I made this beautiful Vanilla Cake Roll With Berries and Cream for my mom’s birthday. She absolutely loved it, and I was so pleased. It’s hard to have a birthday when you are doing your best to stay home and away from people, so I wanted her to feel loved and celebrated! Sometimes a cake is the best way to do this.
I have tried a few vanilla sponge cake recipes, and this recipe is the best I’ve had by far. I adapted the recipe from a blog called Life Made Sweeter. The texture of the sponge is so perfectly light and fine, and not in the least bit dry.
The recipe for the vanilla sponge cake is very specific. It requires the baker to separately whisk the egg whites and yolks and then later fold them together. If this seems intimidating, I would encourage you to read the recipe all the way through before beginning, set out the ingredients you’ll need and then just take it one step at a time. I tried to be as helpful as possible in writing the instructions. You can do it!
Don’t worry if your cake cracks a bit or sticks to the dish towel while you are rolling or unrolling it. Once it is filled, chilled, sliced, garnished, dusted with powdered sugar, and served, no one will even notice. It’s so delicious, I’d be more than happy to eat a less than perfect piece!
Why do rolled cakes crack?
I do find that making sure the cake is not over-baked can help prevent the cake from cracking when unrolled. Also, make sure to allow the cake to cool completely while rolled in the dishtowel before unrolling. But I’ve made a lot of roll cakes with all different strategies, and sometimes, they just crack!
I would have garnished this Vanilla Cake Roll with additional berries, but I used them all in the filling and was making do without going to the store. You can use any mixture of berries you prefer. For this filling, I used some frozen raspberries I had in my freezer as well as a few fresh strawberries I had leftover from the first time I made the cake for my mom.
I think we are all going to get better at being resourceful in the kitchen as we are all doing our best to STAY HOME! Stay well friends and happy baking.
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #lovelylittlekitchen
Can't get enough?
Subscribe and I'll send all my recipes right to your inbox! You can also keep up to date by following me on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Print
Vanilla Cake Roll with Berries and Cream
- Prep Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Vanilla Cake Roll With Berries and Cream is beautifully light and fluffy, with the most delicious filling. Everyone loves it!
Ingredients
For the Sponge Cake
- 4 tablespoons powdered sugar (for dusting the towel)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 eggs (two whole, three separated into whites and yolks)
- 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Berries and Cream Filling
- 2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup berries (I used half frozen raspberries, half fresh strawberries, chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 15 by 10 by 1 inch baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with nonstick baking spray. Set aside.
- Dust a clean kitchen tea towel with powdered sugar and set aside.
- In a small bowl, measure out flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside to be sifted later.
- Separate egg whites and egg yolks from three of the eggs into two large bowls. Reserve the other two eggs for later. With an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until white and frothy, and gradually add 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (about 2-4 minutes)
- Add the two remaining eggs to the egg yolks, and then beat with the electric mixer for 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining 3/4 cups granulated sugar, water, and vanilla extract and then beat one more minute. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix again on low until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Gently fold in the egg whites into the batter. Be patient, trying to keep as much air in the batter as possible.
- Pour the sponge batter into the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. The top will be golden and the cake will spring back when pressed in the center.
- Remove the cake from the oven and quickly and confidently invert the pan onto the powder sugar coated tea towel. Remove the parchment paper from the cake, and place a clean sheet of parchment on top of the inverted cake. Starting from the short end, roll up the cake with the parchment and tea towel and allow to cool completely, about 1 hour.
For the Berries and Cream Filling
- Place the room temperate cream cheese into a large bowl. Add heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium low speed for 1 minute. As the cream thickens, increase the speed of the mixer until the cream is whipped, about 2-4 more minutes.
To Assemble the Cake Roll
- Carefully unroll the rolled up cake and remove the parchment paper. Spread the whipped cream over the top of the sponge cake evenly, leaving a slight border on the long edges. Arrange the berries evenly over the cream. Starting at the same short end, re-roll the cake. Don’t worry if some of the outside of the cake sticks to the tea towel.
- Place the cake seam side down onto a large piece of plastic wrap, and wrap snuggly to hold the cake roll together. Refrigerate for at least three hours before slicing and serving.
- Serve with additional berries and dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 377
- Sugar: 37g
- Sodium: 203mg
- Fat: 16g
- Saturated Fat: 9.3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.8g
- Trans Fat: 0.4g
- Carbohydrates: 51g
- Fiber: 1.4g
- Protein: 7g
- Cholesterol: 157mg
Melanie says
My husband searched for a vanilla roll cake and found this recipe for me to make. It was easy to follow and turned out magnificent! It impressed my husband, my mother in law and of course my 4 year old. I am making it again this weekend for a friend’s birthday. Thank you for the fantastic recipe, I know I will be making it again and again.
Cynthia says
Can I swap out all purpose flour with cake flour?
Julie says
I can’t say for sure, because I have only tested this recipe as written.
Caroline says
It tasted good but the cake rose too much while it was baking and ended up breaking.
Sandra says
I made this for my daughter-in-law for Mother’s Day. I had never made a cake roll before so was worried about how it would turn out. No problems. I followed the directions to the letter and it was perfect. She and her family loved it. I will definitely make it again. Now I want a chocolate version!
Steph says
I really love this recipe. I’ve made it many times trying different changes. Each time the cake is a little sticky, do you know why that is?