Talk about a flash back! Those who follow my blog for a while might remember my favorite group virtual event, The Secret Recipe Club. Food bloggers were paired in secret, and had a few weeks to stalk the assigned blog, pick a recipe and blog about it on Reveal Day. Every post would go live at the exact same time, midnight of the first Monday of the month, New York time. I was a member for years, and had a lot of fun with it. Not only for the cooking aspect, but for its social component. SRC had it’s last appearance in November 2016, but our beloved organizer, Sarah, had the idea of a special encore that celebrates the 10th year anniversary of its creation. So here we are, one final time! I was assigned pure royalty in food blog shape. I got Sarah’s food blog, Fantastical Sharing of Recipes! Can you believe it? The queen behind my favorite event! I was assigned her blog in the past as pretty much every member rotated through every blog in the group. At that time, I made a fantastical recipe as you can see here. Now I share another fantastical recipe, a Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Icing. OMG OMG OMG. Because this is such a special occasion, I felt like dressing it up a little, and tried my hands at adding a pattern on the surface of the cake. One word: THRILL!
CARROT CAKE ROLL
(from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes)
for the decoration (optional):
50g butter, softened
50g powdered sugar
50g egg whites
50g all-purpose flour
orange food coloring (I used gel)
for the cake:
3 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
2 cups shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots, pat dry)
Powdered sugar
for the filling:
6 oz. cream cheese, at room temp
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temp
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Make the piping decoration by beating the butter with powdered sugar in a small bowl until fully combined. I used a hand-held electric mixer. Add the egg whites and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the flour and mix by hand with a spoon, add a couple of drops of orange food color. Reserve.
Draw the design you want to have on the surface of the cake with a pencil on parchment paper that fits a half-sheet baking pan. Invert the paper so that the pencil mark is at the bottom. Pipe the icing using a very thin piping tip. Freeze the whole tray with the decoration for at least one hour. When the time is almost up, prepare the cake batter.
Heat the oven to 350F.
Beat eggs on high-speed for 5 minutes until they are dark yellow and frothy. Add sugar and vanilla and beat. In a medium bowl, whisk together salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and flour. Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined. Then stir in carrots.
Remove baking sheet from the freezer, and quickly spread the batter on top of the decorations. Gently bang the pan so that the batter gets well into the design. Bake for about 15 minutes until done, it should spring back gently when you press your finger at the center of the cake.
You will need to flip the cake twice, first time the pattern will be up, but you will need to flip it again so that it will be down, and once the cake is rolled, it will be on the outside surface. On the second time, flip it over parchment paper sprinkled with sugar. Roll the cake while still warm, and let it cool completely, about one hour.
Make the filling: beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat again until nice and smooth. Unroll cake, spread filling evenly, then roll it back. Chill in fridge for at least one hour to firm it up.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: Public thank you goes for my dear friend Gary, Patissier Extraordinaire, for his advice on the piping technique. I used my new gadget, the silicone bulb with a very fine piping tip (featured here), and was pretty pleased with the way it worked. The amount of piping icing made would be enough to cover three cakes, but particularly on my first time doing it, I decided that having extra icing was better than not enough. And, by the way, this was also my first time making a rolled cake! I was quite happy with the outcome, although as usual, there is room for improvement. A small crack happened in one side of the cake, but it was not too bad. Considering the types of tragedy I’ve endured during cake baking, this was nothing.
Our departmental colleagues loved the cake! It was very moist, warm due to all spices, and the cream cheese filling takes it over the top. I cannot wait to try another type of rolled cake and a bit more elaborate patterns. The trickiest part of this recipe was flipping the cake twice, I think it would be easier to wait maybe a few more minutes before doing that, the crack actually happened during flipping, not rolling. The cake was a bit too warm and still very moist from the oven. Live and learn.
Sarah, I am so thrilled I got your blog for this special reunion!
Really felt like closing the Secret Recipe Club chapter with a golden key!
I invite all my readers to browse through the recipes posted by all members of SRC following the link at the end of my post.
ONE YEAR AGO: Parsnip and Tomato Soup
TWO YEARS AGO: A Retro Dessert
THREE YEARS AGO: Cauliflower Tortillas: Going low-carb and loving it!
FOUR YEARS AGO: Clementines in Cinnamon Syrup
FIVE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2013
SIX YEARS AGO: Thrilling Moments
SEVEN YEARS AGO: Maple-Oatmeal Sourdough Bread
EIGHT YEARS AGO: Pork Trinity: coffee, mushrooms, and curry
Love the look of the cake roll and the flavours. It would be a great Halloween/Thanksgiving dessert.
