For some reason, even though no one I've met who has actually eaten cake rolls has disliked them, these moist-and-creamy-sponge-cake-cylinders-of-subtly-sweet-deliciousness are highly underrated. I think most people know what they are (I hope! if you don't, go get one now!) but if you're looking for one at your grocery store, chances are you won't find it. I don't think I've even seen it before at our beloved Berkeley Bowl (which I learned recently sells elk sausage. S. was excited.). Up till the day I made one myself, I've only bought them at Asian bakeries even though nothing about them is Asian. I'm not totally sure where the origin is. They sometimes go by the name Swiss cake rolls, so perhaps they're Swiss? Who knows, maybe cake rolls are to the Swiss as fortune cookies are to the Chinese, at the end of the day who the hell cares, just eat the damn thing.
They are surprisingly versatile, with flavors like matcha green tea with azuki bean filling (ok that one's Asian, but that's an adaptation), chocolate with strawberry cream filling, whatever you crave with your tea or coffee. The sponge cake is light enough for a mid afternoon snack, but the cream is what makes it perfect for after dinner dessert. Or before dinner dessert.
My mocha cream marble cake roll:
And because the summer bug is getting to me (finals are almost over!), I wanted something light and refreshing for dinner, so I put together some store bought seaweed salad, made some miso soup and rolled up some sushi! Now, I am no sushi chef. In fact, the fish I hacked so elegantly to fill and top this sushi would make any sushi chef from the discount 99 cent sushi stand in the back of a convenience store weep. But the colors were pretty and I liked the idea that we ate a day of rolls so here it is:
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