Old-Fashioned Apple Cream Roll Cake

Name: Old-Fashioned Apple Cream Roll Cake
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Bulgarian
Ingredients: 3 large eggs; 1 cup granulated sugar; 1 cup milk; 1½ cups all-purpose flour; 1 packet baking powder (about 2 tsp); 1 packet vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract); 2–4 apples, thinly sliced (or grated — see tips); Sugar, for sprinkling; Cinnamon (added after baking); Small amount of melted butter, for drizzling; 8 oz cream cheese, softened; 1 stick (½ cup) butter, softened; Powdered sugar, to taste; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 cup heavy whipping cream; Powdered sugar, to taste (for whipped cream)

Soft sponge baked over apples, rolled with fluffy cream cheese whipped cream.

Time

1 hr 15 min

An old-fashioned roll cake layered with baked apples and filled with a fluffy cream cheese filling folded with whipped cream. Cozy, nostalgic, and perfect with coffee or tea.

Instructions

Apples

1
Arrange thin apple slices evenly on a parchment-lined baking tray.
2
Sprinkle lightly with sugar and drizzle with a little melted butter.
3
Bake until softened.
4
After baking, sprinkle with cinnamon. Do NOT add cinnamon before baking — it may burn.

Cake

1
Beat eggs and sugar. Add milk and vanilla sugar (or vanilla) and mix well.
2
Add flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.
3
Pour batter evenly over the baked apples.
4
Bake until lightly golden and fully cooked through.
5
While still warm, carefully roll the cake and let cool rolled up — rolling warm helps prevent cracks.

Cream Filling

1
Beat softened butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together.
2
In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream with powdered sugar until fluffy.
3
Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture with a spatula — don't overmix.

Assemble

1
Carefully unroll the cooled cake.
2
Spread a generous layer of cream filling and roll tightly again.
3
Cover the outside with the remaining cream.
4
Optional: dust with cinnamon, top with apple slices, chopped walnuts, powdered sugar, or extra whipped cream.

Toti’s Tips

✓Roll the cake while it's still warm, right after baking. Warm cake is more pliable since the structure hasn't fully set, so it bends around itself without cracking; a cooled cake is stiffer and tends to crack when forced into a roll.
✓Add the cinnamon after baking the apples, not before. Cinnamon has a low burning point, and baking it directly on the apples can turn it bitter and scorched by the time the apples soften.
✓If apple slices keep sticking or tearing the sponge while rolling, try grating the apples instead. Grated apple spreads in a thinner, more even layer that flexes with the cake instead of acting like a stiff barrier.
✓Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture gently with a spatula rather than beating it in. Whipped cream loses its air bubbles quickly under vigorous mixing, and those bubbles are what keep the filling light instead of dense.
✓Chill the finished roll before slicing so the filling firms up enough to hold its shape under the knife, giving clean slices instead of squished ones.
✓This one tastes even better the next day, since the moisture from the apples and cream has time to soak evenly into the sponge.