Patterned Roll Cake Recipe
A patterned roll cake is a fun way to make a colourful cake without using fondant.
My boys requested one with the ‘dumb ways to die’ characters on but my favourite is the striped roll cake.
Recipe for pattern on roll cake
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/4 cup margarine or butter
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp icing sugar
50g (1.76 ounces) egg whites (approx 1 1/2 egg whites)
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp plain flour
food coloring
Chocolate Pattern Recipe
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/4 cup margarine or butter
50g (1.76 ounces) or 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp icing sugar
50g (1.76 ounces) egg whites (approx 1 1/2 egg whites)
30g (1.06 ounces) or 3 Tbsp plain flour
20g (0.71 ounces) or 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
Cream together your margarine and icing sugar using electric mixers until they are well combined. Add your egg whites and beat well then stir in the flour (or flour and cocoa powder if you are making chocolate).
Colour your mixture according to the pattern or picture you are making.
Cut a piece of baking paper to fit your baking tray.
Make your desired pattern by piping it, spreading it or stenciling it onto the baking paper. See the video for more detailed instructions and tips. Then you want to place that on a tray in the freezer for about an hour to go firm.
Roll Cake Recipe
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup or 110g (3.88 ounces) sugar
60g (2.12 ounces) or 1/4 cup plus 1/2 Tblsp margarine or butter
2/3 cup or 100g (3.53 ounces) plain flour
Preheat the oven to 392F (200 degrees Celsius).
Seperate the eggs and put half the sugar in with the yolks and the other half of the sugar and the cream of tartar in with the whites.
Melt the butter either in the microwave or on the stove top.
Whip your egg whites until you get firm peaks and then use the same beaters to whisk up the yolks and sugar until they look pale.
Fold the whites into the yolks in three batches.
Add in half the butter and flour and fold through. Then the remaining butter and flour. Keep folding until there are no more streaks of butter or flour.
Pour the mixture over your frozen pattern and spread it right to the edges.
Bang the tray on the bench a few times to make sure the mixture gets all around the pattern and then bake in the oven for 7 minutes in the centre of the oven.
You do not want to overcook it or it will be too dry and it will crack when you try and roll it.
Simple Syrup Recipe
1/4 cup or 63millilitres (2.13 fluid ounces) water
1/4 cup or 4 Tbsp or 55g (1.94 ounces) sugar
optional – you can add flavour such as vanilla
Heat until the sugar is dissolved, leave to cool.
Once your cake is ready take it out of the oven and immediately trim off the edges using a serrated knife. Cover in baking paper, add another flat baking tray or chopping board on top and flip it over. And then you will be able to just lift off your tray, the edges will stay in the pan and you’re left with a neat cake. Peel off the paper straight away while it is still hot. Then leave it to cool.
Place a clean sheet of baking paper over your cooled cake and flip it over again.
Brush the cooled roll cake with simple syrup, you will not need all of it, you can save the rest for another cake.
Spread your chosen filling over the cake, you can use buttercream, cream cheese frosting, cream with strawberries, ganache.
Then starting at one end using the paper to help you roll up the cake up and transfer it to your serving platter.
recipe sources: *pattern recipe is a standard decor paste recipe *cake recipe
by Ann Reardon How To Cook That
2013
My Cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country:
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All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.
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Helllo .. i adoooore this recipe and i’m going to do it after 2 days .. but i have a question and i hope that there is any one who can answer .. when we get it of the oven and dothe multi flips , heheh , will we let it cool before rolling it or we will roll it when it still hot ,
?? And when we are going to add the syrup ??
hi jood, let it cool before you add the syrup, filling and roll it
Hi there,
I love your website, I am planning on making this for a gathereing i’m hosting later this week.
I’m not sure what you mean by “cream of tartar” and “White”
is it eggs white? and for the Cream/tarted do i make it or do i buy it from the stores??
thank you,
hi natali, whites is egg whites and cream of tartar is sometimes known as tartaric acid it helps stabilize the egg whites. You buy it as a white powder
Hi Ann, thanks for the tutorial. My question is this recipe is for baking pan with which size of length and wide?
Thanks before
11″ x 15″
Can You pls make a video on how You make a souffle
Just made this today with the line patterns that were on the video. It turned out fabulous. I did a filling of orange flavored buttercream and melted dark chocolate.
