Strawberry Cake Roll

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil or butter the sides and bottom of a 15×10-inch jelly roll pan. Line with parchment (if you are using a design template, put your template on top of parchment paper or draw it on the reverse of the parchment with a long line of a pencil).
• To make a design paste using a spatula, or a wooden spoon Mix sugar and butter to create an even paste. Mix in flour until it is incorporated. Then, add egg whites and mix until the mixture is smooth. The paste must have a buttercream-like consistency.
• Distribute the paste in 3 bowls (how the proportions are dependent on the design you choose) Add food coloring according to your preference. (I combined 20g of paste and 1 drop of leaf green, 60g paste containing 1 drop of deep pink and half drop of red, and 40g paste mixed with one teaspoon of pink paste for an edgier pink to dots).
• Pipe the pastes into bags that are fitted with tiny round tips (I utilized my smallest #1 tip to make the green dots, the 3rd tip for the pink light dots, and a more substantial #5 tip to make the fruits).

• Pipe design onto parchment. Begin with green after which you can pipe dark pink berries over before finishing with smaller pink dots. Put the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to allow the design to dry while you make the remaining batter.
• Put egg yolks into the bowl of a mixer. Add 1/4 cup of sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolving and the yolks become lighter in color. Pour in vegetable oil drizzle and whisk continuously until it is fully incorporated. Incorporate almond extract and salt. Mix in food coloring according to your preference. (I added a little bit from Deep Pink and Red with an utensil, and then only a toothpick’s worth of food coloring to the mix.)
• Sprinkle sugared cake flour on top of the batter and fold in until it is incorporated.
• In a well-clean mixing bowl or the mixing bowl on a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites to create froth. Mix in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Beat with a high-speed mixer until whites form a medium-stiff peak.
• Mix a third of the egg whites into the batter to make it lighter, and then include the other egg whites, folding until it is just fully incorporated.
• Sprinkle the batter on top of frozen designs, spreading the batter out in one even layer using the large spatula offset. The pan should be blasted a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. Then smooth the surface.
• Bake for 10 minutes or until the surface is firm and the edges are barely getting brown.
• Take it out of the oven. The cake should be carefully flipped onto a parchment that is backed by the solidity of the large cutting board. Remove the parchment backing and reveal the pattern. Dust a tea towel in powdered sugar, then place it on top of the cake. Turn the cake upside down so that it is facing downwards.

• Start with the part of the cake with no designs, and slowly roll your warm cake into the towel. This process, when the cake remains warm, can give the cake the muscle memory’ to let you make it into a roll later on with the filling and not cracking.
• Cool the cake for approximately 1 hour or until it is completely cool to the point of.
• To make the filling, place the ingredients in the bowl of a small container, and pour gelatin in 1 tablespoon of cool water. Let it loosen for 5 minutes. In a microwave, cook the mixture for short intervals of 5 seconds each until the gelatin has completely dissolved and has melted. Cool slightly (but do not let it set if you notice it, you can microwave it once more).
• With a food processor, a clean spice grinder, or a coffee maker, grind frozen strawberries with sugar until they are very small and finely ground.
• Put whipping cream into the bowl of the stand mixer equipped with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium until it becomes frothy. Then add the powdered sugar. Turn the speed up to medium-high and continue beating until the paddle begins leaving trails within the cream.
• Make a small amount of partially whipped cream together with gelatin that has been melted until it is completely mixed, and then using the mixer at a low speed, pour this into the bowl together with the remainder of the cream. Mix in the strawberry sugar and turn the speed up to medium-high. Beat until the cream forms a medium-stiff peak (take caution not to beat too much).
• Unroll the cake gently and then remove the towel. You might need to grip the cake in your palm in case it tries to roll up again (see muscles memory!) Make sure to spread the filling in a uniform layer across the entire cake with about half an inch of space at the very side. It is possible that you will not require all of the filling depending on the thickness of the layer you’d like to make.

• Carefully roll the cake Be careful not to apply excessive pressure to avoid having it squeeze out the sides. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at minimum 2 hours, or up to a day until the filling is ready. If you possess a cardboard tube, you can place the cake roll inside the tube so that the top doesn’t become flat when it is chilled (I made use of a 3 1/2-inch diameter tube that was used for the whiskey bottle, which was just the right dimension).

• Cut the cake into pieces using the help of a sharp knife (the designs are more brittle than the actual cake. The slices look better if you cut them with an incredibly sharp knife moving the knife slowly toward you, and letting the force of the knife perform the cutting. It might need a few strokes to be able to cut through the harder pieces of design. Do not cut around or push down as the design could be compressed to cakes.).
• Cake roll can be stored well wrapped, and then refrigerated for 3 days.