I was planning on making this according to the recipe until I read Michelle's blog post. The original recipe has a cream filling but she was discussing the possibility of using ice cream. That was the only push I needed. I know, I am so easily swayed. My grandparents used to own an ice cream shop in my hometown. They made their own ice cream and popsicles. They also made ice cream cake rolls and it was one of my favorite things we made. I didn't get to have it very often because they were pretty long, like 24 inches, and we only sold them as an entire cake roll, not in slices. Birthdays and special occasions were about the only time we got to indulge. I wish I had some super secret recipes from my grandparents but I don't. I am going to have to interrogate some family members to see what I can come up with. ;)
Obviously, I substituted ice cream for the cream filling. We had a bucket of vanilla ice cream in our freezer and some candy canes so I thought I would make some peppermint ice cream to make it a bit more festive than using regular vanilla. I used about 3 1/2-4 cups of ice cream and about 6 candy canes. I spread some wax paper on a baking sheet (18x13 since that was the size of the cake). I put a little over a cup of ice cream and 2 candy canes in my food processor and processed until combined and then spread it on the baking sheet. I repeated that with the remaining ice cream and candy canes (2 more batches). Once the ice cream was spread out pretty well on the baking sheet, I covered it with wax paper, kind of patted it down so it was even and then froze it for about 45 min to 1 hour.
I was a little worried about waiting longer than the 15 minutes the book specified to fill the cake but it worked out okay. It might have been a bit more brittle and there was one spot that cracked a little but I really can't complain. After the ice cream had chilled for an hour, I took it out, took the wax paper off the top and flipped it onto the unrolled cake, removed the other layer of wax paper and then rolled it up as tight as possible. Wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and then put it back in the freezer for about 3 hours or until firm. Then I made the glaze and directed.
The cake wasn't quite right as far the cake rolls I am used to. It's lighter and more airy than the cake rolls we used to make. I remember them being made with denser cakes, almost brownie like cakes. This was still really good but I might try to experiment with it a little. I was also appalled that there wasn't any butter or oil in the cake. Weird, right? I had to read the recipe a couple times to be sure I wasn't missing something.
I love this kind of recipe because it's easy but looks so impressive. You should give this a try, Michelle, our host for the week, has the recipe on her blog (and how to make it gluten free!). Thanks for hosting this week Michelle and for inspiring me to make it with ice cream. ;)
