Pumpkin Roll
The best Pumpkin Roll is a spiced pumpkin cake roll with a luscious cream cheese filling. A great recipe for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert and full of pumpkin pie spice flavor.
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EASY PUMPKIN ROLL RECIPE
This pumpkin roll is one of the first recipes I ever posted on this blog and is from my college roommate Stephanie. It’s her aunt’s SECRET recipe.
I am not sure of all the details but something about Steph’s mom hiding in a bathroom writing down the secret recipe while her aunt wasn’t looking.
Don’t worry I asked Steph’s permission to post this. Thank goodness she believes that if you didn’t create the recipe yourself you should share the goodness.
LIBBY’S PUMPKIN ROLL
How is this different from the recipe on the back of the can? This has lemon juice, more spices, and is better in my opinion.
HOW TO MAKE A PUMPKIN ROLL
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 10 x 15-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
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In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs on high and add the white sugar, pumpkin, and lemon juice with a mixer. Add the dry ingredients: the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, ginger, and nutmeg and mix with the wet ingredients until combined.
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Pour cake batter into the prepared pan in a rectangular shape (don’t fill the baking sheet), spread using an offset spatula leaving space on the sides for the batter to expand while cooking, about a 14×10 inch rectangle. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.
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Sprinkle about ¼ cup powdered sugar on a thin kitchen towel. Loosen pumpkin roll with spatula and flip onto the towel. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
Gently roll the warm cake with the tea towel rolled up inside it as well and let the cake cool completely. This step is to get the pumpkin roll in the correct shape while cooling. -
While roll is cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting by mixing cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat until fluffy. When roll has cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and spread the cream cheese mixture evenly inside.
Roll it back up, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar on top before serving.Don’t worry if it’s cracking a bit. It will seal back up in the fridge.
Dust with powdered sugar on top of the cake. Cut into 1 inch slices to serve.
Gently roll the warm cake with the tea towel rolled up inside it as well and let the cake cool completely. This step is to get the pumpkin roll in the correct shape while cooling.
While roll is cooling, prepare the cream cheese frosting by mixing cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat until fluffy. When roll has cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and spread the cream cheese mixture evenly inside.
Roll it back up, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar on top before serving.
Dust with powdered sugar on top of the cake. Cut into 1 inch slices to serve.
CAN YOU FREEZE A PUMPKIN ROLL?
Yes. Make sure it’s wrapped in plastic wrap and it can be frozen up to three months. To eat, thaw in the refrigerator.
OTHER PUMPKIN RECIPES:
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
- Moist Pumpkin Cake
- Pumpkin Dump Cake
- Melt in Your Mouth Pumpkin Cookies
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Sheri’s Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Earthquake Cake
Pumpkin Rolls
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- powdered sugar for sprinkling
Filling:
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 10 x 15-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs on high speed for 3-5 minutes or until pale yellow. Slowly add the white sugar, pumpkin, and lemon juice and mix well. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, ginger, and nutmeg and mix until combined.
- Pour batter into a rectangular shape (don’t fill the sheet), leaving space on the sides for the batter to expand while cooking, about a 14x10 inch rectangle. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.
- Sprinkle about ¼ cup powdered sugar on a thin kitchen towel. I would put more just to ensure that your roll doesn't stick to your cloth. Loosen pumpkin roll with spatula and flip onto the towel. Carefully peel off the parchment paper. Gently roll with the towel rolled up inside it as well and let it cool completely starting with the short side of the roll. This step is to get the pumpkin roll in the correct shape while cooling.
- While roll is cooling, prepare filling by mixing cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat until fluffy. When roll has cooled, unroll it, remove the towel, and spread the filling evenly inside. Roll it back up starting with the short side as tightly as possible, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar on top before serving. Cut into 1 inch slices to serve.
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I just made this but haven’t tried it yet. However, I never quite achieved ‘fluffy’ when beating the cream cheese filling. Not sure what I need to do differently. Also, I think you said it can be frozen…hope so because that’s what I did. Will the cream cheese filling be ok after thawing? Thank you!
Yes, it should be creamy not fluffy. You’re right and yes the cream cheese filling will be fine after thawing.
I should add that I lined the towel with 2 layers of paper towels to roll and cool. It came of beautifully. That’s the only thing I did differently.
this was my first try. It cracked all over and the filling oozed out in multiple sracks. I’m trying to figure out where it went wrong (I followed all the measurements and instructions). Also, my dough was pretty thick and when I rolled it it barely made one revolution so at the end you can’t see the pretty rolled pattern. It tastes so so so good. I will give it another go for sure.
