Amigurumi Roll Cake — Amigurumi Sweets by Ichikawa Miyuki (Crochet Book)

Roll cake amigurumi, pattern from Amigurumi Sweets by Ichikawa Miyuki (more on IG)

After attempting the castella cake from the crochet book Amigurumi Sweets by Ichikawa Miyuki (posted here), I gained some confidence and understanding of how to read the patterns in the book, and decided to attempt the roll cake pattern. I had been wanting to attempt it since making Crafty Gibbon's bunny roll cake from Amigurumi Bake-off this year (posted here). It has taken a while — and a couple of roll cake amigurumi — to get to this point, and after a few attempts, I finally managed these 2 roll cake amigurumi from Amigurumi Sweets.

Before those however, I did attempt another roll cake amigurumi pattern online: the pastry chef roll cake amigurumi by Ronique (post in Japanese here, the free crochet diagram can be accessed by clicking the link "ロールケーキ編み図").

Roll cake amigurumi, pattern by Ronique.

The pattern by Ronique is also a crochet diagram, with the typical pattern format you find in Japanese crochet books. The pattern also seemed easier than the one in Ichikawa-san's Amigurumi Sweets, so I tried making that one first. It definitely helped me to better understand how to read the diagram, and understand this pattern format. Personally, I like this Ronique roll cake pattern a lot, and how the work looks. (I don't mean my own, but the ones made by the creator.) Love the fact that it looks like its bursting with cream. I can almost imagine, feel and taste the explosion of the moist, smooth, fresh cream on my tongue... *Wipes drool from my chin*

Attempting the Ronique pattern was very helpful for me to level-up (so to speak). Made over 4 attempts, possibly more because I lost count, and there were many I abandoned partway to start anew. After all those attempts, I ended up with 2 that I was okay with. That said, I am not really satisfied with them. They look okay, but don't look right, somehow. But I admit I decided to move on after these 2.

All my attempts were made with different flavours in mind. (Yes, I dreamt of roll cakes the entire time.) My last 2 are in flavours that are an international favourite (the classic), and a local favourite: a mocha chocolate rollcake and a pandan gula melaka rollcake, respectively. A fluffy dark chocolate sponge filled with mocha latte and vanilla cream cream. And my local twist is a pandan chiffon for the sponge (soft, moist and ever-so-slightly qq, just the way we like it here), and the inside is bursting with coconut and gula melaka cream.

Roll cake amigurumi, pattern from Amigurumi Sweets by Ichikawa Miyuki (more on IG)

For the uninitiated, gula melaka is palm sugar extracted from the coconut or sago palm. Gula melaka is deeply embedded in the local cuisines of our region, and has been used long before the Europeans introduced cane sugar here. For the record, pandan chiffon cake the way we like it in our region is harder to get right than the usual sponge cake, because folks here can be picky about the cake texture — it has to be light and fluffy, but also moist and with that ever-so-slight qq spring.

Anyway, some final thoughts to round off this post on roll cakes this roll cake post... To get to this milestone, I made a lot of roll cake amigurumi...not all of them are featured here, as I am too ashamed to let those see the light of day. And I used 3 patterns: a shortened version of Crafty Gibbon's bunny roll cake pattern, Ronique's pattern and my modification of the pattern, and Ichikawa-san's pattern in Amigurumi Sweets.

Roll cake amigurumi — 3 patterns, 4 variations (IG post).

As mentioned in my earlier IG post on this, it's hard to pick a favourite of the 3 patterns. Additonally, I don't feel qualified to say which pattern is best. This may also be subject to personal preferences. As said, each pattern has its own qualities and challenges. They also all result in works that look different, have different takes on the swirl in roll cakes, and which focus on different features of roll cakes.

Materials & Tools:

• Patterns:
• Bunny Roll Cake by Crafty Gibbon, pattern here.
• Pastry Chef Roll Cake by Ronique, post in Japanese here, crochet diagram at "ロールケーキ編み図" link.
• Roll Cake Charm Straps from Amigurumi Sweets: Crochet Fancy Pastries and Desserts by Ichikawa Miyuki.
• Yarn: Scheepjes Catona, Schachenmayr Catania, Sirdar Happy Cotton DK, Sirdar Cotton DK
• 2.5mm and 3mm crochet hooks
• Polyester fiberfill