Santa Swiss roll

Hello, everyone! Now that it's the season... Had quite a bit of fun making this yule log. I was dreaming of a red and white Santa-inspired cake with raspberries. I was so pleased with the result, the cake was so soft and not too sweet, the cream light and the raspberries added that perfect tanginess and sweetness.

Here's the recipe for the pink velvet and raspberry base:
60 g cooking oil
80 g milk
100 g cake flour
70 g sugar + 3 tablespoons more for the egg whites
6 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1 teaspoon of coffee extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon red gel food color
+ fresh raspberries, rinsed and pat dried
+ macarons, candies, sprinkles to decorate

Cream cheese frosting

200 g heavy whipping cream

200 g softened cream cheese

50 g confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat hoven 340° F / 170° C. Line a large rectangular baking sheet with parchment paper (I used a 13" x 17" pan). In a bowl, whisk cooking oil, milk, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, salt, red gel color. Fold in cake flour. In another bowl, beat egg whites until you get soft peaks. Add about 3 tablespoons of sugar and continue to whip until you get stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the ingredients of the first bowl a spoonful at a time. Do not overmix in order to maintain lightness. Spread evenly onto baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes. First tip, once not too hot to the touch, slice about 5-6 lines (not deep) across the top of the cake (width-side), to allow for easier rolling. Important, begin to roll the cake from this shorter (width) side, peeling off parchment paper as you go. This way, the cake already has the rolled form when you add the cream and is easier to roll. Allow to cool at least an hour. If you roll from the length side, this is fine as well, but the cake will be less thick but longer.

Make the cream filling by whipping cream, then adding the cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice. In a small bowl, spoon 3 heaping tablespoons full of this cream and add a bit of red food color gel to get a second color for decorating. (Another tip : to get a stiffer cream, add a tablespoon of refined powdered milk to the cream. I did this with the pink cream to get a more defined rosette form). Refrigerate at least an hour or overnight. Fill a piping bag with the pink cream. Take half the cream and fill another piping bag with the white cream. Use the remaining half of the cream for the cake filling.

To assemble : once the cake has cooled, unroll the cake, spread a layer of cream evenly on the surface. Add the raspberries along the inner edge of the width and begin to roll the cake over these gently. Continue rolling, making it as tight as possible, without crushing the cream. Once completely rolled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. (Another tip : ideally, turn the roll 1/4 way clockwise every few hours so it sets in a round form and not in an oval form). Unroll and glaze the roll with a thin layer of cream. Pipe rosettes along the top (I used a rosette tip and a dot tip), first with one color, then another. Add raspberries, candies, macarons, sprinkles to decorate.

Enjoy, everuone !