This strawberry cake rolled with vanilla buttercream and dark chocolate ganache is not only a pretty Valentines Day treat, but such a yummy one! Plus, it looks A LOT harder to make than it really is!
February 1st. How can the first month of this year be gone already? I had already written a post for for this week when I looked at the calendar and thought, oh my- it’s time for a Valentine’s dessert! I had an unexpected day off of work this week and decided to experiment with turning an ordinary cake mix into a cake roll. I absolutely loved the results! Cake rolls will always be a little fussier than plain old cakes, but look at how cute it is…! If you’ve never made a cake roll, I will try to explain it as we go. I have a few pictures, but if you want a few more click here for my pumpkin roll recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed strawberry cake mix (I used Pillsbury this time)
- Water, oil and eggs (we will adjust the amounts from the box just a bit!)
- 1/2c. heavy whipping cream
- 1 c. dark chocolate chips
- 2 sticks (8 oz) butter
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 1 T. clear vanilla flavoring.
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees
- Make boxed cake mix, but add just a little less oil and water. The Pillsbury mix called for 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of oil. I used 3/4 c. water and 1/4 c. oil instead. I used the same # of eggs (3)
- Cover the bottom of a standard jellyroll pan (mine is about 12″ by 17″, and about 1″ deep) with waxed paper- allowing the paper to extend just a bit over each end.
- Lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Pour cake batter into pan and gently spread it out to cover the entire bottom in a thin, but even layer of cake.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 15-20 minutes- checking often to make sure it isn’t browning too much.
- Remove pan from oven, sprinkle a clean kitchen towel with powdered sugar, lay it powder side down on the top of the cake and holding the towel in place, flip the pan over onto a flat surface. You will have your powdered towel, the cake on top and wax paper on top of the cake.
- Peel the wax paper off and gently roll the cake up in the towel, rolling from one short end to the other- keep the towel on the bottom and wrap it up with the cake.
- Refrigerate for one hour.
- While this is in the fridge, make your ganache and butter cream.
- For the ganache: heat 1/2 c. of whipping cream in a medium saucepan until it starts to bubble around the edges. Turn off the heat. Add the dark chocolate chips and cover for 5-10 minutes. Stir until smooth and creamy.
- For the buttercream: Place (softened) butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until very fluffy and creamy.
- After chilling for one hour, remove cake roll from fridge and gently unroll on a flat surface.
- Gently and evenly spread ganache over entire surface of the cake roll.
- Gently and evenly spread the buttercream over the ganache. This part was a little tricky- I wanted to make sure I didn’t mix the two layers, so I scooped the buttercream in little bits all over the top and then spread it a little at a time.
- Gently roll the cake back up, leaving the towel behind. Carefully lift it on to a large plate and refrigerate it until the buttercream and ganache harden up.
The 1st time I made this it rolled beautifully and I just sprinkled it with powdered sugar….then when I made it for taking photos it cracked as I rolled. This sometimes happens with cake rolls and there’s an easy fix: make another batch of ganache and pour it right over the top! I think I actually liked it better this way! You can’t even tell it cracked, see:
When it is chilled, slice it and serve it with whipped cream and maybe even some chocolate covered strawberries? So yummy!!!!
My thoughts: I really had fun making this dessert. There’s just something about the pink cake and all that gooey chocolate that makes me smile! I hope this cake brings a smile to the faces of all the ones you love this Valentine’s Day! Enjoy!!! ~r
Want some other fun Valentines Day ideas? Click on the picture to be taken to the recipe.
and spray well with non-stick spray.
-r
