Pumpkin Roll

A pumpkin roll is one of my family’s favorite Thanksgiving desserts. It’s super easy to make, thanks to parchment paper. No flipping the cake out onto a powdered sugar covered towel. It’s too tricky and messy that way. With parchment paper you can roll it up right inside which significantly decreases the amount of mess and stress! Plus it peels right off!

When I began planning out my fall editorial calendar a few months ago, I knew I wanted to share a pumpkin roll recipe. It’s a classic fall beauty! While pumpkin roll is certainly not a difficult recipe (I swear it’s so easy), making jelly roll cakes may intimidate you. Admit it, they look complicated. A cake rolled up? What? Who? HOW? Heck, I was nervous when I first started.

Today we’re going to walk through step-by-step photos, a how-to video, careful explanations, and a no-fail pumpkin roll recipe. It’s time to be confident and fearless when it comes to making pumpkin roll!

HOW DO YOU MAKE A PUMPKIN ROLL?

A pumpkin roll is easier to make than you think.
Prepare a simple pumpkin cake batter (recipe below) and spread it over a parchment lined half sheet pan.
Bake the cake, then roll it up in the parchment paper while it’s still hot.
Cool the cake completely. Unroll the cake and fill it with the BEST cream cheese frosting.
Re-roll the pumpkin cake with the frosting inside. Cover and chill for an hour or two before cutting and serving.

In the past year, I shared two jelly roll cake recipes: red velvet cake roll and strawberry cake roll. (The latter was May’s baking challenge! Did you participate?) And if you’ve tried either, you know how simple jelly roll cakes are. And if you haven’t attempted a jelly roll cake before, you’ll be a pro by the time Halloween rolls around.

This pumpkin roll is moist and soft with soul-warming pumpkin flavor, lots of cinnamon spice, and a thick layer of homemade cream cheese frosting tightly packed inside. I feel like I don’t really need to sell you on pumpkin roll. I mean, it’s a show-stopper dessert with epic presentation skills. How can you not WOW WOW WOW and literally salivate when this swirly twirly beauty is presented before you?

Ingredients

• Two 3-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup), room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup pecans, finely chopped
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 17 1/2- by 12 1/2-inch jellyroll pan. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, granulated sugar, pumpkin and lemon juice until smooth. Sift together the flour, ginger, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
2. Add the sifted ingredients to the egg mixture and blend until fully combined. Spread the batter in the jellyroll pan. Sprinkle the dough with the chopped pecans. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 14 minutes.
3. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack. Sprinkle some of the confectioner' sugar on a large tea towel and carefully transfer the warm cake to the towel, folding the sides of the towel over the cake.
4. Roll the cake up in the towel and cool in the refrigerator thoroughly for about 45 minutes. With an electric mixer, combine the confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla and beat until smooth.
5. Carefully unroll the cooled cake and spread the mixture on top of the cake. Gently re-roll the cake up and refrigerate it until you're ready to slice and serve. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.