Strawberry Cake Roll With Cream

This strawberry cake roll features a light vanilla sponge, juicy strawberries, and whipped mascarpone cream. A roll cake is a simple but beautiful dessert to serve to guests. This easy recipe will show you step-by-step how to make it!

This is the perfect cake for summer as it utilizes fresh strawberries and bright colors. It has the bright red of the berries, the yellow of the cake, crisp white cream, and fresh green mint.

The strawberry roll cake slices beautifully and reveals a spiral of the filling. The cake is usually a genoise sponge, baked in a thin layer in a jelly roll pan. It’s a light and pliable sponge that is flexible to roll up while still warm and holds its shape well. It’s quite a plain sponge on its own and can be a bit dry so it pairs really well with a fruity filling. I use it in this tiramisu cake roll too!

Equipment

For the sponge, you will ideally use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Alternatively, you can use a handheld electric mixer. This is not possible to make by hand as everything is mixed at high speed and for a long time.

You’ll also need a clean kitchen towel to roll the sponge in and a 15x10x1 inch pan jelly roll pan.

Genoise sponge

A genoise sponge is super light with a slight chew. It’s the perfect sponge to roll as it holds its shape well and if it’s made correctly it won’t crack.

All the leavening comes from the eggs, so whipping them enough is key. There is no need for baking powder. Traditionally, a genoise batter is made by whipping whole eggs with sugar until they have about tripled in volume. Sometimes, over a little heat to help them thicken.

I prefer separating my eggs and whipping each with a little sugar separately. I think it creates a lighter batter when the egg yolks are whipped separately, and then later whipped egg whites are folded in.

The flour used in a genoise sponge cake batter should be low in protein such as cake flour. Cake flour isn’t readily available everywhere, or in every country, so you can make your own by combining an all-purpose flour (one with a low protein content of around 10%) with cornstarch to help soften it.

Method

Strawberries

1. Finely chop up fresh strawberries and add them to a bowl.

1. Sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Set these to the side. This is going to macerate the strawberries and release some of their juices. It enhances the flavor of the berries.

Batter

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C with a rack in the center of the oven. Grease the jelly roll baking pan with oil or nonstick spray and line it with a sheet of parchment paper. Greasing the tray first helps the parchment stick and keeps the bottom surface flat.  
2. Separate 4 large eggs. Add the egg yolks to a small bowl and set them aside. Add the egg whites to a large bowl of a stand mixer. Turn on the mixer and whisk on high speed until the mixture is foamy.
3. Slowly pour in half the sugar and keep whisking until the egg whites hold medium-stiff peaks. The egg whites should hold their shape very well and not sink back into themselves, but if you lift the beater from the mixture the peaks will flop to the side.
4. Scoop the egg whites out of the stand mixer bowl into a clean mixing bowl and set them aside.
5. Using the same stand mixer bowl you just whipped the egg whites in, add in the egg yolks, remaining sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. There is no need to clean the bowl first.
6. Whip the egg yolks for around 4 minutes on high speed until more than doubled in volume, thick and pale. If you lift the beater out of it, the light yellow egg mixture should drop thick flowing ribbons back into the bowl.

Folding batter

1. Fold a third of the egg whites into the beaten yolk mixture using a rubber spatula. Take extra care that you don’t deflate all the air bubbles in the egg whites. Bring your spatula through the middle of the mixture, up the side, and fold it over top. You can rotate the bowl as you do this. Repeat two more times with the remaining egg whites.
2. If you’re making your own cake flour, use a hand whisk to whisk together the all-purpose flour and cornstarch in a bowl. Balance a sieve over the bowl of eggs and sieve in about half the flour mixture.
3. Gently fold this into the egg mixture, taking care once again to not deflate it too much. Repeat once more times with the remaining flour. The end batter should be airy and thick. 

Baking

1. Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan and use an offset spatula or dough scraper to carefully spread the batter out into an even layer on the tray.
2. It’s a very thick and light batter so it won’t fill out by itself the way that wet cake batters do. Spread it out to reach the sides of the pan.
3. Bake the sponge for around 10 minutes until golden on the top and the tip of the cake springs back when gently pressed. While the cake is baking, lay a clean tea towel on a workbench, horizontally so the long edge is closest to you. Liberally dust it with powdered sugar.

Rolling

1. Once the sponge has finished baking, carefully tip it upside down with the long edge closest to you, onto the towel. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
2. Dust the cake with more powdered sugar, then starting from the short side, roll the cake and the tea towel up together into a spiral.Leave it to cool on a wire rack until it’s at room temperature.

The cream

1. While the cake is cooling, make the whipped mascarpone cream. Combine the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Using a hand mixer or your stand mixer with a paddle attachment, start on low speed to whisk it up until combined.
2. Turn up the speed to medium slowly stream in the heavy cream and keep whisking as you do until it is thick and holds stiff peaks. Take care not to overbeat it or it may curdle and split.

Assembling the cake

1. On a clean bench, carefully unroll the cooled cake. Spread over two-thirds of the cream mixture and use an offset spatula to spread it out, leaving a 1/2 inch border on all the sides.
2. Take the bowl of strawberries and use a spoon to scoop the strawberries on top of the cream, holding back the extra liquid the strawberries have released. Carefully re-roll the strawberry cake roll, without the kitchen towel, back into a spiral.
3. Some of the thin crust of the outside of the cake may stick to the towel as you roll but this can be covered with powdered sugar and cream.

1. Wrap the kitchen towel around the rolled cake and let the cake chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

Serving

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and cut off the ends of the roll with a serrated knife (about 1/4 inch of each end) to neaten them up. Pipe or spread on the remaining whipped cream. Top with extra strawberries and shredded mint, and dust with powdered sugar before serving. 

Storing

Once assembled the cake is best eaten on the day it is made.

Freezing – Unfilled genoise sponge can be rolled in a kitchen towel and stored, in an airtight container for a day. It can also be wrapped up in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 3 months. Let it thaw before unrolling.

The macerated strawberries can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge. The excess liquid that comes from the strawberries makes a delicious syrup you can add to drinks to flavor them!

Related recipes

Here are more delicious strawberry recipes to try!

• Strawberry Custard Tart
• Strawberry Hand Pies
• Strawberry Meringue Pie