Last-minute Christmas dessert... Red Velvet Cake Roll!

We arrived home just in time for dinner last night... so good to see our families! And the Monical's pizza was delicious as always.


My mom & I decided to tackle some baking today in preparation for Christmas. (What else is new? :-P) You'd think fifteen types of cookies would be enough. Nope, not for us.

We decided on a Red Velvet Cake Roll to take to my grandma's tonight for dessert, and a couple coffee cakes for the morning. And this Creme de Menthe Cake which is a Christmas tradition.


I've never made a cake roll before, so I was looking forward to a new experience. It was actually quite simple! (As long as you follow the directions.)

The cake part is a red velvet sponge cake. The eggs are beaten for a good 5 minutes until they're light and fluffy; then the rest of the ingredients are added. The cake is baked in a jelly roll pan that has been greased, lined with wax paper, greased again, and flour. You don't want the cake to stick. That would be tragic.


Once it's baked, you roll the cake up inside a towel. I know, it sounds weird. But if you let the cake cool flat, when you go to roll it up it will crack all over the place. So, the cake cools while it's rolled up. 

Once it's cool, you unroll it and add the filling, in this case a cream cheese filling. I also added some mini chocolate chips because every dessert could use some more chocolate.

Then you just roll it back up, and dust it with powdered sugar! So pretty.

We haven't tasted it yet, but the batter licks were delicious and I'm sure it will be a hit tonight. 


**Updated to add... it was a complete hit! All of it was eaten except for half a piece. Delicious!

Red Velvet Cake Roll

Servings/Yield

8-10 servings

• For the cake
• ¾ cup cake flour, sifted
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring
• For the filling
• 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan and line with wax paper. Grease and flour the wax paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar; set aside on a flat surface.

In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat eggs on medium to medium-high for 5 minutes. Slowly add sugar and oil. Beat until combined. Add milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, and red food coloring. Beat until combined. Fold in flour mixture.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off wax paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with the narrow end. Cool, seam-side down, on a wire rack.

To make the filling, combine cream cheese and butter with a mixer and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.

Carefully unroll cake. Spread filling over cake, and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.

Carefully re-roll cake. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Source: Sweet Pea's Kitchen