Ok now that I have your attention HEHE- lol, ok here's the scoop - I've been reading about 6 books that I took out of the library, well from cover to cover, but I'm reading up on jelly rolls- (cause I have a plan for an upcoming cake lol), seems that they all fall under the 'spongecake' category.
And spongecake and similar recipes tend to use lots of eggs. I guess eggs arent THAT expensive- I just wanna know what is the cheapest easiest recipe I can use (first question) to practice for the 'big one'- and maybe second question is any tips anyone have to share if you have experience making jelly rolls? lol
the most important question really I posted elsewhere but I'll post again- I didnt rreally, in my research, see a lot of added ingredients in any of the 'roulade' recipes. Wondering if because a jelly roll is so thin that this would alter the quality and perhaps the ability to roll? I 'd like to add a considerable amount of coconut- I'm wondering what I need to do to compensate (dont want to remove too much flour or it wont really stay together I'm guessing). Any thoughts?

Ok, I'm really not sure what you want to know. Jelly rolls are easy to make and even easier to get rid of. I have an excellent recipe which uses about 5 eggs. The expensive part of a jelly roll is the jelly, not the eggs. If you would like recipe, I would be happy to share it. Yes, you could add coconut, but not too much... and don't mess with the other ingredients. Baking is chemistry and while 1/2 cup or so of coconut will not mess up a recipe altering the essential ingredients would. You might consider making a filling with coconut in it.

Old Fashioned Jelly Roll (Welshs Recipe)

4 eggs
¾ cup sifted all-purpose or cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Powdered sugar
1 10 oz. grape jelly (raspberry or cherry jam are my favorites)

In an electric mixer bowl, let eggs warm to room temperature (about an hour). Sift together flour baking powder and salt, set aside. At high speed, beat eggs until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar, 2 Tbs. at a time, continuing to beat until very thick and light yellow (about 5 minutes). At low speed, blend in dry ingredients and vanilla just until combined. Spread evenly in a prepared - lightly greased, floured and lined with parchment paper - jelly roll pan (15 x10 x1 in.). Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until surface springs back when gently pressed with a fingertip (about 10 to 13 minutes).

Sift powered sugar on a clean, smooth tea towel (not terry cloth) in a 10 by 15 inch rectangle. With a sharp knife loosen the cake from side as needed. Turn on to sugared tea towel; gently peel off parchment paper and trim off any crisp edges. Starting with the 10 inch side, roll cake in towel. (Yes, the towel gets rolled up with cake.) Place seam side down on wire rack until cool. Gently unroll cake, remove towel and spread with jelly that has been beaten with a fork to spreading consistency. Reroll and place on a platter; cover loosely and chill at least 1 hour. Serve topped with sifted powered sugar. 10 1 inch servings.

Warnings- do not under beat eggs (cake turns out very icky and strange)
- do not over bake (makes the cake dry)
- do allow the eggs to stand for a hour(room temperature eggs beat up better)

NO! Baking is chemistry; do not mess with the core ingredient proportions. Coconut is an extra like nuts or chips or changing the vanilla to orange flavoring, those changes, as long as they are not extreme, will not effect the the chemistry of the recipe. Changing the number of eggs or the flour amount will. Either fold it in immediately after the flour and vanilla have been added or sprinkle it on the top of the batter when it is spread evenly in the pan. Sprinkling it on the top of the batter will give you a toasted coconut effect.

Narie thank you so much for posting the tips with that recipe- I've seen a lot of recipes in the books I've read but not with the addition of personal experience notes. (or maybe those were part of the recipe, just from a better book lol)

One more teeny question- I am quite certain I wont be able to acquire a jelly roll pan- I have noticed that cookie sheets/jelly roll pans fall in the sam category in some online shops- my cookie sheets are 15 by 10- it's only the size that matters right? (lol)- I mean I see by 1 inch high, are the sides of jelly roll pans traditionally higher than those of cookie sheets? My cookie sheet would be acceptable, right? I didnt see a noticeably diff online btw the cookie sheets and jelly roll pans. Oh well, I shall practice that recipe thursday after work and see how it goes as a trial run lol. Thanks so much again, I shall probably be asking more questions as I go LOL

If your cookie sheet has an edge on all four sides; yes, it will work and that is what I use. I use the same pan for Texas sheet cake and pumpkin bars.

Because of the wait times involved, may I suggest that you take the eggs out of the refrigerator as soon as you get home from work. Cut your parchment paper, prep the pan and turn on your oven before you start measuring and mixing. Then get the eggs beating and then measure out your dry ingregedients. (Use cake flour if you have it- but don't bother with it if you don't, the recipe works equally well with all-purpose flour. Do check the expiration date on your baking powder.)

