Holiday Baking #7: Chocolate-Peppermint Cake Roll ~ Good Food Corner

When I was a teenager, I spent my days worrying about how to get the right kind of height on my massive bangs and then how to get my hand unstuck from the hairspray plastered hairbrush afterward. Teasing and spraying, spraying and teasing. It was quite the technological feat defying gravity like that you know!

And check out these side wings. Oh yes. I was the envy of all my friends with those babies. (If any of my high school friends happen to be reading this, just play along please. These nice blog readers don't need to know the truth about my geeky social status in high school.)

Okay, okay. You can stop laughing now. I took great pride in that hair and still daydream about having a little of that teenage hair back again. Thick hair that is 100% free of grays and never once flops unwashed and unbrushed at the end of a long day.

Oh, great. I'm feeling kind of old and frumpy now. I think I'll go put on my Golden Oldie 80's music and see if I can get my groove back before going on.

Alrighty. A little Depeche Mode and I'm feeling better already! ;)

Thankfully, styles have changed now and even more thankfully, my teen daughter has not inherited my teen obsession with hair. Her hair is long and lovely and rarely sees a drop of hairspray. Instead, her current obsession is cooking. She loves baking even more than I do and one day hopes to open up her own bakery. I'm homeschooling her this year (it's an 8th grade tradition in our family) and it's been so fun to see her branch out and develop this talent/interest of hers.

This recipe for Chocolate-Peppermint Cake Roll is her baby. I was making food for book group and she really wanted to make something chocolatey and minty for me. She found this recipe at cooks . com, determined that it wasn't quite adequate for what she was looking for, and tweaked it to be what she envisioned. You'll see in the pictures that she did not follow the directions exactly as listed, but it still turned out to be a beautiful and popular dessert at book group. The cool mintiness of the whipped cream added just the perfect touch to the chocolate cake.

Click here for printable recipe.

The ingredients: (mint extract not pictured)

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 squares (1-ounce each) unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 Tbs. cold water
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar (for sprinkling)

Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. mint extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy (optional)

Directions: Line 15 x 10 x 1-inch pan (cookie pan or jelly roll pan) with wax paper. Set aside.

Beat eggs and 3/4 cup sugar at high speed until very thick (5 minutes). Add vanilla extract.

In small microwaveable bowl, melt the unsweetened chocolate squares by microwaving on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. After about 2 minutes the chocolate squares should be melted. To melted chocolate, thoroughly mix 2 tablespoons sugar, baking soda and water. Fold into egg mixture. Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

Fold into batter, turn into jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Lightly sift confectioners' sugar onto linen like towel. When cake is done, immediately invert onto towel and peel off paper. (NOTE: We did NOT peel off the paper, rather we just rolled it up with the parchment paper rather than the towel.

Roll up cake very gently, rolling towel in it, cool on wire rack at least 1 hour.

Whip the cream. Add mint flavoring, crushed peppermint candy, and powdered sugar. (We waited until afterward to sprinkle on the candy). Unroll cooled cake and spread filling.