Friday, April 3, 2009

Sheri's Birthday Dessert


By all accounts, Sheri and are a bit gratuitous when celebrating our birthdays. We use our birthdays to justify just about anything we want to do for the entire year, but most especially for the entire month of April. That's just the way we Aries girls roll! LOL!

This year, I made a special dessert for Sheri's birthday, because, well...I didn't want to just make a normal cake. I wanted to make something as unique as Sheri is. And because she loves lemon so much, this luscious recipe had me right away. It's from one of our favorite sources, The Best of Bridge, and although the recipe looks long, I assure you it was very easy to put together! If you have an insatiable love for lemon, you must try this!

Sensational Lemon Roll

Sponge Cake
:

3 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. grated orange rind
1/3 c. fresh orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 confectioners sugar

Lemon Filling:

2 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 tbsp. grated lemon rind
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1 c. whipping cream
strawberries to garnish

Alrighty then...let's start with making the sponge cake, shall we? Preheat your oven to 375. Line a 10"x15" edged cookie sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Now gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating until thick and pale yellow, at least 1 minute.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to egg mixture. Then, add the orange rind, orange juice, and vanilla and beat on low speed until combined. Spoon into your prepared pan, making sure to push the batter into the corners, and bake for 15 minutes. The cake should be golden brown and springy to the touch. Be careful not to overbake!!! Place a clean tea towel on the counter and dust with confectioners sugar. When the cake is done, loosen from the edges with a knife and invert it over the towel. Remove the parchment paper and trim off the crusty edges. Starting from the short end, roll up cake and towel together; place on a wire rack to cool. Don't worry if it cracks or splits. We don't worry about such things around here...we're not perfectionists!

Now it's time to make the lemon filling. In a double boiler, use a whisk to combine eggs, sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice and cook until thickened, about 15 minutes. Cool. Whip the cream and then fold into the lemon mixture. Cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble the roll.

When you're ready to put it all together, carefully unroll the cake and remove the towel. Reserve 1/2 cup of lemon mixture for decoration. Spread remaining mixture on the cake and gently roll up cake. Place seam side down on a pretty little serving platter and decorate with reserved filling, strawberries and a sprinkling of confectioners sugar. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.


Coming Soon...Perfect Pumpkin-Oat Muffins!!!

1 comments:

Sheri said...

Can I just say as the recipient of this Sensational Log, that it was delicious and lemony just the way I like it! I froze part of the log until family arrived later this week and shared it with them. It thawed out beautifully. Thanks Jen!

Post a Comment