New Jelly Roll Pan Adventure!!

My awesome husband and children bought me a set of cookie sheets and jelly roll pans for my birthday a week ago. We were having company on Sunday so what better time to test out the new pans. I found a recipe that sounded divine but there was one problem, the cake part was a sponge cake.


Let me bring you back to when I was a teenager. I wanted to make something new and made a vanilla sponge cake that I tinted pink with food coloring. Why pink? Because I thought it would look pretty. I followed the recipe, baked it up and it looked great. Until you cut it. The supposed light and airy sponge cake was a giant rubber rectangle. We could bounce it off the floor it was so terrible. My first attempt at sponge cake was an utter failure.


So imagine this going through my head as I looked at this new recipe. But this is when you go in and try! What do I have to lose? So I figured worst case its Saturday night and if its awful, I can whip something up Sunday morning to be Sunday nights desert. 


Due to my absolute fear of this cake I did not take step by step pictures of the mixing and baking process in case it was a horrible disaster. But lo and behold, it was wonderful!! I found the recipe in my Hershey's Holiday Favorite cookbook (a must buy, I am a slave to those little cookbooks at the checkout counter). I made my own filling so here is the recipe with my filling and glaze to follow. 

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup sugar plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 
  
• Filling
• Chocolate Glaze

Directions

1.        1 Heat oven to 375°F. Line 15-1/2x10-1/2x1-inch jelly-roll pan with foil; generously grease foil. 

2.        2 Beat egg whites in large bowl on high speed of mixer until soft peaks form; gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat egg yolks and vanilla in medium bowl on medium speed 3 minutes. Gradually add remaining 1/3 cup sugar; continue beating 2 additional minutes. 

3.        3 Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; on low speed, add to egg yolk mixture alternately with water, beating just until batter is smooth. Using rubber spatula, gradually fold chocolate mixture into beaten egg whites until well blended. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. 

4.        4 Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan; invert on clean towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully peel off foil. Immediately roll cake in towel, starting from narrow end; place on wire rack to cool completely.  

       

       Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cake with filling; reroll cake. Glaze with chocolate glaze. Refrigerate until just before serving. Cover; refrigerate leftover dessert. 10 to 12 servings.

Now I went a little crazy with the powdered sugar as you will see from the pictures coming. But it came off without sticking so be generous!!

Awesome Vanilla Filling

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 4 ounce package of instand pudding

Pour heavy cream into mixer bowl. Whip on high until it starts to look like whipped cream. Add the pudding mix. Continue to mix until nice and set, about 2 minutes.

This is what it should look like. We added a hand full of mini chocolate chips to add some crunch.

 

Then you roll it. I used the towel to guide it and then carefully transferred it to my silicone cookie sheet.

It is so pretty!! See what I mean about the powdered sugar?!?! 

Then you add your glaze. I cheated and used 1/4 can of leftover chocolate frosting that I made better with some chocolate chips added for extra flavor. Just heat it up in the microwave until its nice and thin.

 

Now its my favorite time, cut a slice and eat it!! Enjoy!!

here is the link to the hershey's page online. it gives directions for a peppermint filling and a coffee one

Chocolate Peppermint Log