Wicked Good Pumpkin Roll -- posted by Jessica

Well, it's that time of year again - Autumn! Cooler weather, fall colors, crunchy piles of leaves to walk through, and, of course, PUMPKIN and those yummy fall spices, cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg... Love it! Pumpkin Roll cake is a new thing for me; maybe it is more of a back East thing? I have noticed them  now in the bakery section of the grocery stores. Maybe they have always been there and I just didn't notice? I dunno, but I can't believe what I have been missing! I ran a Google search for Pumpkin Roll recipes and of course got a ton of them to choose from! I ended up combining a couple different ones to get the spices I wanted and without walnuts thank you very much! I had never attempted a rolled cake before so I was a little apprehensive but it turned out well! And very delicious! Just use a lot of powdered sugar when rolling and also to dust your hands when unrolling to fill and then re-rolling the finished product. I had cut back on the sugar a few tablespoons in the cake and filling part figuring I would get plenty of sweetness from the powdered sugar later and I was right. I would probably even cut back a little more on the sugar next time as I found I had to used quite a lot of powdered sugar rolling up the cake and it was plenty sweet. All in all, this cake was a definite success and got a thumbs up from my taste testers! :)

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 large eggs

1 cup sugar (3/4 cup is fine)

2/3 cup canned pumpkin

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. all-spice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

 

Filling:

8 oz. softened cream cheese  (I used lite cream cheese)    

1 Tb butter, softened      

3/4 cup powdered sugar (I think I used about 2/3 cup)

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

 

Heat oven to 350. Lightly coat a 15 1/2- by 10 1/2- by 1-inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides; coat the parchment with cooking spray.

Beat together the eggs, sugar, pumpkin, flour, baking soda, and spices. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake is puffed and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes.

Let the cake stand for 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a linen kitchen towel with sifted pwd sugar on it. This was a little tricky. I may sift pwd sugar onto the top of the cake and then put the towel on top to invert onto a larger baking sheet. Anyway, then remove the parchment and roll up cake and towel. I rolled from the long side. Some recipes say to roll from the short side. I guess it depends on how long you want your cake. Place seam-side down on a wire rack and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese and butter until combined. Beat in the pwd sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Carefully unroll the cake, leaving it on the towel (there may be some cracking). Spread with the cream cheese filling, reroll into a log removing the towel as you go, and transfer to a serving platter. I found that dusting my hands with pwd sugar helped with this.
Chill and then serve.
Yield: 12 delicious slices of pumkin cream cheese goodness!
I bet adding some espresso powder to the cake batter would also be good; kind of like a pumpkin spice latte! :)