While the cake is baking, clean up your mess and prep the tea towel. You will need clear space to work quickly when the cake comes out of the oven. I can't remember if I roll towards myself or away when I start rolling the cake up in the towel. I think I roll towards myself- either way is fine, just do what ever gives you better control and a firmer roll.

When the cake is totally cool, seam side down-don't try to rush this- unroll, spread the beaten jelly almost to the edge, and start rolling up again- without the towel. Once you have the roll started, use the towel it is laying on to continue the roll, the weigth of cake is evenly distributed on the towel and you avoid finger dents on the cake surface. Chill, seam side down for an hour.

OK, I said this was easy and it is. However I am an experinced baker. I suspect you are not. So you may be facing two new challenges; first, making a sponge cake, second, making a rolled item. If it doesn't work out perfectly the first time, don't be discouraged. Just tell me what went wrong, take pictures if you have a digital camera, and I will be happy to try and help you get the second try to work better. It will be worth the time and effort. Jelly rolls are very cool, and once you get the techique down pat, there are endless variations you can make up. Let see, how about a Pina colada roll, Key lime, orange dream, etc.... Just think of the less than perfects as steps on the road to becoming the jelly roll queen.

Sorry and please excuse me for butting in here, but I just have to say how NICE and HELPFUL you have been Narie! Alot if times on the internet we don't realize we are helping more than one person at a time. I have been following this post and you have helped me out alot too, with out knowing it. Last Christmas I made a few pumpkin rolls and had a few crack on me and never was quite sure I was doing it right. You have cleared up a few things for me and I just wanted you to know that and say THANKS!

You are not butting in, NEWTODECORATING; and I am pleased to know that whatever I wrote was helpful. I really like rolled cakes. You are not alone in having cracked them rolling them up or flipping them on to the tea towel for that matter. You don't even want to know about my first one- that had to be a good 45 years ago and I still cringe when I think about it. What is so cool about them is they don't need frosting, just a good filling, they look fancy and impress the heck out of people. And the possibilities are endless.

Well, my practice jelly roll cracked when I rolled it and as I'm posting this Im reading my instructoins and realizing I forgot to cut off the edges- there wasnt anything royally crisp lol but I'm thinking thats' why it broke cause the edges werent totally soft and pliable? hmmm
Ok I used a BC supermoist white cake mix (with egg whites not eggs added) -cause I posted somewhere else about needing white coloured cake and the sponge/jelly roll recipes were all nonwhite lol- ok so I was told that would work- and that's ok. It's my lack of experience I guess. It's just the bottom bit near the seam that cracked- oh and I calibrated my oven but it was going fubar different temps today murphy's law- what else did I do? hmmmm oh yeah, it wasnt a 9 by 15, it was a 9 by 13 (so I removed some of the batter to make it a thinner layer. I think it looks about the 'normal' thickness for a jelly roll. Oh well thanks to everyone for the feedback and to dydemus for suggesting the white cake mix- weeee what a breeze not having to separate 20 egg whites on top of mixing everytehing else lol.

this was just the trial run- when it cools and I unroll it and put on whatever jam I have in the fridge, and reroll- well we shall see- maybe I'll just keep doing this all night (I Have 2 more packages lmao) until it turns out right before the real one on Thursday LOL

Ok, gotcha now. I have never done this but you might consider an angel food mix instead of a butter cake. White in color and while not a sponge it is a foam cake and less likely to break. Your cake wasn't too thick as I thought it might be. You might actually cut you cake into smaller squares.
5X5 inch would give you 6 rolls of much smaller size. If you have cloth napkins, roll each of them individually in a sugared napkin. What you are planning is very clever, I hope it works.

Parchment paper for rolling obviously worked. That isn't a problem and baking at the correct temp. for that cake was a smart choice.

Final comment, jelly rolls sometimes break, usually in that last roll right where you said yours did. Perhaps the smaller sized ones will not.

Looked this up. It seems that one angel food cake mix makes two rolls.

http://www.fbnr.com/Recipes/670/1924005670.htm

I don't have two 15x10 pans but this sounds good to me, and I have a angel food cake mix in the pantry.

