When late spring and early summer arrive and the strawberries and peaches start to come in, it’s the perfect time of year for this cake. A little fruit filling rolled up inside this sweet crumb is a lovely way to welcome back the warm weather.
Ingredients
- Butter or vegetable shortening for greasing the pan
- 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- 0.175 cup cold water
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
- Peaches Foster (this page)
- Whipped Cream (this page)
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 12 × 18 × 1-inch half-sheet pan with butter or shortening and line with parchment paper.
- Grease the parchment paper with butter or shortening and dust lightly with flour.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cold water and egg yolks on high speed until pale yellow and stiff, 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and sugar. Beat on high for 1 minute.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold into the egg mixture. Transfer to a separate bowl.
- Wash and fully dry the mixer bowl and whisk, then beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff, 3 minutes. Gently fold the egg whites into the flour mixture until completely combined. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake until the cake is golden brown and the top springs back when touched, 15 to 18 minutes and set aside to cool for no longer than 10 minutes. (If left for longer, the cake may break when you try to roll it.)
- Lay a flour-sack towel that is the same size or larger than the cake pan on your work surface (see photo on this page). Use a fine-mesh sieve to sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the confectioners’ sugar over the towel. Turn the warm cake out of the pan onto the prepared flour-sack towel. Remove the parchment paper and sprinkle the cake with the remaining 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar. From one short end to the other, roll up the cake, keeping the towel inside it as you roll to keep the cake from sticking together. Let cool completely in the towel before unrolling the cake to spread with filling.
- Unroll the cooled cake onto waxed paper, remove the towel, and spread it with the peach filling. Roll the cake back up and frost it with the fresh whipped cream. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
- Variation LEMONY CAKE ROLL Substitute 1 teaspoon lemon extract for the vanilla in the batter. Fill the cake with Lemon Curd (this page) before frosting it with Whipped Cream (this page) or Cream Cheese Frosting (this page).
