Another month of Bon Appétit Bake Club begins! This time we’re tackling a cake that’s famously finicky—and making it anything but.
Unsurprisingly, birthdays in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen are major food holidays. We’ve got a private spreadsheet where we each write down our dream birthday snacks and the rest of us try our best to fulfill this wishlist. Some of us really niche down (“Chinese takeout-style iced tea”), some of us are unwavering in our desires (kardemummabullar three years in a row), and some of us are outliers (“no baked goods!!”).
Deputy food editor Hana Asbrink is in the consistent camp, usually requesting shrimp cocktail and a strawberries-and-cream cake of some kind. So last year, I made her this roll cake filled with vanilla whip and tiny, ruby red strawberries. Hana liked it enough to bring some home in a foil swan that evening—and in Test Kitchen that is a ringing endorsement. Now we’re sharing that beloved recipe with all of you.
I give you: Strawberry Shortcake Roll, a dessert tailor-made for spring and summer gatherings.
Traditionally, this swirly style of cakes asks you to 1) swaddle the hot cake in a kitchen towel, 2) roll, cool, and unroll it to set the shape, and 3) fill then reroll it with bated breath. By utilizing a chiffon cake and tinkering with the ratio of eggs and oil in our recipe, we’ve achieved a cake that’s flexible even when cold, so you can skip most of those steps. Magic.
As always, do let me know how it goes on the recipe page, in the Epicurious app, or in our Bake Club chat on Substack. I love to hear from you. — Shilpa Uskokovic, senior Test Kitchen editor
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