Gingerbread Cake Roll

 I have had a thing for gingerbread this year.

I have also been into cake rolls.  I think that I am watching to much of The Great British Baking Show.  I made a pumpkin roll at Thanksgiving and now at Christmas a gingerbread cake roll.  I am also planning on spending Christmas Eve day making a yule log.  Who knows what is going on.

I looked at alot of recipes when deciding to make this and I will tell you none of them contained items that I had in my pantry.  In the days of not wanting to risk my life for mascarpone cheese.  I decided to improvise.  I really liked the filing I used for the pumpkin roll so I decided to make the gingerbread cake, with the pumpkin roll filling.  It worked!

I used a Food Network recipe for the cake.

Cake

1 cup of flour

1 tsp each ground cinnamon, all spice and ginger

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

 1/4 tsp each ground nutmeg and cloves

1/4 tsp salt

4 room temperature eggs

2 Tbsp of melted butter, cooled

3/4 cup of molasses

1/4 cup of sugar

powdered sugar for dusting

**Warning, you are going to have to separate the eggs.

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 and spray and then line with parchment a 11x17 sheet pan, dust the top of the parchment with powdered sugar.

2.  You will need 3 bowls, one large, one medium and the bowl for your stand mixer.

3.  In the large bowl add the molasses, butter and egg yolks, combine.

4.  In the medium bowl, combine the flour, all the spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5.  In your stand mixer bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar, beat using your whisk attachment until peaks form.

6.  Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture stir until combined.

7.  Add the egg whites, working in batches, gentle fold this into the mixture.  

8.  Pour onto the sheet pan and spread the mixture evenly.  Bake 8-10 minutes until the cake gentle springs back.

9.  While the cake is hot, cover the cake with a thin, cotton tea towel, and invert another cookie sheet on top of the towel.  Flip the sheets over together.  Remove the parchment paper.

10.  Starting at the short end, roll the cake and towel together.  Move to a cooling rack, allow the cake to completely cool.  

** to speed this up, you can put the cake in the frig.**

Filling

This is a the filling to the Libby's pumpkin roll.

8 oz package of cream cheese at room temperature

1 cup of powdered sugar

6 TBSP of butter softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Add everything into a large bowl.

2.  Beat until combined

Once your filling is complete, unroll your cake, spread the evenly spread the filling, and then re-roll the cake without the towel.  Trim off any uneven ends. Cover in plastic wrap. 

Pop that in the frig for an hour ( or a day, I also do it a day before), sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

xo~Cyn