Blue & White Dot Roll Cake

Once, when I was little, my mom took me to a drawing class. I know a lot of kids who are naturally gifted with drawing. Well, I was not one of them. Actually I was so horrible at it that drawing was one of the two subjects I scared the most during school (the other one is physics if you ask).

Still, I admire art, especially painting. My father used to have an art book which detailed the life and work of a famous artist called Levitan. I remember looking through the book, admiring all the beautiful and peaceful paintings. Later on, through my growing friendship with MP, my love for art increased. We spent a lot of time searching for art books by famous artists in the Old Quarter of Hanoi and shared our thoughts with each other.

The bottom line is I love colors. Sure I cannot draw but I find different ways to incorporate colors in my life! Baking is a way, although I haven’t been interested in cake decorating and food coloring that much.

Anyway, just for fun, I made some roll cake during the weekend. For some reasons, the two colors blue and white were playing in my head. Actually I was thinking of deep dark blue, but for food, a lighter shade would be better, yes? So there I was, in the kitchen, mixing all the colors together. It felt like fun. It was like being in a drawing class again, with colors to play with, but with all the ingredients I was familiar with. At least I could bake a pretty cake even if I still cannot draw!

I gotta tell you that the recipe for the roll cake is a keeper. I learnt it from a Viet blogger, who in turn, got it from her teacher. The recipe produced a moist and soft cake. It is so easy to roll (no cracking!) and not at all eggy like a lot of other recipes.

I love the end result. The cake looks cute and its appearance brings a smile to my face.

Blue & White Dot Roll Cake

Cake recipe adapted from here (in Vietnamese)

If you do not want to use food coloring, use normal chocolate choc chips instead to create the dot effects.

Ingredients

A – 3 egg yolks (room temperature), 25g sugar, 50g plain flour, 10g corn flour, 25g fresh milk, 25g corn oil, ¼ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, tiny drop of coloring is using

B – 3 eggs white (room temperature), 35g sugar, ¼ tsp cream of tartar (optional. I did not use any), ¼ tsp salt

C – White chocolate chips (pls use these since normal chocolate will melt in the oven) – around 150g

Filling -100g thickened cream. Whipped until soft peak forms with 1-2 tbp of sugar and some orange blossom water.

Method

Preheat oven to 190C.

Line the swiss roll baking tray. Carefully arrange the chocolate chips in rows over the baking paper. Set aside.

Starting with mixture A: Sift the flours and baking powder together. Whish the egg yolks, sugar, milk and oil together. Add in the flour mixture and whisk well until combined. Add in a bit of food coloring now if desired.

Mixture B: Whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar, sugar and salt until soft peaks form.

Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into mixture A to lighten up the batter. Add in the rest and fold everything together. Be careful not to destroy all the air bubbles.

Pour the mixture onto the baking tray. Bake in the oven for around 10 mins or until baked through.

Take the baking tray out of the oven. Cool for 10 mins then invert the cake onto another sheet of baking paper. Cool completely.

Prepare the filling. Use whatever you fancy!

Invert the cake again so that the chocolate side is facing down. Spread the filling onto the cake. Roll up from the shorter ends, using the baking paper as a guide. Wrap the baking paper over the cake. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours so the cake can maintain its shape.

Cut and serve.