Sant Jordi's Roulade Cake

This has been the second year I've made a 'customized' recipe for that special day here in Catalonia. As some of you may remember, I made lemon cupcakes for Sant Jordi's festivity last year. But I wanted to do something more difficult and bigger and I found the perfect recipe browsing through my new cookbook (a nice gift from my sister, btw), The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum. This book is, literally, a bible for every baker! I highly recommend you to buy it!

So I thought Rose's roulade cake recipe was the best choice since this kind of cakes are very traditional in my hometown.

Let me tell you that just a day after making this dessert there's only a tiny slice left in the fridge...which means I'm very proud of myself! Hehe. I honestly think my very first roulade cake tasted deliciously good! It's soft, tender, light and suprisingly flexible...I was so scared of rolling it up and break it!!! But it was quite easy.

One last thing before going straight to the recipe: I followed Rose Levy's recipe to make the roulade cake, but the filling, icing and decoration are from my own personal recipe collection.

Haz click aquí para la receta en español!

Biscuit Roulade

Ingredients

For the cake:

33g sifted cake flour.

23g unsifted cornstarch.

4 large eggs.

1 large egg yolk.

113g sugar.

3/4 tsp vanilla.

1/4 tsp cream of tartar*.

For the filling:

I made the same confectioner's cream as in the Easter Cake recipe, but replaced the vanilla for cinnamon and also added 1 lemon peel.

For the icing:

150g sugar.

50ml water.

4 egg yolks.

1 tbsp cornstarch.

For the roses:

White fondant.

Gel food colors: Wilton's Christmas Red and Moss Green.

*Cream of tartar: If you don't have cream of tartar at home or you can't find it at the stores, there's an easy trick to replace it. Simply add in 2 or 3 drops of lemon juice to the egg whites mixture. This will help to stabilize and give more volume to the beaten egg whites.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 230ºC (450 ºF).

In a small bowl whisk together the cake flour and cornstarch.

Separate 2 of the eggs, placing the yolks in one large mixing bowl and the whites in another. To the yolks, add the additional yolk, the 2 remaining eggs, and 1/2 cup sugar.

Beat on high speed 5 minutes or until thick, fluffy and triple in volume. Beat in the vanilla.

Sift 1/2 the flour mixture over the egg mixture and fold it gently but rapidly with a large balloon whisk, slotted skimmer or rubber spatula until the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture.

Beat the egg whites until foamy, add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Beat in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and beat until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. Fold the whites into the batter and pour into the prepared pan, using and angled metal spatula to level it.

Bake for 7 minutes* or until golden brown, a cake tester comes out clean and the cake is springy to the touch.

*I baked my cake for around 14 minutes...every oven works differently.

Loosen the edges with a small metal spatula or sharp knife and lifting by a long edge of the liner ir parchment overhang, gently slide the cake from the pan onto a flat surface. To use it for a roll, roll it up while still hot. If using a liner, tightly roll up the biscuit with the liner. (This keeps the biscuit especially moist). If using parchment, flip the biscuit onto a clean dish towel, carefully remove the parchment and roll it up tightly, towel and all. Cool on a rack. When ready to fill, unroll the biscuit and spread in carefully the confectioner's cream (crème pâtissèire). Roll up again and cover the biscuit roulade with a fine coat of toasted egg yolk.

Toasted egg yolk:

In a medium saucepan heat sugar and water together, until sugar dissolves.

Stirring, bring to a boil and let boil for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Beat together the egg yolks and cornstarch with a whisk.

Return to the heat again and add in the saucepan the egg/cornstarch mixture, stir constantly until the cream begins to get thick (as you can read, the process is very similar to the confectioner's custard I wrote on the previous entry).