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so true! I must keep that in mind, maybe do a different pattern, but keep the color scheme… Great idea!
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I have always been intimidated by rolled cakes, but this one looks easy. Love your embellishments! Hopefully this won’t be the last reunion! So many friendships!
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indeed…. having this get-together showed me how much I miss it still….
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What a great way to celebrate the reunion! I love the swirls in the sponge, it’s so effective and looks so cool! Another fabulous job 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝
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as you know, I had a ton of fun doing it… easier than I expected… now I must practice the roll cake again… make one crackless…
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You’ll have it ‘cracked’ in no time!
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it looks AMAZING!!!
What a great SRC choice!
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THank you! glad you enjoyed it, I sure loved doing it!
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This carrot cake roll looks so pretty and also super tasty!
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I am glad I picked this recipe, as I’d always wanted to make one but was afraid…
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You are lucky to have gotten Sarah’s blog. I was even luckier because I was assigned the blogger from Bewitching Kitchen and it was pure pleasure.
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oh, how sweet are you!!!! loved the recipe you picked, by the way… but you know that already….
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OMG that is just pure beautifulness! It’s mind boggling!!!
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it was a ton of fun to make, even if a bit stressful in the beginning… first timers, always tricky
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Oh my gosh how fun! I need to try that sometime.
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Definitely! it is a nice type of cake to have in your repertoire, perfect for Birthdays, celebrations of all kinds… very festive!
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Great decorating!
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I kept it simple, knowing my limitations… it was fun enough!
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Knowing you, you will be making rolled cakes over and over and soon have the title Queen of Rolled Cakes along with your Macarons title… 😉 Looks fabulous, the piping decorations are so unique!
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Well, there’s so many things to try, it’s hard to concentrate on one, although macarons have a very dear spot in my heart, as you know…. patterns on sheet cakes sound like a ton of possibilities!
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That is stunning, and sounds amazing. I’ve so enjoyed going through an SRC blog party today and seeing what people made.
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it was a nice party, I haven’t had a chance to stop by everyone’s site, but little by little I’ll get there…
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How fun and how pretty! I want to try this decorating technique. I love roulades, and carrot cake is perfect for the shape.
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you should definitely try the patterning thing – it’s so cool to lift the cake and see the pattern nicely glued to it… (hopefully that works every single time…. 😉
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Sarah had made this cake roll for her last month’s fantastical food fight, and what a roll it is! What not to love… I am admiring the pretty patterns on the cake… so lovely!
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Such a nice cake… moist, tender, and of course the rolled aspect makes it super cute!
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What a great twist! I have had this as a pumpkin roll, but I love the idea of carrot cake! Yum!
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Pumpkin would be awesome too! I definitely want to re-visit this recipe for Halloween… black spiders all around the outside…. 😉
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Wow, it looks so yummy to me! 🙂
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Glad you liked it!!!!
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Did you roll from the short side or the longer side? Longer seems like it would serve a more manageable piece.
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yes, longer side… you also get more slices that way, which is a must!
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Thanks, I ended up prepping two pans because I still had enough piping icing, and I felt I could do some improvement on my designs. The cake part whipped up so fast, maybe because I cheated and did the carrots in the food processor, and it baked up so thin. I rolled from the long side and it seemed so small, so I ended up making a second one and rolled from the short side. Both were excellent, but strangely the first one cracked quite a bit. For the second one I shredded carrots by hand on a box grater. Huge hit, except for one person who doesn’t like cream cheese, and I wisely sent most of the extra home with my sister. Nice surprise too, nobody had ever heard of a carrot roll cake.
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The smaller pieces were definitely easier to serve.
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How cool! THanks for letting me know… and of course, I am glad it was a success!!!!
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Gorgeous! This is simply amazing!
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thank you! had fun making this one, that’s for sure!
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Such a fun cake! I love that pattern. I need to try a rolled cake one of these days.
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I was a bit afraid, but particularly if you don’t do a pattern, and have to flip it out only once, it’s not that bad… although of course, first time is always a bit stressful…
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I was a bit afraid… but I think particularly if you don’t do the pattern, and only have to flip it out once, it s not too bad…
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Simply INCREDIBLE…the cake roll, the design. ALL OF IT! I miss you and SRC Sally.
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miss you and SRC also.. A LOT… we had so much fun over the years!
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I’ve never done a cake roll before – can you believe it?! Yours looks and sounds absolutely wonderful – can’t go wrong with a springtime carrot cake.
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Fantastic, like these cakes, must have to use in marriage function or any festival functions.
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