Yeah sounds like it might have been too thick.
Great tips! the first (and I think last) rolled cake I made cracked into a dozen pieces. I didn’t know to roll it up to cool. Will give this a go as I for one am tired of having pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving.
Haha well hopefully this will be a winner for you.
salam,yammy I will try to make this roll sonne . Can I use banana instead suger? Thanks.
I’m not sure what results you would get with that substitution because I haven’t tried it. Sorry!
So I made these today but for the filling I used “the best ever frosting” from Pioneer woman Ree Drummond and it turned out soon very good. I like the cream cheese but this is a little more decodant and not as rich. My new favorite combo. Thanks for this great recipe.
I was wondering if instead of regular pumpkin, could you somehow incorporate pumpkin puree into this r recipe?
Chloe,
Oh yes. It is actually pumpkin puree that’s used in this recipe. Good luck!
So wish that you knew about Demarle at Home. We have a deep flexipat that you can make the pumpkin roll in (without using any spray ). The when it comes out of the oven I roll up the pumpkin roll in the flexipat and secure the roll with elastic bands until cooled. Then unroll and fill and roll off the flexipat. So easy.
These look phenomenal! Do you know if this can be done vegan? I can substitute vegan cream cheese but do you know if the Ener-G egg replacer will work in place of the eggs?
Cindy, Sorry! I don’t know!
What kind of flour do I use?
Just regular all purpose flour works here.
I’ve made these yearly for Thanksgiving & Christmas for probably 25 years. They are so easy and are always a hit.
So the idea of wrapping it up with a cloth in the middle of the dough sounds super messy to me. Does anyone know if you could use wax paper instead?
Thanks for the recipe! I’m excited to try it out.
Yes, you can use waxed paper or parchment paper. I’ve been making these for 30+ years. The recipe can also be found on the Libby’s website. I highly recommend skipping the lemon juice, add 1 cup of Cool Whip to the cream cheese mixture, spread the batter to the edges of the baking sheet, sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the batter before baking, and serve the roll uncut on a rectangular platter. It looks spectacular and you will be the hit of the party.
Made this today! I must say this was a very easy recipe and the best pumpkin roll I have ever had! Thanks
It’s so delicious! Yummy
I am so making these for Thanksgiving this year! I love anything and everything pumpkin and I can’t wait to try these! Thanks for sharing this delightful recipe!
This is pretty much the same recipe that I use every year.
few tips: You can use paper towel to roll the rolls in instead of a kitchen towel, flatter towel won’t stick to the batter. Cover the paper towel in powdered sugar dusted through a sifter…. too much will make the rolls sticky.
Just cool the rolls on the counter… I only ever cool about 20 minutes, less chance of cracking.
if you grease your sheet pan and then cover in wax paper and pour batter on top, when the batter cooks just flip it onto the paper towel and carefully tear off the wax paper.
These are a major hit anywhere I have ever taken them… made over 20 last thanksgiving for functions.
Lisa
@Crandfords,
Wow, this an old recipe and I didn’t realize how messy it was written up. Sorry. You want to actually roll it up with the towel inside while it cools. Right before serving is when you could cut it into slices that look like cinnamon rolls. Good Luck!
What does “gently roll with towel” mean? And when are you supposed to actually cut it into pieces?
Gently roll with towel means after you power sugar the towel, take the pumpkin bread off the baking sheet set it on the towel then roll the pumpkin bread and towel into a roll at the same time. Basically in will look like the bread with the filling except the filling is the towel. Let it cool, then unroll it take the towel out and fill the bread with the cream cheese mixture and roll it back up and put it in the fridge. Also this recipe doesn’t say to use a jelly roll pan but the original recipe from Libby’s says to use one and they actually turn out better with a jelly roll pan but a normal cookie sheet works too. Hope that helps
Oh and cut it when you eat it or after it sets in the fridge for awhile
I made these last night using left over banana squash instead of pumpkin and it was delicious! Thanks for sharing the secret recipe!
Yum! I love food blogs! This looks like the perfect dessert idea for tonight.
HONESTLY how amm I a ever going to keep my pregnancy weight to 30lbs with recipes like these. Looks so TASTY! Can’t wait to make these this weekend. Thanks for sharing the goodness with all of us. I look to your site for dinner and dessert ideas. THANKS.
these rolls look so good and the pic is great! thank you for having me on your blogroll!