It’s usually a stint of baking that motivates me to post again.  Today a friend and I made chocolate cupcakes (recipe to follow) and the simple pleasure of sharing something tasty to eat gave me the itch to blog again.  I made this jelly roll a few weeks ago during my visit to the Lake. My mum has this Company’s Coming cake cookbook full of delicious, old-fashioned cakes and desserts.  I was feeling in a “retro” mood and decided I wanted to try and make a jelly roll.

I’d never made a jelly roll before and at first I was slightly apprehensive because the batter seemed so thinly spread out over my baking pan.  There was no way, I thought, that it would hold together when it came time to roll it up — but I was proven wrong! There is a high eggs to flour ratio and I think the eggs helped hold it together and prevent the roll from cracking.

After setting out to make this jelly roll, I was faced with the question of just what do I fill it with.  In the end, it was the freezer that decided for me: opening it up, I spied a container of Neapolitan ice cream.  Visions of my jelly roll oozing vanilla pastry cream and homemade strawberry jam instantly flooded my mind. So, here you have it, a Neapolitan jelly roll (absolutely delicious with a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream! :) )

Neapolitan Jelly Roll

Ingredients

• 4 Eggs, room temp
• ¾ c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¾ c. all-purpose flour
• ¼ c. cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• icing sugar

Directions:

1. Grease a 10 x 15 in (25 x 38 cm) jelly roll pan. Line bottom with baking paper. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).
2. Beat eggs in small mixing bowl until thick and lemon coloured. Add sugar in 3 additions beating well. Mix in vanilla. Transfer to large mixing bowl for better and easier addition of four.
3. Sift flour, coca, naking powder and salt together and add about 1/3 at a time.  Gently fold in. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in oven for about 12 to 15 min until an inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean.
4. Sift icing sugar or cocoa heavily over tea towel. Invert cake onto towel. Carefully remove baking paper. Trim crisp edges if any. Roll up from short side along with towel. Cool. Unroll. Spread with filling. Roll without towel. Filling can be slices of ice cream, whipped cream or cream filling.  I used vanilla cream filling and strawberry jam.

Cream filling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Heat milk in small heavy saucepan over medium heat until it boils.
2. Meanwhile mix sugar, flour and salt together. Mix in egg. Stir into moiling ilk until it returns to a boil and thickens.  Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Cool. This will curcle if boiled too long. In you would rather, cook it in double boiler.

Makes 1 1/3 cups (300 mL)

Variations:

• Coconut cream filling: Add 1/3 cup (75 mL) medium coconut
• Banana cream filling: Add ½ c (125 mL) mashed banana. Best served the same day.
• Almond cream filling: Omit vanilla. Add ¼ tsp almond flavouring and about ¼ cup (60 mL) finely chopped toasted almonds.
• Mocha cream filling: Add 1 ½ tsp instant coffee granules.
• Pineapple cream filling: Omit vanilla. Add ½ c. crushed pineapple, well drained and 1 tsp of lemon juice.
• Chocolate cream filling.  Reduce milk to 2/3 c. Add 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate squares, cut into small pieces, to hot filling. Stir to melt.