patriotic cake roll

Today { as it happens every single year... on every single holiday }, it dawned on me that I was only two days away from the 4th of July. So I figured I better bake something up! I was brainstorming forever, because it seemed like every single good or creative patriotic recipe had  already been made. Then... I remembered about this super cool tutorial I had saved on Pinterest for a Chevron Cake Roll. And I figured... If I can make a chevron cake, why not make it look like a flag? And here it is! I am so happy with how cute it came out, and you will never believe how easy it was. Seriously!

The blog I got it from, AndCute.com, has a great step-by-step tutorial with pictures, so it's super simple to make a chevron cake like hers, or create whatever design you want! You make one big batch of cake batter, and then divide it to add the food coloring. You then use piping bags and decorating tips to create your image. You will first create the stars with plain white batter, and the zig zags with the red batter.

You bake just this for a couple of minutes, then carefully spread the remaining cake batter on top, and finish baking. Make sure you join the blue and white of the main batter! And... well, there you have it. A single, solid cake roll with an awesome design baked right in! I piped this in without really thinking about it, but when it came to rolling the whole thing up, my only choice was to have a really long and skinny cake roll if I wanted both the blue and red to show. This serves more people so in my opinion, it's great for a 4th of July gathering. However, if you're wanting a cake that's smaller and fatter, pipe the design vertically rather than horizontally! You can also pipe the stars and stripes on the "wrong" side if you want to ensure that you're stars aren't upside-down { ha... you can't tell right? 😉 } but I don't feel like that's a very big deal. And that's it! This cake is seriously simple but it looks so good! And the design options are endless. Let me know if you need any tips, and you can always refer back to the original post for more help. Good luck and happy baking!

Pro tip: the original recipe uses grams because most ingredients are needed in only small amounts. I recommend using a kitchen scale for convenience!

{ Recipe from AndCute.com }

Print Recipe

patriotic cake roll

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Cakes

Servings: 12

Author: Valentina | The Baking Fairy

Ingredients

• *for the cake*
• 4 eggs separated
• 70 grams extra-fine sugar { just pulse regular white sugar in the food processor until it's extra fine }
• 10 grams regular white sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 70 grams all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• food coloring { I used AmeriColor Electric Blue and Super Red }
• *for the cream filling*
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2-3 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup seedless raspberry jam

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F, and line a 11x17 baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar.
• As it beats, slowly pour in the extra-fine sugar until combined, then beat the mixture on high until stiff peaks form.
• In a separate small bowl, beat together the egg yolks, vanilla, and regular sugar.
• Gently fold the egg yolks into the beaten egg whites, then fold in the flour.
• Put about ¼ of the batter in a separate small bowl, and color it red. Take a bit more, put it in another bowl, and color it blue.
• Put the red batter in a decorating bag fitted with a large round tip, and free-hand chevrons on half of the pan.
• Put some white batter in another decorating bag fitted with a small round tip, and draw stars on the other half of the pan.
• Place pan in oven for 2 minutes, then remove and let cool for 3 minutes.
• Take the remaining white batter, and gently spread it atop the red chevrons using a spatula.
• Take the blue batter, and spread it on top of the stars. Be sure to join the blue and white batters in the middle so that they can bake into one cake.
• Place cake back in oven for 11-12 minutes.
• When ready, remove from oven, place another piece of parchment on top of the pan, and invert the cake using a cutting board. Slowly and carefully peel the parchment off of the side with the design.
• Grab another piece of parchment, lay it on top of the cake again, and invert it once more.
• The cake should now be sandwiched between two pieces of papert! Using the parchment to help, carefully roll the cake up while warm and let it cool completely. This will help it not crack when you fill it later.
• As the cake cools, prepare the filling.
• In the bowl of a stand mixed fitted with the whisk, beat the cream until fluffy and whipped { make sure it's stiff as it will soften when it's in the cake }.
• Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and raspberry jam, and beat on high until completely combined and free of lumps.
• When the cake is cooled, carefully unroll it, spread the filling inside, and roll it back up.
• Let cake sit in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before serving to ensure filling has solidified. Refrigerate leftovers.