Surprise Inside Christmas Cake: Vertical Striped Cake

Merry Christmas!  We’re only a couple of weeks away from the big day, and I’m sure you’ll need some sort of dessert to help celebrate.  This vertical cake roll will impress the jolly man in the red suit, and all your other guests!

This cake roll is something a little different than the regular type of roll you might be used to.  Instead of traditionally rolling up the cake by the width, this cake is rolled up length ways in small strips to create a large roll.  It gets a little messy when you roll this cake up but it’s kinda fun to get dirty sometimes, right?  It’s fun to roll it up!

As far as fillings for inside the cake roll go, it’s best to work with a light filling, such as whipping cream, but you could also use a fruit filling, and if you prefer, you could try buttercream, but I’m not sure how that would affect the ability of the cake to roll.  I had decided that since there was so much buttercream around the outside of the cake, and using something different for the inside was probably best.  It is also really easy to roll up whipping cream as opposed to other fillings.

 Decorating the outside of the cake can be done however you want, and I’m sure my viewers and readers have great ideas!  I liked the way the ribbons up the side of the cake we soft looking and very festive.  Anything themed for the season would be great for this holiday type of cake!

Surprise Inside Christmas Cake- Vertical Striped Cake

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (240g)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (10mL)
• 1 teaspoon salt (5mL)
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar (400g)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (10mL)
• 1/2 cup milk (hot) (120mL)

Cake Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.  Spray two jelly roll pans with non-stick spray and line with wax paper.  Spray the paper as well.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.  Mix and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, whip the eggs, sugar and lemon juice until thick.  Heat the milk and slowly add it to the egg mixture and whip until very thick.
4. Gently fold a third of the flour mixture into the egg mixture, until combined.  Repeat flour additions, and continue to fold until there are no flour chunks remaining.
5. Divide batter between the two jelly roll pans, and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. 
6. Allow cakes to cool once they are baked. 

Assembly Ingredients

• Prepared green cake
• 4 cups whipping cream
• Prepared 8″ round cakes
• White buttercream
• Red and green gel paste
• Round peppermints
• Red and green gum drops

Assembly Procedure:

1. Prepare whipping cream and colour it red.
2. Cut cooled green cake slabs into 3 ¼” strips.  Slicing both of the green cakes will give you six strips.  You will need four of them. 
3. Cover each of the four cake strips with red whipping cream. 
4. To start to roll the cake, start at the end of one and tightly roll it up towards the opposite end.  Line up the end of the rolled portion with the start of the next strip and continuing rolling.  Repeat with the third and forth strip as well.
5. When the cake roll is completed, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer to solidify.
6. Place the 8” round cake on a cake board and attach it to the board with a swipe of buttercream.  Cut the round cake in half, so you have two thin round cake halves.  Cover the bottom round cake with buttercream.
7. Place the cake roll on top of the bottom round cake.  Cover the top of the cake roll with buttercream and attach the second round cake to the top. Cover the rest of the cake with buttercream.
8. Using a piping bag fitted with a #104 tip, stripe the bag with green gel paste by brushing a line of gel paste from the bottom of the bag (lined up with the narrow part of the tip), to the middle, and fill with buttercream.  Repeat with the red gel paste.
9. Apply ribbons of buttercream up the sides of the cake by placing the tip of the piping bag at the bottom of the cake, and zig zagging up the side of the cake about an inch in width.  Alternate between red and green stripes. 
10. To finish the cake off, place gum drops and peppermints at the top of the ribbons. 
11. Keep cake in fridge until ready to serve.  It is best used within 2-3 days.