The Cake Slice Bakers September 2013 - Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up

As The Cake Slice baker's are nearing the end of baking from Julie Richardson's Vintage Cakes, I am finding myself a little melancholy. We have baked some wonderful cakes from this book and so far my favorites have been the Honey Bee Cake and the Lemon and Almond Streamliner Cake. We still a couple of cakes to go, so who know which one will end up as my ultimate favorite. There were a couple of great choices this month, but the cake with the winning vote was the Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up. You have probably seen a traditional Swiss Roll/Jelly Roll but this cake flips the cake so that the roll is facing up.  How does she do that? Well it is easier than you think.

When I first saw the recipe for this cake I was a little intimidated as there seemed to be so many steps.  To my surprise all of the components of this cake came together very quickly, and before I knew it I was ready to attempt the roll. There was a short period of time when I thought I may just make a Jelly Roll out of the cake, but I am glad that I thought "no guts, no glory" and tackled it.  There is no easy way around it - your hands are going to get messy, but they are the best tools for the job. Once you have the center roll complete, the rest just seem to connect around it, and before you know it you are going to have a beautiful cake that all of your family and friends will ooh and aah over.

Although this cake is a sponge, I always tend to think along the line of be gentle, but show a little muscle too.  It can be a delicate cake because on the one hand you do not want to deflate the egg whites when mixing them into the cake batter, but you also do not want streaks of white in the batter either. To make sure that everything is incorporated I am a little more robust when I add the first ⅓ to the batter, and then a little less when incorporating the remaining egg whites.When making this cake again I would probably make the caramel the day before, mostly because I can then spoon it over ice cream that night, but also because it will save me one step the next day. And as I mentioned above there really is no other way to lift the cake and wrap one section around the other than your hands - messy, but fun. Oh, and one other tip I would recommend is to not make this on a day that is close to 90℉. I had a little issue with the cream wanting to slide right off the cake as I was spreading it on the outside. I may even add some stabilizer to it next time since it is always warm here.

Did you know that the Cake Slice Baker's have a Facebook page?  Not only are each month's cakes featured there, but you will also find great baking tips as well as additional goodies that have been baked by our members. We will be starting a new book very soon, so if you would like to join and bake along with us please send an email to Paloma at love.for.coffee at gmail dot com, and she will be able to fill you in on all of the details.


Butterscotch Cream Roll-Up

(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

Butterscotch Sauce ~

• ⅓ cup (3 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (7½ ounces) firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon whisky (optional)
• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

Cake ~

• 1 cup (4 ounces) sifted cake flour
• 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ cup canola oil
• 4 egg yolks, at room temperature
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 egg whites, at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling ~

• 1½ cups heavy cream, cold
• ½ cup (2 ounces) natural sliced almonds, toasted

Preparation

Butterscotch Sauce ~

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. 
2. Add the brown sugar all at once and stir with a wooden spoon to combine; cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to simmer and changes from a wet sand consistency to a liquid that gives off a lovely molasses smell and looks like taffy, approximately 3 minutes from the time it comes to a simmer.
3. Drizzle ¼ cup of the cream into the mixture and vigorously blend the cream into the sugar and whisk in the remaining cream.
4. Turn the heat up to medium-high and allow the sauce to boil, whisking occasionally, until it has darkened, about 8 minutes.
5. Remove the pot from the heat and allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes before adding the whisky, vanilla, and salt.
6. Refrigerate until cold.

Cake ~

1. Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 325℉.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ¾ cup of the sugar in a large bowl, then whisk the ingredients by hand.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, yolks, water, and vanilla.
4. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and briskly stir with a rubber spatula until just smooth.
5. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium speed until frothy.
6. Add the cream of tartar and gradually increase the speed to high, whipping until the whites just form a soft peak.
7. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar in a slow stream.
8. Return the mixer to high and continue whipping until the whites just begin to hold firm, shiny peaks.
9. With a rubber spatula, fold a third of the whites into the batter, using as few strokes as possible. Add the remaining whites, folding until incorporated.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top (this is best done with an offset spatula).
11. Place the pan in the oven and bake the cake until it springs back when lightly touched and is barely golden in color, 16 to 20 minutes.
12. Cool the cake on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

Filling ~

1. Place the bowl of a stand mixer and its whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 minutes.
2. Fit the cold bowl and whisk to the mixer and whip the 1½ cups of cold heavy cream and 1 cup of the cold butterscotch sauce together on medium-low speed until the ingredients are blended.
3. Gradually turn the mixer up to high speed and whip just until the cream holds soft peaks but is not yet stiff.

Assembly ~

1. Keep the cake in its pan and orient the pan so the longer side is closest to you.
2. Cut the cake with a serrated knife into four equal pieces measuring 4 by 12 inches.
3. Cut through the underlying parchment paper with a pair of scissors in the same places that you cut the cake so you have four quarters of cake (with parchment paper) that can each move independently.
4. Leaving the cake in the pan, spread a bit more than half of the butterscotch cream evenly over the cake and sprinkle with the toasted almonds.
5. Refrigerate the remainder of the cream while you roll up the cake.
6. With the pan still oriented with the longer side closest to you, lift up the nearest edge—both cake and paper—of one of your 4 strips. Using the parchment paper as the cake’s support, begin to tuck the cake into a roll and continue tucking (and peeling away the parchment paper) while gently rolling the cake away from you into a roll.
7. Place the rolled cake upright on a serving plate, so that the spiral of cake and filling is visible at the top. (Don’t worry, it gets easier from here.)
8. Lift up the next cake strip, using the parchment paper to support it, and wrap the strip around the roll on the serving plate, beginning where the outside edge of the first cake left off, in order to create a bigger roll.
9. Continue with the next two strips, beginning the wrap where the last left off, to make one enormous rolled up cake.
10. Finish by frosting the sides with the remainder of the cream (you might need to give the cream a few turns with a hand whisk to stiffen it up), leaving the top free to show off the spiral of cake and cream. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day, lightly wrapped in plastic.
11. Just before serving, warm the remaining butterscotch sauce and drizzle it over the individual servings. Well wrapped and refrigerated, this cake keeps for up to 3 days.

Cake from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.