Giant Cinnamon Scroll Cake

Covid-19 brought a lot of staying at home, which brought a lot of idleness and mental space like I had not experienced for years. With all this idleness, I offered to make the cellist in my string quartet any cake she wanted for her birthday. How bad could it be? I was up for a challenge! Anyway, she knows that I'm not really a cake baker, definitely more of a bread baker. So she asked for cinnamon scrolls, not too sweet because the other violinist does not like sweets.

So I thought, why not make the cinnamon scrolls into a giant one? A few days later I was at a post-Covid party with a friend I had not seen for years and he suggested making it into a rose....

1. Make the cinnamon scroll dough
I based this on the recipe from The Clever Carrot - an excellent sourdough resource

100g Sourdough starter, ripe and recently fed
160g Milk
50g Butter
1 Egg
20g Sugar
300g Flour

Add the butter to the milk and heat in microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly
Combine all the ingredients except for flour and whisk till it is a smooth slurry
Add the flour and bring together to make a rough dough
Rest for 30 minutes, then knead the dough to bring into a ball 
Rest for 30 minutes, then knead the dough on a floured surface till it is soft and smooth (approx 5 minutes) 
(the waiting time allows the gluten to relax, which makes it easier to knead)
Proof until it is double in volume - I did mine for 4 hours at room temp then stored in fridge until I was ready to use


2. Prepare the dough for layering the cake
Flour the work surface generously and coat the rolling pin
Scoop the dough out of the bowl and make it a round shape
Roll the dough into a rectangle shape
Melt 50g butter in the microwave and brush over the dough
Scatter with a combination of brown sugar and cinnamon - adjust ratios according to taste - I used 1/2 c of sugar with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon
Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into roughly even 3cm wide strips


3. The apples!
I used 3 red apples, cored then mandolined on the thinnest setting
Cut any full circles of apple into moon shapes 
Mix with 1 tbsp each of melted butter and brown sugar, a generous squeeze of lemon juice
Microwaved on high for 2 minutes and check (I needed an extra minute) - the apples should be translucent and pliable


4. Final construction 
Construct an apple rose by rolling up 6 overlapped apple slices up tightly (Watch Youtube video for visuals)
Take half of a dough strip and surround the apple rose snugly, with the cinnamon side facing out
Add apple slices to the outside of the dough roll, it should stick easily to the cinnamon surface
Add another layer of dough and add apple to the outside of the dough
Repeat until the whole pan is filled, ending with dough

 

(Cheese crackers and stuffed peppers not part of the prep!)

5. Baking
I rested the final cake for 1hr (because this is all the time we had!) - the dough was slightly puffed by the end of this, could have gone a bit longer

Into preheated oven at 200deg fan forced for 30min
Dust with icing sugar and serve - soft and scrumptious