Ambrosia Budapest Roll

Growing up in the ’70s, we ate a lot of ambrosia (which I loved). This recipe is my tribute to my mom’s super ambrosia…. and it is G-F, too! Perfect dessert for a fancy dinner, BBQ or highnoon tea!

Time: 2 hours

Music Selection: Garbage – Only Happen When It Rains

Ingredients:

Jelly roll:

1 cup shred coconut

6 egg whites, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding

Filling:

1 cup heavy cream

1 jar whipped marshmallow

1 can mandarin oranges, well drained

1 can pitted cherries in juice, well drained (towel dried) or maraschino cherries

1 can shred pineapple, well drained and squeeze/towel dried

2 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup chocolate chips

2 – 3 Tbsp cream or milk

2 -3 Tbsp icing/confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

On a pan, toast the coconut until browned. Let cool. When cool, grind the coconut until fine, almost like a powder.

In large bowl, beat eggs until stiff. Slowly, stream in the sugar until stiff peaks. Fold in the vanilla pudding and cooled coconut.

Line an edged cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. Pour the egg mixture and spread evenly. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Immediately, place another parchment paper on top and another baking sheet. Invert the pans. Gently pull of the top parchment (which would have been baked onto the bottom of the cake). Throw away this parchment paper.

Using the parchment paper, using the long edge, roll the cake into a tight roll and let cool at room temperature.

In the meantime, in a separate bowl, beat the whipped cream, sugar, vanilla and instant vanilla pudding until thick, stiff peaks. Gently fold in the marshmallow.

When the cake is cooled, unroll but keep the parchment paper. Evenly spread the whipped cream on top.

Ensure your oranges, cherries and pineapple are very well dried/drained and paper towel dried or your cake will get very soggy.

Make a row of oranges about 1 inch from the edge of the long side of the cake. An inch away, make a row of cherries. And make the row of pineapple another inch apart.

From the long edge, gently roll, keeping the parchment paper just on the outside of the whole roll. Place in fridge and let set until almost ready to eat.

With a sieve, dust the icing sugar on the roll.

In a bowl or pan, melt the chocolate chips in microwave or stove top, along with the cream. You want it thin enough to have it run onto the cake. Let the chocolate dry a bit. You can sprinkle it with toasted almonds or toasted coconut.