Vanilla Chiffon Roll

I don't even know where to start. The Vanilla Chiffon Roll was a crazy baking adventure. I went from excited and full of anticipation, to confused and very concerned, there was fear and panic, but ultimately relief and a bit of pride.

I didn't really think to sit down and read through the instructions first. All those tests they gave me when I was young to teach me how important it is to read through all the instructions before I start, and here I was just diving in.

I volunteered to bring dessert to a dinner party and I thought the roll would be a good treat. I think the pressure of wanting to take something really great to serve and the dread of having to pick something up on the way added to my insanity.

Making the cake wasn't too bad, everything went pretty smoothly. Later when it was sitting on the counter I noticed that it was still stuck to the parchment paper, so I had to put it back in the oven for a little while. During the inverting the cake got stuck to some parchment and lost a golden layer on one side. That is when I discovered that when I was trying to delicately fold the whisked whites into the rest of the batter I didn't throughly mix and my cake had ribbons of meringue throughout.

Next I started in on the mousse. After starting I realized that I had run out of mixing bowls, whisks and beaters. So I had to stop and wash some dishes. That is when everything just started happening so fast. I was washing and drying, processing, boiling, whisking like a maniac and trying for the life of me to decipher what ribbons of whipped yolks would look like. I couldn't even believe after all that, I would now have to successfully execute whipped cream for the first time. 

I was just exhausted and so happy to be assembling when the tail end of the roll just kind of flopped and all the mousse shot out the sides. I panicked, and just started wrapping parchment and saran all over the mess and shoved it in the fridge. I reread the instructions and realized I had rolled from the short edge instead of the long.

Later in the evening (maybe I should mention I started the roll at 8pm, so now it was probably midnight) after I had assembled some fruit skewers to take to the dinner. I was feeling much calmer and thought I would give the candy walnut garnish a go. I put the sugar in a saucepan and stirred, and stirred, and stirred. Nothing was happening. I started to doubt that anything would happen and thought maybe I could help the process along. I added a little corn syrup to the hot sugar and immediately the mixture started to boil. I didn't want to burn the mixture so I took it off the heat and dumped in all the walnuts. Wow do I have bad ideas. I had no idea that the sugar would turn solid immediately and I wouldn't be getting the walnuts apart.

The next day I thought it best to consult my talented baker coworker and ended up literally begged for advice. I really had no idea what was inside my "dirty diaper" and was scared that it would be an oozy mess. I was really happy that the roll firmed up and that the mousse hadn't soaked into the cake.

Since the roll was so wide, I cut the slices pretty thin. I was so excited that the cut edges stayed pretty clean and actually looked like a roll. Andrew was the first taste taster and I couldn't believe how quickly he gobbled it up. I so excited about how great it tasted and that Andrew (a pretty tough critic) agreed. He keeps telling me it is the best thing I have ever made.

Everyone at the dinner party thought the roll was really good. The mousse was defiantly the favourite part and there was lots of compliments on the overall moistness. My friend Kathy is another tough critic and she loved the roll. She had issues with the Mint Nightcap Cookies saying they were too rich, but thought the Vanilla Chiffon Roll suited her taste in dessert perfectly.

Overall this was a great challenge. I loved loved loved the results (the next day with mint, the day after for breakfast with strawberries), but wow was it a lot of work. 

I am still in awe that I made such a great dessert, and that something that starts out like this...

...ends up like this.