but puffy enough that your fingerprint will leave a slight indentation in the soft crust.

A word on the batter. There is no butter and no leavener among the list of ingredients. Without butter or oil as tenderizing agent, a sponge cake can be dense and rubbery; easy to roll but tough to eat. On the other hand, sponge cake may be fluffy and light but too fragile and brittle to roll. With the right proportion of ingredients, a sponge cake should be tender, fluffy, and flexible. Dorie’s recipe seems to achieve the right balance.

In fact, the sponge cake is more pliable than I’ve expected. The classic jelly rolling approach consists of of rolling and unrolling the sponge cake. First, flip the hot pan of cake onto a powdered sugar–dusted towel. Next, roll up with the towel. Then cool to room temperature, un-roll, then re-roll with a filling. I didn’t leave the rolled-up cake on the counter overnight as Dorie suggests. Fortunately, I had no issue with filling the cake with a berry jam, the awkward and messy manipulation not withstanding.

The sponge cake takes on quite a heavy dose of jam, like a sponge readily absorbing the spreadable and runny jam I put on it.

The freelancing starts with cutting the approximate 12-inch roll into 6 pieces. Next, join two pieces together end to end and then re-roll into one cake. The combined fatter drum fits snuggly into the paper mold. There are three mini-rolls in total. I dust each cake with confectioners’ sugar and top it with a strawberry. What you see is the coil of the roll outlined by the jam on the top of the cake.

When you cut the cake, you will see multiple vertical stripes. The look is like the Ottolenghi’s lemon and berry stripe cake. You can find a video of the rolling technique here. In the end, I’m so glad everything works out well without pre-planning or ingredient shopping. What serendipity!

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