A Jelly Roll To Eat

I grew up with a mom who made jelly rolls a lot.  I think it was her basic 'go to' dessert.  The fillings were often different, sometimes lemon, sometimes strawberry jam, sometimes stewed blueberries.  It would be years before I understood why it was such a great little dessert.  A basic sponge cake that bakes in a mere 12 minutes and can be dressed up with whatever you have on hand makes it a great dessert.
This was Hubby's dessert for Valentines.

By the way, this particular jelly roll is a little flatter than usual because I only had two eggs to use instead of the three.  I have seen recipes that call for six eggs which I'm thinking would make a very fluffy, high sponge.  Some time I will try that.

For a summer time dessert, I've lined the roll with ice cream and popped in the freezer.  Then I just take it from the freezer, cut off what I need and let the slices thaw a little before serving.  It works surprisingly well.  Oh, and I've also made this as a chocolate sponge too.

Meanwhile here is my recipe.

Basic Jelly Roll

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon flavouring
icing sugar
strawberry jam

Beat eggs well, add sugar and continue to beat.  Add water, then sifted dry ingredients.  Lastly add flavourings and spread batter in a sheet cake pan.  I usually grease this pan, line with wax paper that I also grease.  Bake at 400 degrees F for about 12 or 13 minutes.
I have a clean cloth sprinkled with icing sugar ready for when the cake comes out of the oven.  I wait a couple of minutes and then upend the cake onto the cloth. Let cool a little more and then peel off the wax paper carefully.  I roll this up including the cloth from the narrow end and let cool completely.  Unroll, remove the cloth and spread whatever filling you are using, jam, jelly, lemon curd, whatever. Don't worry if it cracks; you can cover up any flaws with a little frosting or cream.  Roll up again and it is actually good to eat like this; you can really taste the sponge this way.
 But this time I iced it with some whipped cream and added a few strawberries, being Valentines and all, which made it a pretty dessert as well.