Let’s get something straight – I was very afraid to make this recipe. The directions seemed eerily similar to my last kitchen failure. No leavener, lots of whipping, lots of folding. Pretty much sounds like my nightmare. But I left work at 4 today, ran over to the store to get blueberries and marcarpone and got ready to rock this bitch! I figured if I showed great enthusiasm and positivity there was no way I would end up with a horrible brick-like thing this time. The blueberry step was relatively painless so I was feeling pretty good. Then it was time for the scary stuff. The egg whites whipped up beautifully and since the directions said they should be “quite firm” I really made sure to get them to that point. I was pretty impressed with how they totally kept their shape when I plopped them into the bowl with the egg yolks
After this simple step, the real fun began – the endless folding. I tried to be very Zen and calm while folding. Plus I thought about how ridiculously mad I was at myself over the genoise failure and really, really tried. I used my biggest, fanciest spatula and I think I did okay.
I spread it on my baking sheet and got it as level as I could:
There were no scary bubbles or anything but I was pretty timid about spreading it out. I was afraid of pressing down too hard and deflating it so some parts of it are a little thicker but oh well – it was my first sponge. Can we talk about how that’s a disgusting name for a cake? Sponge cake….sponge cake. The more I say it, the grosser it sounds. It makes me think of that Seinfeld episode where Elaine is very upset about not being able to find her favorite method of birth control
I know this is not a picture of Elaine looking for her sponges but I will literally use any excuse to bring up the Elaine dance. In fact my cousins and I talked about it several times this last weekend. Anyway, back to this cake roll. After only about 9 minutes in the oven it looked how Dorie said it should (puffed & lightly golden) so I took it out and began the slightly scary process of flipping it onto the sugared towel. Only resulted in one burn.
I thought the directions were a little confusing when it came to the whole cake in the towel thing but after consulting Bek, I think I made the right decision. Here’s my little cooling cake roll:
Kind of unattractive huh? Looks much better when unrolled and spread with a mixture of mascarpone, blueberries, and whipped cream, doesn’t it?
Then I very carefully rolled it back into my very sugary towel (she said to be generous, right?? I used like a whole 1/3 cup!) and put it to bed in the fridge for about 4 hours. When we got home from our night on the town I took it out and tried to get a decent photo. It’s kind of hard to get a pretty shot of a log, don’t you think? I tried though.
These are actually the end pieces. I didn’t even cut into the pretty part of the roll. This is a really big dessert, y’all.
Tristan and I shared the end pieces and the first thing he said was “tastes like a cream puff.” I heartily agree. I hope that’s how it’s supposed to taste. I would say it was a success because this is what we had by the end
Yum! I wouldn’t say this is my favorite dessert just from a texture standpoint but I did really like the flavor. What did the rest of the Doristas think?
Always Add More Butter 