Beautiful Mimiko 😀
hi Ann, for how many people is this recipe?? I need to feed almost 18 people with it…the quantities you post are enough for that amount of people??? thank you very much 🙂
Hi andrea for 18 I’d make two roll cakes
Hi Ann <3 Your recipes are awesome . Well this patterned roll cake is good and I am going to try it and i`ll post a picture but if I use lemon instead of cream of tartar how much should I add plus would it be good ???
Hi Truba, add 1 tsp of lemon juice instead of the cream of tar tar and it will effect the flavour slightly. Looking forward to seeing your pics
Dear Ann,
I made this roll cake recipe this morning, for my mother-in-law’s birthday breakfast party. I used the technique to write her name on the top of the roll and filled it with cappucino flavoured chocolate ganache. Everybody loved it but I was so busy and the cake ‘disappeared’ so fast that I have no photos to show! Well, I’d say it was a success! Thanks! 🙂
sounds like it was awesome, I do hope you got to eat some.
I did this today and mine did not turn out well. 🙁 when i tried flipping it the cake wont come out, I mean it literally takes a lot of time before i can transfer it to another tray and when i try to peel off the pArchment paper my patterned did not transfer to the cake. I followed every singoe instruction written above? What could be wrong? Im so sad. 🙁 Help me please.
Hi elreen, did you use non-stick baking paper? It has a very fine layer of silicone on it and nothing sticks to it.
Hi Ann, l tried this recipe, It was really very delicious&funky
Thank you sooo much . I have made one mistake I choose
pattern with yellow color ..so the drawing is not so clear
Cute buzzy bees rasha 😀 good job
Regarding to the recipe pattern on rolled cake,
What do you mean by whites? Is it egg whites?
I am not native speaker.many thanks in advance
Hi Rasha, yes egg whites 😀
Hey ann ! I tried your chocolate cheesecake It was superb 😀 thanks a lot for great recipe.There is any substitute for cream of tartar because I couldn’t find it.pls help because it is used in most of you recipes .
Hi sarah it is also called tartaric acid in some countries, it makes it slightly more acidic, you can try using a little lemon juice instead if you like
I just tried this recipe. It was so good!!! Sadly I could only have one piece before my dog got it. 🙁
Sorry… this comment made me laugh! naughty dog 🙂
Hi Ann,
Should we not butter the parchment paper where our pattern is drawn?? or else I guess the cake gets stuck to it is it not???
Requesting your reply as Iam gonna try this out.
Thanks
Hi Rabia, I am using non-stick baking paper, nothing sticks to it.
Hi! You have used plain flour in the recipie and not used baking powder .do we need to add baking powder,as I see you have mentioned in reply to one of the querys,waiting to try out your recipie.
Thanks
hi sabeetha, no baking powder needed in this one
What if I use the roll cake recipe for patterns instead of the specific given pattern recipie? Will there be a difference?
Your technique is amazing!!! I’ve been wondering for months how this was done… Thank you sooo much for sharing! I’ve just discovered your blog and I already love it, thank you really very much!
😀
Hi Ann
I tried this recipe and it worked fantastically apart from the roll cracking as I rolled it. I put the simple syrup on it before rolling too. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?
I am going to attempt the chocolate paper next!!!!! Ingenious ideas
Hi Angie, It may be over-cooked, or leave it a little longer for the syrup to soak in before rolling.
Hi Ann! Y made this recipe yesterday! But i divided the batter in two equal parts and baked two 20 x 20 cm pans. The result was was amazing! But the thing is that i had to bake them for 11 min. each since at minute 7 they were still raw on top. I suppose it was because my pans are pretty tall (for square cakes) but anyway, i love this recipe! Thanks a lot for sharing it!
Hi Ade, that cake is awesome
I like your pattern soooooo much
what is cream of tartar? I live in the US and don’t know if we have some available here. Are there any substitutes?
hi zulema it is used to add a little acidity which helps stabilize the egg whites, it is also called tartaric acid
Hi Ann,
I want to try the patterned roll cake for Thanksgiving with little maple leaves and pumkins. I am not able to find cream of tartar. What can I use instead of it? Also do I need to add baking powder if I am using plain flour? Please advise. Thanks
yes you will need to add baking powder (2 tsp for every cup of flour). You can make it without the cream of tartar it is not essential but helps keep the egg whites stable
Hi ! Yes cream of tartar is available in US you can visit Walmart or stop an shop. Go to the aisle where they place the spices rack, you can find it over there
Hope it helps
Regards