Sally’s Strawberry Roll-up Cake for a Celebration @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Whoo-hoo! Time for a celebration--and that means cake! I have two books coming out this month, the paperback edition of THE MANGO MURDERS, and the hardcover and ebook editions of book 16 in the Key West food critic mysteries, A DELICIOUS DECEPTION. This cake, while a little fussy, was the perfect celebratory treat. You could also use it for our country’s 250th anniversary—just add some decorative blueberries! The recipe started on Sally’s Baking Addiction, but I tweaked it to make the production a little easier on the chef.

Ingredients for the cake

Four large eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

2 teaspoon teaspoons vanilla extract

One cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar for dusting

Separate the eggs into two bowls. Beat the egg whites with 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar until stiff peaks appear.

In the second bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining half cup sugar, the whole milk, and the vanilla extract, until thick and light.

Gradually fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Using a fine mesh sieve, sift the cake, flour, baking soda and salt into the batter. Mix gently until just combined.

Ahead of time, prepare a 10 x 15” baking pan. Butter the pan, add a piece of parchment paper over top, and butter that too. Meanwhile, sift the 2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar onto a thin tea towel or a piece of parchment. (You will use this for rolling the cake.)

Bake the batter in the prepared pan for 15 to 16 minutes. When the cake is done, flip it onto the sugared cloth or parchment, and carefully roll it up. Let rest until cool. (This step shapes the cake so it doesn’t break later.) Meanwhile, prepare the filling. 

Ingredients for the filling

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup freeze dried strawberries, making 1/2 cup ground  

1 cup heavy cream

1.5 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Fresh strawberries for decoration, optional but recommended 

Grind the cup of freeze dried strawberries, then drop in the cream cheese. Whip this until combined—the cream cheese will be a lovely pink color. Add the sugar and vanilla, pulse those in until combined.

Whip the heavy cream until thick, and gently fold this into the cream cheese mixture.

Unroll the cooled cake and spread it with cream cheese frosting. Cover the frosting with thin slices of strawberry. Roll the cake with frosting back up. Use the remaining frosting to decorate, along with leftover strawberries. (I had every intention of learning to pipe the icing into roses, but ran out of time!)

This makes a good sized and beautiful cake. Leftovers should be refrigerated and can be frozen. (We only had one piece left and I had my doubts, but it still tasted amazing!)

A DELICIOUS DECEPTION, coming July 14 at a bookstore near you!

Book 15 in the Key West series, paperback edition of THE MANGO MURDERS, is in bookstores July 7!

USA Today bestselling author Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including A POISONOUS PALATE and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. Join her mailing list right here.