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Lemon Cake Roll – You all knew it was coming, right? This should be no surprise?
I have been super addicted to lemon. I love cake rolls. The result? A Lemon Cake Roll!
Table of Contents
VIDEO: How to make Lemon Cake Roll
I love my job. My job is super fun. I get to make cookies and cake rolls for lunch. I get paid to make dessert and ramble onto y’all every day. It’s pretty much a dream come true.
Sometimes I look back on my life BB (Before Blogging) and I think about all the things I used to do:
Clean my house.
Enjoy cooking dinner.
Cut Jordan’s sandwiches into hearts.
Decorate for holidays.
Celebrate holidays on time.
Purchase <insert holiday name> gifts more than 2 days before <insert holiday name>.
Not buy butter in bulk.
Now, my house is a mess, Jordan’s lucky if she gets a sandwich at lunch, and the last time I cared about doing something cute for any holiday was about 3 years ago.
And I’m sorry, people shouldn’t complain if they get Easter treats at Valentine’s Day. It’s just how it is.
I think that list doesn’t look much different than any other mom’s list, actually. Except for the butter in bulk. I buy mine in the form of 4- 4 pound packs at Costco. Monthly.
I don’t have to buy lemons in bulk. Those I get from my mother-in-law. Bless her! And you know what you can make with lemons?
A lemon cake roll.
For a more traditional recipe, try my lemon cake!
Cake roll recipes are about as holiday as I get this year, and you know what? I think that’s okay. They’re pretty much perfect for every single one!
This lemon cake roll is super lemon. It’s got a hidden cape and everything.
It starts with a lemon cake. You bake it in a 10×15 inch jelly roll pan. Make sure you line your pan with foil. I’m giving you a tip: spray the pan with the cooking spray that has flour in it. I ran out and it stuck like crazy to the foil, even with regular cooking spray. I usually use the flour kind, and I was kicking myself I ran out. Learn from my mistake!
The trick to a cake roll is to roll it hot. You turn the just baked cake out onto a kitchen towel that’s been sprinkled with a generous amount of powdered sugar. It will get all over you, your walls, and your kids in the other room. It’s just a fact of life.
You can see my photo & video tutorial for a cake roll here. And read my rules for good cake rolls here.
The filing for this lemon cake roll is a lemon whipped cream. You mix lemon curd with some freshly whipped cream and spread it over the cake before rolling it. (You probably have some lemon curd left over from making these lemon cupcakes.) Mixing it gently with the whipped cream makes the whipped cream so good!
The lemon cake roll is spongey and lemony, the filling is light and lemony. This is the perfect lemon cake roll and it’s perfect for holiday dessert.
Luckily, any holiday.
What? You didn’t want Sopapillas at Easter dinner? Well, too bad. 😉
If you’re in love with lemon like me, try a Lemon Snack Cake, Lemon Muffins, Lemon Cake Balls or a Lemon Layer Cake.
Lemon Cake Roll
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) Lemon Juice about 1 medium or 1/2 large
- Zest of one lemon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup (93g) all purpose flour
- Powdered sugar to aid in rolling
Filling:
- 1 cup (237ml) cold heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons (21g) powdered sugar
- ½ cup lemon curd or pie filling would work too
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a jelly roll (10×15”) pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. (Use the spray with flour or actually grease and flour the foil to avoid sticking.)
- Beat eggs at high speed for 2 minutes, until frothy and dark yellow. Beat in sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
- Whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour. Stir into wet ingredients just until blended.
- Spread in prepared pan. Batter will be in a very thin layer and you will need to use a wooden spoon or spatula to spread it to all the corners of the pan. Bake for 9-11 minutes (mine took 10).
- While the cake is baking, set a clean kitchen towel out on a large work surface. Sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar (about 1/4 cup). As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, turn it over on the kitchen towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Remove foil carefully.
- Working at the short end, fold the edge of the towel over the cake. Roll tightly, rolling up the cake into the towel. Let cool completely while rolled, at least one hour.
- While the cake is chilling, make the filling. Beat the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold in the lemon curd. Chill until ready to use.
- When cake is cool, carefully unroll the towel. Spread the lemon whipped cream over the cake. (You might have some whipped cream left over.) Gently but tightly, re-roll the cake and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill until it firms up a bit, at least one hour or overnight. Slice and serve. Cake will last covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Recipe Nutrition
Click here to see the complete list of Lemon Recipes!
Sweets from friends:
Lemon Drop Cheesecake Popsicles by Tatertots and Jello
Lemon Cake with Creamy Filling and Lemon Curd by Shugary Sweets
Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake by Sally’s Baking Addiction
Lemon Chess Bread Pudding by Something Swanky
Or check out my Epic Lemon Round-Up with over 140 recipes!
I wish I would have watched the video and not just followed the recipe. I tried baking the cake for 10-11 minutes and it was a mess. It stuck and cracked and when I tried to roll it back up, it spread. In the video, it says to bake it for 15 minutes. I didn’t want to overbake it because I read that overbaking will make it crack. I really wish I could get the hang of roll cakes. Any other advice?
I often have trouble with cracking no matter what I do – I feel like often cake rolls are very finicky. It should bounce back when touched – that’s how you know it’s done. Make sure you’re beating the eggs long enough too!
I followed the recipe. I was so excited to try this. The cake was sooo dry!! 😔
THIS is still a show stopper! Guaranteed to make fat men such as myself weak in the knees!
Dorothy,
I was asked to bring a plated dessert for 160 to an event seven hours away. I decided to make cake rolls since I can bake them ahead and freeze them and have made 25 rolls this week using you Swiss roll, lemon and vanilla cake roll recipes.
After baking my first dozen, I discovered that I could skip the messy powdered sugar/dish towel step by baking them on parchment covered with cooking spray then roll them in the parchment as soon as they came out of the oven. This is working well for me. I am rolling them in powdered sugar before I wrap them for the freezer but overall it is a lot less messy!
Thank you for the recipes – they have been a godsend!
So glad you enjoy them!
this cake was a total fail. Once you put the lemon juice and lemon zest into the beaten eggs they loose all their fluff and the cake comes out tough. Also, the cake still stuck to the foil /parchment paper so it was impossible to roll. Will not be making this again. So disappointing
I am so sorry that happened to you. I actually just made it again to make a video and it turned out quite fluffy. They probably lost their fluff because they weren’t beaten long enough. Chances are your mixer speed was lower than mine, they should be frothy and thick before continuing. When it sticks to the foil it usually means it’s not quite baked all the way and needs to go a little longer.
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