cake

Imagine me saying it out loud. I am in the process of making Samuel's birthday cake(s) for his 10th! birthday tomorrow. The cake that I have been making for the past- 4 years? is that right? (and as always, thanks to Kerry for the inspiration and introduction to this particular cake...)- is an angel food roll cake with raspberry jam (homemade, upicked, but of course...) inside. Last year or the year before? Samuel started requesting two cakes because one cake was eaten up so quickly. I agreed and to be honest I don't have the heart to go back to one. How many years, after all, will there be with me making angel food roll cakes with raspberry jam inside? So here I am on the eve of his 10th birthday making cakes and researching, you got it, how to get the roll to actually roll this year. Last year's roll was more of a smoosh. Delicious, I agree. Delicious, I was told. A smoosh, nonetheless.

So I found a site with instructions on how to roll the roll. The recipe is different than the one I used but I am definitely trying out their roll technique.

Don't run. The cake will fall...she said as she questioned whether this were really true. Looks like it isn't true. At least so far. I will try to stop cringing when people run by the cake baking in the oven. Even if it is an angel food cake. Even if it is the day before Samuel's 10th birthday. Wisegeek knows...

OK- so far so good. The instructions for rolling the cake are as follows-

Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up jelly-roll style in the towel, starting with a short side. Cool on a wire rack.

That worked well. Now for the cooling and the second cake...

Ready? And now for the unrolling-

Unroll cake; spread filling evenly over cake.

Tried that. Sorry to say it did not work quite as well as I would have liked. The warm cake cooled into the shape of a roll and when I tried to unroll it, it broke. It's not quite a smoosh, more like a flop. It broke at the hinge where it should have rolled. (Where I wanted it to roll.) So it is basically a roll cake with a lid. I spread the jam and put the lid back on. (Boysenberry for this one, raspberry for the other. If I can find a jar of raspberry jam! I'm still searching the jam shelf...) It should be yummy regardless. Samuel came in and tasted it and looked at it and said, "Mmmm there's that same flavor of the raspberry roll cake." He asked for a slice. And then he said, "Does it always do that?" Ha. I wish I had the answer to that one. I have one more cake to try this year. We shall see.

While you are waiting to see about the roll, here's a little reading about the history of meringue and angel food cakes.

Ah ha! Success! I am excited to say that I tried rolling up the second cake while it was still warm after spreading the raspberry jam (Yep. I found a jar!) on the warm cake and it worked! So that makes one rolled cake and one cake with a lid for this year's birthday celebration. A pretty satisfying outcome, if I do say so myself. Here's to cake. Cake for all.