Strawberry Shortcake Roll

A few days ago I came across this on Pinterest:

They referred to it as "strawberry sushi".. Teh Bear took a particular defense to this because there was no fish involved, so I created the Strawberry Shortcake Roll.

Sadly, I didn't take photos of the process, but it was super easy.  Final pics at the bottom of course.

Strawberry Shortcake Sushi (from Megan @ takeamegabite.com)  I knew since we shared the same name the recipe was bound to be awesome..  :)

Ingredients:

cake
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs + 2 more egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
plenty of powdered sugar, for the towel when wrapping the cake

filling
1 cup whipping cream (the small container)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-ish cup diced strawberries

topping 

more strawberries (halved/sliced/diced/your choice)

Directions/how I did it:

Pre-step 1: prepare your strawberries.  I knew I was going to add sugar to mine to get them sweetened and juicy, despite this not being in the directions anywhere.  This was the most time consuming part of the process because I chose to dice mine since I wanted the filling to be mostly smooth.  You also have to give the sugar some time to work it's magic.

1.  Preheat the oven to 400º. Coat a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll cookie sheet with cooking spray (wasn't sure why I had to do this step since the next step is to putting the parchment paper down, but ok); line the bottom with parchment paper, and coat with cooking spray. Set aside.

2.  In a small bowl whisk/stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl using an electric mixer beat together the eggs and sugar at high speed until pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes) (hell yeah stand mixer!). Stir in vanilla.

3.  Add the flour mixture slowly, mixing on low until combined thoroughly.  I also added a few spoonfuls of the already prepared strawberries.

4.  Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. It is ok if the paper is not all the way down in each edge, because despite my best efforts I tried to make that happen, and it didn't but the cake still came out just right.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.  Mine looked bubbly and not quite done, but when I poked it, it sprang bake, so I took it out.

5.  While the cake is baking sprinkle a clean dish towel with your powdered sugar.  This is to keep your cake from sticking on your towel, so more is better.

6.  Remove the cake from the oven. Flip the cake onto the towel (the parchement paper will be on top).  Peel off the parchment paper and roll the towel and cake into a roll, from side to side (you want the roll to be long rather than thick (thats what she said)).  Place the rolled roll on the counter (seam side down) for a while to cool.

7.  Make filling. Beat together the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy and thick. Stir in the strawberries.  (This is only a short step if you've already prepared all your strawberries... just sayin).

8.  Unroll the cake from the towel and spread the filling onto the cake, it will get messy, you've been warned.   I would suggest using a small amount where the inside of the roll will be because as you roll it, the filling will be pushed back towards the edge seam.  Refrigerate for a couple hours or over night, unless your Teh Megan and have to have a piece (or two) riiiiight now in teh belly!!!!

9.  Slice, using a serrated knife into 1ish inch sections. Top with some diced strawberries/a strawberry slice.  

10.  Enjoy!

Things I recommend:

-The biggest thing I did the recipe didn't call for was dicing almost all of the strawberries (except for the ones I halved for the topping) and sprinkling sugar over them to get the juice (omgg yummm).  I'm sure that just plain strawberries would be a preference for people who aren't sugar fiends like myself, it would probably definitely be less sweet without the additional sugar.

-I had extra filling and I mostly halved the recipe as I found it.  I'm not actually sure how to use it other than to bake another shortcake, but this prob wouldn't be enough for the recipe as it is.  Maybe I wouldn't have had as much filling leftover if I had done the recipe as a "sushi roll" instead of as a jelly roll.  Either way, its very delicious and I might have been eating it and the strawberries (as I was dicing them and later as they were soaking) throughout the process.  YUMMMMMMMMMMMM.

This recipe was easy (most definitely a plus for this girl) and fun and delicious.  I'm sure it was also easier because I took a shortcut in not cutting the shortcake in half to make the smaller rolls, although I'm sure it would have been fun also.  The thing that took me the longest was dicing all the stupid strawberries.  It was very difficult along the way not to consume all of the strawberries before they could be put to use.  I used 2 quarts of strawberries and had PLENTY leftover.

This recipe reminded me of summer and of Teh Mom's homemade strawberry preserves, which are probably the bestest jelly for peanut butter and jelly sammiches on the face of the planet.  The filling reminded me of cool whip and strawberries, sans the cool whip, which is my preference after seeing The Cool Whip Experiment.  

I didn't make the suggested dip/"soy sauce" for 2 reasons.  1.  I don't have a blender (which only sucked because then I wouldn't have had to dice all the strawberries).  2.  The sugar/strawberry combo that I had already made was pretty much the same dip sans the lemon juice and water.  My creation turned out just fine without it.  

Final result:

Helllloooo delicious!
L to R:  Strawberries w/ sugar, filling, final product

With the roll turned upside down to accurately portray the messiness.  I couldn't really roll the roll any tighter without squeezing all the filling out.. :(

Oh, if I didn't already mention it... This was tasty-freakin-goodness.  Srs, no jk.  OMG-DELIGHTFUL-IN-MY-MOUTH good.