Raspberry Roulade Cake

A roulade cake, aka Swirl Cake (in America), is a pretty common cake among Iranians (I have no idea why).  In every Persian pastry shop you will find one and it is the cake for pretty much any occasion.  I've never really liked roulade cakes that much (usually prefer a chocolate cake or carrot cake to anything else), but everywhere I go, any Iranian event, wedding, birthday...someone makes a roulade cake (why???).  So, I decided its time I make my very first roulade cake and what better event than for my mother-in-laws birthday (haha!).

It turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself :) Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, but I hope they weren't just being nice!

Here is the recipe for those interested (the pictures stink, I know...bad phone camera!)

RECIPE (serves 6-8 people)

Cake:
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 egg whites
1/3 cup sifted white Flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup and 1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon and dash of nutmeg to flavor (optional)

Raspberry Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp white sugar
1/3 of raspberry puree/sauce/jam

Raspberry Puree:
12 oz. bag of frozen raspberry
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup white sugar

CAKE

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2.  Line a baking sheet (12" x 17" or the larger the pan the larger your cake) with parchment paper.
3.  Spray the parchment paper with PAM/other vegetable sprays/butter.
4.  While still cold, separate the 2 egg whites and to the remaining 2 egg yolks, add 2 whole eggs and an additional egg yolk (I know confusing, read it slowly!).  Allow to come to room temperature (30-45min).
5. Meanwhile, in a smaller bowl, sift and whisk the flour and cornstarch together.
Also place a medium size bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes (for the whipped cream mixture) and remove your raspberries to thaw for the puree.

6.  Add the egg yolks and whole egg mixture with 1/2 cup sugar to medium bowl.
7.  Mix with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes (or until pale yellow and fluffy).

The light is deceiving, it is pale yellow!

8.  Once fluffy, beat in the vanilla extract.
9. Sift half the flour over the fluffy mixture and fold in gently.
10.  Sift and add the remaining flour and fold in.

11. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until fluffy with mixer (they get foamy, then fluffy the longer you beat).
12. Add 1 tbsp of sugar and continue to beat until fluffy enough that white peaks form
13.  Gently add the fluffy egg whites into the batter and mix gently. Add the remaining batter and mix well with slow turns of the batter.
14.  Pour batter into your prepared pan.
15. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 450F until golden brown.

16. Once ready, immediately take pan out, carefully cut the edge around the cake to separate from the pan.
17. Flip the pan over on a CLEAN dish towel and remove the parchment paper.

18.  Sprinkle some confectioners sugar over the cake.
19.  Roll the cake (yes, it does roll surprisingly!)

20.  Allow the cake to cool for 30 minutes or so (it cools pretty fast) on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, get the whipping cream ready, but first, you need to make your raspberry puree.

RASPBERRY WHIPPING CREAM 
                            (you can put anything you like inside, nutella, strawberry jam...)
Purre:
1.  Thaw unsweetened frozen raspberries (or microwave until mushy if you forget, like I did).

2.  Add the raspberries to a strainer and crush them until all the juice is out. Try to avoid getting any seeds.  This part takes a while and is very messy so beware! You really want to smash those raspberries with anything you can find through the strainer.  The back of a spoon works well.
3.  To the strained juice, add lemon juice and sugar (you can sweeten to how you like here!)
You get about 3/4 cup total.  You will only need 1/2 cup for the cream, so you can freeze the rest for later!

Aprons are the best :)

Cream:
1.  To your clean cold bowl, add heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract and sugar.
2.  Beat until fluffy and soft peaks form (1-2 minutes)

3.  Add 1/2 cup puree (or if using something like jam, 1/3 cup) and continue to beat until stiff peaks form (1-2 minutes)

See my peaks???

To assemble:

1. Unroll the cake and later the inside with your whipping cream (leave a bit to cover the outside of the cake).  Add just enough that is covers every inch of the cake, but not too much so that when you roll is back up, it squeezes out.
2.  Roll the cake carefully and later the outside with whipping cream.
3. Top however you like.  I covered mine with almond slivers, crushed pineapple and strawberry slices.  I also tried to be smart and drizzled chocolate syrup all over it, but I think that made it look worse since my syrup bottle malfunctioned.

You can now carefully drape saran wrap over it and store it in the fridge (I made the cake on Sunday and served it on Monday).

I also made a cake plate by taking a piece of cardboard I had saved from something (I can't remember) and covered it with aluminum foil.  In the rush of things (I was late for an event that evening and was rushing to finish the cake in time), I failed to center the cake on the cake board before adding the frosting. UH!

 Voila, the finished product with candles and all!

 Bon Appetit!