Chocolate Orange Spongecake Roll

Well we weren’t kidding about making a second spongecake, and this one we demolished just as quickly – although the jury is out on which one we liked best.

For this one we used a recipe from Gluten Free Cooking because we wanted to do something different, but we still wanted to use potato starch as the base, and this fit the bill!

(One note before we start: GFC says this takes 15 minutes of prep. I’m not sure who they think their audience is, but apparently it isn’t me because this took probably 45 minutes before it went in the oven, during which time I made the frosting, and then it had to cool, and then we had to assemble it, which definitely took some time. Anyway, just be forewarned)

The Spongecake:
– Whip 6 egg yolks and then add in 3/4c powdered sugar and as much vanilla as you want. (Note: this won’t get as frothy as yesterday’s spongecake recipe because that one called for a whole egg in addition)

– Fold in: a pinch of salt, 1/3c cocoa, and 1/3+c potato starch (the ‘+’ is because they also say to add in baking powder here and to add in cream of tartar with the egg whites later on – neither of which we had, and both of which I decided we were fine without since yesterday’s spongecake didn’t require them) (Also note: they say these 3 ingredients should be pre-mixed before being folded in. I’m still not convinced this was necessary, but we did it)

– Fold in 2tsp orange rind (This ended up being very prominent! More prominent than the cocoa, I would say. I would also say that you could probably add other things instead of, or in addition to, the orange rind. Maybe something amaretto, or hazelnut, or a different fruit essence?)

– Whip the 6 egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the other stuff (try to do this well, as the lack of cocoa will make it obvious where you leave lumps, but the end result didn’t seem to suffer much from MY unevenness)

– Spread as evenly as possible (without too much fuss) onto a prepared baking sheet lined with greased parchment paper. (Another note: we didn’t have parchment paper so we used greased tinfoil. This kind of worked, so use it in a pinch, but I’m sure parchment paper would have been better. As it was, it was arduous trying to separate the tinfoil from the cake sheet without tearing it. Make sure you grease whatever you use well!)

– Bake at 400*f for 7 minutes – it will spring back against a light touch

– Allow to cool completely (which we did by putting the whole thing on a rack … and then putting the whole thing outside – we were impatient)

Make the Frosting:
We decided to make a basic no-cook buttercream (which, by the way, they say takes 25 minutes to make – and it only took me 5!)
We made a half-recipe since we were worried it would be too sweet, and the amount we made was fine:

Mix together:
– 2c powdered sugar
– 1tsp (or however much you want) vanilla
– Enough milk to make a smooth but not runny frosting – only a tablespoon or so. You should be able to lift up a spoonful of it and it should drip but not drop, if that makes any sense?
– (My Aunt Ruthe thought we should also have added rum to the frosting. Totally agree – kind of the theme of the vacation – maybe do that instead of the milk?)

Assembly:
– Sprinkle a piece of waxed paper with powdered sugar and turn the cake sheet onto it

– Carefully remove the tin foil/parchment paper

– Spread a thin, even layer of the frosting over the entire sheet. (Luckily, my friend Rebecca used to work at a bakery and at one time showed me how to spread frosting – basically start in the middle and work your way out, not applying too much pressure – I don’t know, for me it definitely wasn’t as easy as it looks – you end up tearing up the cake if you’re not careful! But it will still taste good)

– Decide whether you want a long, thin cake or a short, fat cake, and roll from either a long end or a short end, accordingly. For this part it was helpful to have a couple extra hands – to keep the roll even and remove the waxed paper as you go

– Sprinkle the resulting roll with more powdered sugar, cut off the ragged ends, slice into pretty little spirals, and serve!!