Bravely Baking: Lemon Blackberry Swiss Cake Roll

The second recipe I decided to tackle for my challenge was a cake roll. *Sidebar, if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about with the challenge, take a look at the macarons post!* I know, glutton for punishment. I was going to not do a design on top of mine, but my husband was like, what’s the fun of that? Put a pattern in the sponge. Don’t be a baby. I was like, damnit… fine. More on how that turned out later. Also, this post contains a lot of videos, but I think this is a good recipe to show some of the process while it unfolds *see what I did there? Unfolds? Maybe I should say unROLLS. Get it? Okay, I'm done.

I used this recipe: https://natashaskitchen.com/blackberry-lemon-cake-roll-video/

For the sponge:

5 large eggs at room temperature

¾ c granulated sugar

¾ c all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the bottom of a sheet tray with parchment paper, but do NOT grease.

2. Add eggs to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment and beat on high for about a minute, until foamy. Gradually add granulated sugar and whisk for about 7 minutes until thick, fluffy, and tripled in volume.

3. Sift flour and baking powder into egg mixture 1/3 of the mixture at a time; fold in with a rubber spatula. Make sure to check for hidden flour pockets. Stop mixing when you no longer see flour streaks.

4. If you aren’t going to do a design, then just put on the sheet tray and smooth. *If you ARE going to do a design, here’s what I did- I took about ¼ of the mixture and put it in a separate bowl. I dyed it purple (because, blackberries). I drew a design in pencil on the back side of the parchment paper.
Then I piped the purple mixture onto my designs. Finally, I poured the rest of the batter over the design carefully and smoothed.

5. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown.

6. While the cake is still hot, take a knife to loosen from the sides of the pan. Invert the cake onto a clean, dry linen towel. *What I did not do that I wish I had- used a smooth towel (mine had some texture). Also, put some powdered sugar on the towel to help the cake not stick to it. This was my downfall. **Also, if you want to pretend like I'm a professional, watch these videos without sound. If you want a laugh, turn that volume up!

7. Remove the parchment paper (carefully if you have a design, I mean or even if you don’t). Roll the cake into the towel and let sit for about 30 minutes to cool to room temperature.

For the lemon syrup:

1/4 c warm water

1 tbsp granulated sugar

4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (from one medium lemon)

1. This part is easy- just combine all ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar

For the blackberry frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 c powdered sugar

6 oz blackberries, chopped

1. In a stand mixer, combine cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. *I always cream my cream cheese and butter first- I don’t know if it matters, but I do. Add powdered sugar slowly and mix for 2 – 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

2. Add blackberries and mix slowly until incorporated.

Assembly:

1. Take a deep breath!

2. Carefully unroll the cake from the towel. If you powder sugared it, hopefully this will be easier for you than it was for me.

3. Brush the top (aka the inside of the roll) with the lemon syrup. *But I also saw someone brush the actual top of the cake with it after you roll it up. This helps the design that you've made pop more, and you can actually see it even if you used powdered sugar to help you in the towel.

4. Put the blackberry frosting in an even layer. *Leave a border, otherwise it poops out the sides when you try to roll.

5. Roll the cake in the same direction that it was rolled the first time.

6. Decorate- I ended up putting powdered sugar on top because I killed my design in the rolling process. You can also save a bit of the frosting and put dollops of it on top with some extra blackberries or lemon slices.