Chocolate Peppermint Cake Roll

I hope all of you (that celebrate, that is) had a Merry Christmas! We had a fantastic day. The Peanut loved his play kitchen, we had a delicious French toast casserole for breakfast, and a delicious dinner with The Mister’s family. I’ll tell you all about my favorite gift next week . . .

Anyway, I recently heard about a monthly link-up called “What’s Baking,” where each month, someone different “hosts,” and picks a theme (which could be a dish, or an ingredient), and all participants make a dish that meets the theme. This month’s host is Carrie’s Sweet Life, and the theme is peppermint.

The theme coincided nicely with my plans for Christmas dessert. We had planned to have dinner with The Mister’s family, and his mom asked me to bring a dessert. I’ve wanted to make an eggnog cheesecake for a long time, but my family never seemed interested. But I know eggnog isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so I wanted to make something chocolate, too.

I remembered that last year, I pinned a photo from Baker’s Royale for a chocolate peppermint cake roll. I looked over the recipe and it sounded perfect for Christmas dessert, and takes much less time than baking and decorating a typical layer cake.

I picked a different cake recipe than the one she used, because it didn’t involve clarifying the butter or heating the eggs. My cake didn’t end up as thick as hers, and the chocolate flavor was overwhelmed by the peppermint filling. However, it was still tasty.

I had a bit of a hard time finding the Andes Peppermint Crunch Mints (no luck at Target or the local grocery stores), but I ended up finding them at CVS.

Chocolate Biscuit Roulade

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Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable
Occasion	Christmas
From book	The Cake Bible

Ingredients

⅓ cup cake flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
½ cup + 1 tbspsugar (divided)
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Butter a 17-inch by 12-inch jellyroll pan, then line with parchment paper. Butter and lightly flour the parchment. Dissolve the unsweetened cocoa powder in 4 tablespoons of boiling water and set aside to cool.
Step 2
Separate two of the whole eggs, placing the whites in one large mixing bowl, and the yolks in another large mixing bowl.
Step 3
In the bowl with the yolks, add the remaining two eggs, the additional egg yolk, and ½ cup of the sugar. Beat with a whisk or whip attachment on a stand mixer for 5 minutes until pale and tripled in volume. Then beat in the vanilla and the dissolved cocoa.
Step 4
Sift half of the flour over the yolk mixture, then fold in quickly by gently, until fully incorporated, then repeat with the remaining flour.
Step 5
With the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add in the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.
Step 6
Pour into the prepared jelly roll pan, spreading evenly with an offset spatula. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 7 minutes.
Step 7
When the cake is finished, remove it from the oven, loose the edges with a paring knife, and gently slide the cake out of the pan and onto a clean dish towel that is at least as large as the cake. Turn the cake to "landscape" orientation.
Step 8
Lightly sift powdered sugar over the cake, and starting with the long edge furthest from you, roll the cake up tightly with the dish towel. Set on a cooling rack until completely cool.

Peppermint Filling

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Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly
Occasion	Christmas
Website	Bakers Royale

Ingredients

18 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
7 ½ tablespoons heavy cream
3 cups confectioners sugar
¾ cup chopped Andes Peppermint Crunch mints

Directions

Step 1
Place the butter, heavy cream and confectioners sugar in the bowl of stand mixer and beat until smooth and creamy.
Step 2
Mix in chopped Andes mints.

Chocolate Glaze

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Meal type	Dessert
Website	Food Network

Ingredients

¾ cup heavy cream
6oz chopped bittersweet chocolate

Directions

Step 1
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium mixing bowl.
Step 2
Heat the heavy cream over medium heat just until tiny bubbles form at the edges of the pan. Do not boil.
Step 3
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and let sit for one minute, then whisk until smooth. Use immediately.

Cake Roll Assembly

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Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly
Occasion	Christmas
Website	Bakers Royale

Directions

Step 1
Unroll the cooled cake so that one long end is closest to you.
Step 2
Spread an even layer of peppermint filling over the cake, leaving a half-inch "margin" at the long end closest to you.
Step 3
Tightly but gently roll up the cake, taking care to keep it even the whole length. Transfer to your serving dish.
Step 4
Take the warm chocolate glaze and pour evenly over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Take any leftover chopped mints and sprinkle over the wet glaze. Refrigerate cake until set.