Sponge Roll with Dulce De Leche Cream, Strawberries & Cocoa Nibs

Oh look it's another sponge cake. I'm a lost cause! I don't want to make anything but sponge/chiffon cakes at the moment. You're just lucky that I stopped myself from adding malt to it, or I'd have to rename my blog Malty Spongecakes. Which somehow sounds kinda dirty even though it isn't.

So I made another sponge cake. But this is the first time I've ever made a sponge roll! Plus I had all these lovely fresh small strawberries and lots of cream. And then I added cocoa nibs to the sponge. And dulce de leche to the cream. Ohhhh so good. There was a total harmony between all the different textures and flavours in this cake.

The small chunks of fresh tart strawberries are mixed in with this beautiful caramel cream to make the most delicious filling. I love dulce de leche. I've never had an exploding can of condensed milk in all the times I've made it, so I am a firm believer in making it by boiling the whole can. Those of you who might have looked in my archives would know that I've already tried dulce de leche and cocoa nibs together with huge success (and now I really want to make these cookies again, they are ridiculously good). But who knew that mixing dulce de leche with some whipped cream would help mellow out the intense sweetness of the caramel, making you wish you could slurp it all up with a giant straw.

I made a simple vanilla sponge by adapting this tried and tested chocolate sponge roll recipe, the same one I used for my Tim Tam & Mint Slice cakes. I didn't have a proper Swiss roll pan, but I used a cookie sheet lined with baking paper and it worked perfectly. I did have some issues rolling up the thing, my caramel cream was super runny and I way overfilled my sponge roll, so it started oozing out everywhere (I've adjusted the recipe below with tips so hopefully it won't happen to you). But I'm so used to disasterous messes in my kitchen these days, so I just wrapped the whole thing up and stuck it in the freezer over night, scraped the excess filling into a bowl and ate it with a spoon for dessert ;) I highly recommend it.

Sponge Roll with Dulce De Leche Cream, Strawberries & Cocoa Nibs
(adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe, serves 6)
4 eggs
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
65g cornflour
45 gm (1/4 cup) plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsbp cocoa nibs
250ml (1 cup)thickened cream
250ml (1 cup) dulce de leche (See here for a method to make it)
1 punnet fresh strawberries

Prepare the dulce de leche ahead of time (see above for method), cool can under tap water and then measure 1 cup of dulce de leche into a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Whisk eggs and sugar in an electric mixer until thick and pale (5-6 minutes). Add vanilla and sift over cornflour, flour, cream of tartar and bicarb soda, fold in with spatula. Fold in butter, spoon into a baking paper-lined 30cm x 42cm swiss roll tin (I used a medium cookie sheet), smoothing top. Sprinkle cocoa nibs over the surface of the batter. Bake in centre of oven until light golden and cake springs back when lightly pressed (10-12 minutes). Turn onto a tea towel lined with baking paper. Peel paper from sponge and, with short side facing you, roll in tea towel to form a log. Stand until just cool (8-10 minutes).

Hull strawberries and dice. Whisk cream until soft peaks form, then (if you want to make dulce de leche cream) take one large dollop of the cream and fold into the cooled dulce de leche. Then take this dulce mixture and fold it into the rest of the whipped cream. If you prefer to keep the dulce de leche and cream as two separate fillings (this will stop it from going runny), skip this step. Refrigerate until required. Unroll sponge, spread over fillings. Reroll, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately. (If your mixture was too runny like mine, wrap in baking paper and freeze overnight. Then slice and defrost before serving)