Has my baking obsession gone down? Actually, it has. I didn’t bake a single thing or roll a single boba last weekend. My inspiration tapped out. But let’s not forget where the inspiration started, it was with a strawberry roll cake. Isn’t it funny? This type of cake is nothing I would have ever cared for maybe even a year back but for some odd reason, I really wanted to eat this. So, I made it following a Japanese recipe because once again, less sweet. Join me on this journey!

Gotta make my own strawberry jam for the cake! Hello!

Whipping up the egg whites to make stiff peaks! Meringue!

Sift the dry ingredients and gently fold them into the batter…

Once again, I didn’t have the same size pans as the videos. Why is there so many different sized pans all over?? I used the typical baking sheets we have here.

Had a debate with my friend over putting down the jam first or the cream first. The videos I saw put the jam on first. Also, the cream I whipped up for this is too light to support jam being spread on top of it.

Oh yes, homemade whipped cream on top. My pretty…

Yikes, you see the crack don’t you? Why you looking down there for. Haha j/k! Some videos, these guys cut off the ends before assembling the cake. Hello, why are we wasting cake. I’m sure they eat the ends but I am okay with sacrificing beauty to eat this, ugly edges and all.

Not exactly a round roll…more oval. Haha it’s okay, it was my first time and maybe I added too much cream. I am still quite proud of this and it tasted great!

Don’t want to make your own? I don’t blame you. Here’s what I blame for starting my craze, I found this at Don Quijote Kaheka in their new fancy Japanese freezer section. This cake is SO good. So soft, not too sweet and perfect amount of strawberry taste. Highly recommend.

Strawberry Roll Cake

Ingredients 

Swiss Roll Cake:
5 egg yolk
Salt 1g
Sugar 50g
Cake flour 90g
Baking Powder 2g
Vegetable oil 50g 
Milk 50g
Meringue (5 egg white + Sugar 70g)

Strawberry Jam Filling:
10 oz (300g) strawberries, cut into smaller pieces
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
1 tbsp (15ml) water

Whipped Cream:
500g Strawberry
Whipped cream (600g whipping cream + 60g sugar)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the strawberry jam filling. In a small saucepan put the strawberries, sugar and water. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Press the strawberries with the back of the spoon to speed up the process. Simmer until the mixture is thick, for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely before using.
2. Add 5 egg yolks to a bowl, add salt and mix together. Add 50g sugar and mix with a hand mixer on medium-high until light and foamy. The mixture’s volume will increase and turn a pale yellow color, you should be able to create ribbons as you pull your beaters up. 
3. In a separate bowl, place 5 egg whites and beat with a hand mixer on high. Add the 70g of sugar in threes (just don’t add the sugar all at once, add sugar in thirds after 2 minutes of beating). Beat until the mixture has stiff peaks, achieving meringue status (took me about 8 minutes).
4. Add the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture and gently fold the mixture together.
5. Sift the cake flour and baking powder into the batter and fold in until you no longer see white/flour streaks.
6. Place vegetable oil and milk in a separate bowl. Add a bit of the cake batter into this bowl (about ½ C or so) and mix until fully incorporated. This step helps in getting the milk/oil mixture to better incorporate with the full batter.
7. Add oil/milk/batter mixture back to the batter mixture and gently mix until incorporated.
8. Add batter to a parchment lined pan (12″ x 17″) and spread evenly. Tap the pan onto a hard surface 2-3 times to knock out air bubbles.
9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 340°F for 30 minutes.
10. As cake bakes, hand mix heavy cream and sugar together until it forms a whipped cream. Set aside.
11. Remove cake from oven, immediately tap the pan on a hard surface 2-3 times again. This is to prevent the cake from shrinking.
12. Turn out the cake onto a cooling rack and remove parchment paper to let cool. You can be fancy and cut off the edges if you like, I did not.
13. Spread jam over the cake. Spread whipped cream over the jam layer. 
14. Carefully roll the cake, place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to set. Slice and enjoy!

Recipe Inspiration:
Home Cooking Adventure (Strawberry Jam Recipe)
Cooking See (Basic Swiss Roll Recipe)