Dark Cherry-Red Velvet Roll-Up

Dark Cherry-Red Velvet Layer Cake

SALVAGE ATTEMPT

Ingredients:

Cake:

unsalted butter (for smearing)

1 1/2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting

1 cup dark cherry cola (I used Dr Brown’s)

2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup buttermilk *see buttermilk mixture cheat at bottom.

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon red food coloring

2 teaspoons 1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Filling:

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups 1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 confectioners sugar

Pre-heat your oven to 350º

Line a high-lipped cookie sheet with parchments paper.  (Unsalted) butter up the paper and the sides of the cookie sheet and dust with flour.  Lay out a kitchen towel (nothing soft like a bath towel or hand towel) on your workspace and dust with confectioner's sugar.

Cake:

Start with your cherry cola.  Put in a medium sauce pan and place on your range set on Med-High.  Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for like 20 minutes.  Let the soda reduce some.  You will need at least 1/2 a cup for this recipe.  Allow the cola to cool.

While the cola is cooling, whisk together your flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder and salt in a bowl.  In a bigger bowl whisk the granulated sugar, (cooled) cola, oil, food coloring, eggs, extracts and buttermilk mixture.  Slowly pour the dry bowl into the wet mixture bit by bit until the ingredients have mixed.

Pour the batter and spread evenly onto your parchment paper and put into your oven on the center rack.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Filling:

While cake bakes, whisk the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and the extract in a big bowl.  In another bowl, beat the other 1/2 cup cream and the powdered sugar with a mixer until it ripples.  Slowly fold the mixer mixture into the other bowl, folding the cream cheese over gently. Throw in the fridge to chill.

When the cake is done baking, take out of the oven and place on a cooling rack**.

When cake has cooled, carefully flip it (and for people like me, seriously, carefully) onto the sugared towel and peel back the still buttery paper.  Slowly roll the cake and towel, from the short end, into a loose coil and set on the cooling rack to kind of get used to that shape.

After you've checked your e-mail or taken a nap, unroll the settled cake. Spread the filling over the cake surface and carefully reroll the cake. Put on a plate or platter and trim off the sides to clean it up and dust it up with confectioners' sugar for aesthetics.

SALVAGE ATTEMPT: If the cake has cracked at this point, keep cake as is and (as the cracks most likely occurred on the edges where the folds failed to sustain their curve) slice off the edges and dust it up with confectioners' sugar for aesthetics.  You will be left with a long plank with visible layers.  From here, slice width-wise into several pieces and you have portioned layer cake that still looks good (and if not screwed up due to tweaks or errors) and tastes just as good as the product the original recipe would have yielded.

Notes:
I pieced this together from different recipes and tweaked ‘em and made them what I thought would be appropriate.  I changed measurements from said recipes and added or swapped items.

Tweaks:

I cut back on the amount of soda and added time to the reduction.  Whenever I "reduce" anything, it always takes longer than as prescribed by others.

I chose to use less heavy cream than proposed in the recipes I saw--isn't this dessert indulgent enough? 

Cheats:

*I substituted a mixture of whole milk and lemon juice for buttermilk.  I HATE buying a product to only use a small portion of it.  I always have milk and lemon in the house.  1 cup whole milk + 1 tablespoon lemon yields buttermilk substitute after it has had a chance to curdle (about 15mins.)

**I live in Manhattan and don't have a freakin' cooling rack.  I take out the tray from my microwave and out it on top of two bowls. 

Personal Errors:

I forgot to measure out the buttermilk mixture after making it, so I actually used a whole cup instead of 1/3 of it.

Injuries:

I burned my palm talking the cake out of the oven.

ORIGINAL Verdict: Failure

The cake tore a bunch of times when rerolling toward the end.  Tasting happens on Easter, so we'll see...

Salvageable? Yes

Successful Salvage? Yes
(For both taste and presentation)


This recipe is not now deemed Neighbor-worthy Holiday Family-worthy.


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