Mixed Berry Cake Roll - Gluten Free

This delicious sponge cake roll was a delightful experiment with visiting family. My nieces and nephew have celiacs but dessert was a MUST. I need cool aunt points, obviously. And if you don't have visiting nieces and nephews no worries, this is good for Sunday dinners, birthdays, or the Fourth of July. Scroll to the bottom and see how I decorated it for a fun fall themed treat.

Anyway, my sister has talked about gluten free baking long enough that one thing I know is that if a recipe has a high amount of egg the rest of the recipe doesn't need a ton of other fixes. Since sponge cake has a high ratio of eggs I left my regular sponge cake recipe alone and just swapped the gluten free flour one for one. But if you don't need a gluten free then just use the same amount of regular all purpose flour and it works exactly the same.

Some of the ingredients in here are optional, mostly the mahalab and orange blossom water. I happen to love them and keep them around but I know not everyone does. I do recommend buying them and using them but again, it's not required and you will still get a great final product if you leave them out. Both are ingredients I learned about and learned to love through middle eastern baking. Mahalab imparts a fruity spice to the cake and the orange blossom water adds an almost honeysuckle like floral flavor. Be warned, when you open the bottle and smell it all it's not great, but in small doses it is amazing.

Sponge Cake
6 eggs, separated
1 c. sugar
1 c. One4One all-purpose gluten free flour (regular flour also works)
1/4 baking soda
pinch salt
1 tsp. mahalab powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375*F

Line a cookie tray with parchment paper and butter the bottom very lightly. Set aside.

In a bowl beat the egg yolks, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup sugar until pale in color and thick. Sift the flour, mahalab, and salt over the top and fold in. 

In a mixer beat the egg whites until starting to grow. Keep beating until soft peaks form. Keep beating while very slowly drizzling in the remaining sugar. Keep beating until stiff peaks form. Add a third  of the egg whites to the flour mixture and gently fold in. Add another third and fold again, Add the remaining whites and finish folding. 

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan and place in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes or until the top is springy and slightly browned. 

Remove from the oven and let cook for 5 minutes. Line the top with clean parchment paper and cut around the side of the pan to loosen. Flip the pan over and gently remove the parchment paper. Top with three of the half sized paper towels to cover and tightly roll the cake and parchment paper together. Let sit for 15 minutes. Cut the end of the roll on the bottom at an angle so it lays flat.

Mixed Berry Filling
1 pint heavy whipping cream
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. Orange blossom water
1 Tbsp. white chocolate pudding mix
8 oz. mascarpone cheese
1 clam-shell raspberries
1 clam-shell blackberries

Whip heavy cream with sugar and  orange blossom water until soft peaks are about to form. Add white chocolate pudding mix and beat until stiff peaks. Whip mascarpone cheese and fold the whipped cream into it until well combined. Fold in a package each of fresh raspberries and a package of fresh blackberries. I cut the blackberries in half. Chill until ready to use.

Assembly
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. freeze dried raspberries

Once the cake has cooled for 15 minutes, unwrap and unroll. Spread with the berry cream mixture and re-roll. Chill until ready to eat. Top with powdered sugar and crushed freeze dried raspberries.