I don't usually make a traditional jelly roll, but I make a chocolate roll (same concept, but chocolate sponge cake and filled with chocolate cream instead of jelly). It is a family recipe, and my great aunt taught me to roll it initially while it is still warm (not hot, but warm). I flip it onto a slightly damp dish towel, and roll the jelly roll with the towel while it cools. The dish towel keeps it moist and prevents it from sticking to itself without trapping the air inside. Then, i unroll, fill it, and re-roll it later after it has cooled (and obviously, without the towel). I was always told that if you wait until it cools completely, it will crack, and the cake is much less pliable. If you roll it while warm, it will cool and hold its form, so when you later unroll it, it will want to go back to the rolled shape. Anyway, that is how we do it in my family! A regular cake recipe will crack - you need to have a cake that is more like a sponge cake, or it won't roll properly.

Does it may any difference if you choose to fill it with ice cream?

I love the idea of a cake roll but the few times over the years I have tried one, they always crack badly. Will probably give it one more try.

Thanks for all the great advice.

I've never filled it with ice cream . . . but I like the idea. I bet you could do that if you softened it enough. I have, however, filled it with a chocolate cool whip (just mix in cocoa), and filled it with whipped cream (i always make it chocolate whipped cream . . . can you notice a trend?), and with a chocolate mousse - all delicious ways to fill a chocolate roll, as we call them in my family! I bet pudding could work, too.

Terrific- I'm glad you tried that recipe. It is a good one; and other than beating the eggs, it is a very easy one. It really doesn't take much in terms of ingredients. Also jelly rolls impress the heck out of people because they look harder than they are. Now that you have the process down, just imagine the fillings you can use rather than jelly. The other part I like is that they aren't large, and you don't have a lot of left overs.

Tkey- how different is your recipe for chocolate roll from mine? Is it just a matter of cocoa?

Narie, have you tried filling with ice cream? I make alot of "jelly rolls" but rarely fill with jelly. I have done lemon with lemon curd, chocolate with whipped cream and crushed oreos, etc. But I use box cake mixes for all except for pumpkin. I don't know if I can explain how I do it. It took alot of practice. I do roll them before they have cooled. I have tried to fill with ice cream but can not get it. If it is too soft it oozes out and too hard it cracks the cake for me. Thanks LouAnn

I didn't do it myself, but I was helping with a wedding reception where we had angel food cake rolled with three flavors of sherbet. It was good AND pretty.

I've only made one with cream and one with homemade peach filling. Howver, DH bought me a jelly roll type ice cream cake once that was chocolate with chocolate mint ice cream filling and it was to die for!! I'm going to try that one next!

Narie - the recipe i use is definitely different. It calls for more eggs (separated), regular sugar, less flour (also cake flour), and some cocoa. You have to beat the egg whites stiff, then add the sugar and yolks and the rest of the ingredients, then fold in the flour. It bakes for about 12 minutes, and you let it cool for one minute before flipping it out onto the damp towel and rolling. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

No, I've never filled with ice cream. I thought about it but I wanted an easy chocolate sponge recipe and never really saw one that I thought wasn't a major pain... i.e. requiring seperate beating of egg yolk and egg whites then folding the two together. However, I found one at Hershey's site, "Trimtime Chocolate Roll Cake" I intend to try that one and it uses 1 cup of frozen yogert. So no suggestions to how to do that one.

BFMamaKat- angel food and sherbet. wow... you are talking my language now. Every summer I go through a orange sherbet craze. The rest of the year it's vanilla but come late July and August it is orange sherbet. Put that with angel food and I am in heaven.

Now that I have a simple recipe that is obviously really easy to make- Im going to experiment withj all sorts of fillings-
I have seen a recipe with ice cream- I'll find it if ya want- I saw the pic too- it looks pretty tasty- I think it's in an old (5o yr old) book I have about cakes (some sort of encyclopedia edition I found at a garage sale once) -had the buche? (spelling) de noelle and a few other rlls with great fillings including ice cream

I've made ice cream cakes though before- they're not hard- but if you make layers they require some planning ahead as the ice cream has to be softend and then refrozen and that takes longer than you'd think

Well it's done!!! YAYYY she loved it and I had a blast making it too lol- all the construction notes are attached (in my photos-under asian themed cakes)

The jelly rolls were fun to make- first time., well did trial run 2 days before- but I made them at my niece's house (who this was for) and they didnt have white sugar(hello who doesnt have white sugar- even I do and I dont use it cept for baking lol). So otherwise my rolls would have looked perfectly authentic lol oh well. Had a blast making this of course I love real sushi so yeah lol

Thanks for all the tips and help (especially Narie) - the jelly roll recipe you posted I will definitely be using again- it's super easy and yeah well I cut my jelly roll into 4 squares out of the oven, but I cant wait to make a regular sized one and fill it with yummy things

And the crowds went wild!

If you want the yummiest sponge cake roll of all time look up Libby's Pumpkin Roll. Amazing!