Delicious Orange Roll Cake

The design of this orange roll cake is gorgeous making this cake a great gift for the holiday season. Start by cutting clean washed oranges into 3 mm thick pieces and set them aside. Into a pot, add 200 ml of water and 135 grams of granulated sugar then place the pot over medium heat stirring the mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Add the sliced orange pieces and boil them in the syrup until they become translucent.

Remove from the heat and add orange liqueur and an orange food colouring. Stir it and cover it then let it cool for about 3 hours. After 3 hours, bring the pot to your work surface remove the orange slices and place them on a paper towel to drain off excess liquid. Line a 25cm by 25 cm baking pan with parchment paper line the orange pieces on the pan and cover it to prevent them from drying while you make the cake batter.

For the cake batter, you will need 3 egg yolks and 1 egg, add them into a small bowl and beat them just to break the egg yolks. Into a medium-sized pot, add 50 grams of unsalted butter, 50 ml of milk and a pinch of salt then bring it to a light boil stirring the mixture and remove from the heat once the butter is melted. Add 85 grams of sifted cake flour into the butter mixture and mix it until smooth with no visible flour.

Place it over the heat and cook it for about a minute then place it on a mixing bowl. Add the beaten eggs into the mixture slowly as you mix it in with a spatula, once done, set it aside for a moment. Bring the bowl with 3 egg whites and and start beating it on medium speed until it starts to foam then add 80 grams of sugar in three additions while beating it well after each addition then beat the meringue until it reaches a soft peak. Brig the egg yolk batter and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract with 20ml of warm milk, mix that in until incorporated.

Add a third of the meringue into the cake batter and fold it in until just almost incorporated, repeat with the next batch until all the meringue is added. In the final process of mixing the batter, make sure you have a smooth batter with no lumps and that everything is well incorporated. Bring the baking pan with the lined orange slices and remove the cover then pour the batter into the pan to cover the lined orange slices.

Pour hot water into a big baking tray place the pan with the batter over the hot water tray and bake in a 165C(329F) preheated oven for 40 minutes. Once baked and out of the oven, invert the cake and remove the parchment paper then brush the cake with natural glaze, orange jam or apricot jam then cover the cake with a kitchen wrap and flip the cake and level the top.

Into a mixing bowl, add mascarpone cream and lightly beat it to fluffy then add heavy cream and sugar the beat the mixture until it’s firm. Dollop it over the cake and spread it over the cake. Roll the cake and place it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. After chilling, remove the cake from the fridge, slice and serve.