Let’s learn how to make a perfectly spiced pumpkin roll, shall we? But first there is something I must confess. Until recently, I hated pumpkin rolls. So many times, I would be given a slice and the cake was dry, cracked, flat and the filling was so over the top, you felt like you were eating sugary cream cheese on a pumpkin cracker.
While trying to discover why this was often the case, I found out it had a lot to do with technique. As a result, I began looking up swiss roll cakes to determine why the pumpkin roll seems to be the ugly step sister of otherwise great roulades.
I started with Libby’s pumpkin roll recipe, the one everyone and their mother seems to bake. I just wasn’t fond of it, especially when the cloves are fresh as they become overpowering in flavor.
Libby’s recipe is great for the typical homemaker: good, but nothing to write home about. Perhaps the worst part was the filing. It was way too sweet and way too heavy.
So as usual, I started messing with ratios, 10 grams at a time. First, I removed all the spices. I wanted to manipulate the sponge first without the spices to disguise the base flavor.
Then, I decided to make a sponge with equal parts flour and sugar weighed out. That ended up with a super sweet cake, so I then went down in sugar since pumpkin is naturally sweet. As I reduced the sugar, I noticed the flavor of the pumpkin came through nicely.
Finally, I added back in the spices in addition to introducing others. Ultimately, I found people actually preferred the cake without cloves and ginger added.
The best part? The sponge was light, fluffy and no more cracks. Well, unless I over-bake it or got in a hurry rolling, or didn’t let it cool enough. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the perfectly spiced pumpkin roll.
Mix eggs until lightly beaten 
Add sugar and beat on low until mixture starts to thicken 
Turn up to medium high and beat until tripling in size 
Continue to beat until mixture thickens and starts 
Stop once you can draw a figure 8 on the top of batter and it stays for a few seconds 
Fold in the pumpkin and flour 
Pour into jelly roll pans lined with paper 
Gently separate cake from sides of pan 
Sprinkle powdered sugar on a clean cloth 
Tip cake onto towel 
Peel off paper 
Cake should be baked evenly 
While warm, start slowly rolling cake into towel 
Place on cooling rack until completely chilled 
Mix cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy 
Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth 
Autumn’s Perfectly Spiced Pumpkin Roll
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150g) flour
- ¾ cup (150g) sugar
- 3 large (150g) eggs
- ½ cup (170g) pureed pumpkin
- 1 tsp (4g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (2g) ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp (1g) allspice
- ½ tsp (1g) ginger
- ¼ tsp (.5g) nutmeg
- ¼ tsp (.5g) cloves
- ¼ tsp (1g) salt
For the Filling
- 4 ounces (113g) softened cream cheese
- ½ cup (62.5g) powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (56g) softened butter
- 1 pinch (.5g) salt
For the Topping
- ¼ cup (31g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and grease bottom of a 9×13" (23×33 cm) jelly roll pan, top with a sheet of wax or parchment paper.
- Dust a clean, lint free towel generously with powdered sugar. You can also use wax or parchment paper, but they will hold onto moisture as the cake cools and make it sticky.
- Beat eggs until frothy, add sugar. Beat on medium high until triple in volume and color changes pale yellow. You should be able to draw ribbons on the surface of the mix.
- Fold in the pumpkin carefully.
- In separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. If you do not own a sieve, stir with a whisk or fork until well combined, fold into wet ingredients gently.
- Pour mixture into pan, spread into the corners. Level out the mixture with back of a spoon or offset spatula.
- Bake 12-16 minutes or until cake springs back and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Center of cake should reach 205F or 96C.
- Flip cake onto towel and while warm, roll up in the towel. Do this slowly to avoid cracking. Cool completely on cooling rack, about 30 minutes.
For the Filling
- While cake is cooling, add butter and cream cheese into a bowl and mix until smooth.
- Slowly add powdered sugar, continuing to mix until mixture is light and creamy.
- Unroll cooled cake carefully, spread cream cheese filling onto the cake and carefully roll back up cake without the towel. Set on cooling rack and place into fridge for at least one hour to allow filling to set.
- Before serving, dust top with powdered sugar if desired. Or as an alternative, hold back some of the cream cheese filling and spread a thin layer on top. Refrigerate any leftovers.
What a lovely pumpkin roll! I’m going to give it a try. My husband doesn’t care if it looks perfect, just as long as it tastes good. I will however be leaving out the cloves. Being a child of the 1950s the taste of cloves just brings to mind the dentist office. I hated the mouth full of clove oil a visit to the dentist always entailed! YUCK! LOL!!!!
Hi Gidget! So lovely to hear from you. I hope you all are doing well. Haha, I totally would leave out the cloves for that reason as well. Gross! My stepfather is allergic to cloves and I leave them out of every recipe I personally make out of habit. I like to use allspice in place of cloves and nutmeg as it has a much more pleasant taste and is cheaper. When I make it for myself, I often times just use cinnamon and maybe a bit of ginger as it’s just as pleasant and cheap. Feel free to mix the spices around. I would recommend at least a tsp of cinnamon as without any spice, it’s a little bland as pumpkin really doesn’t have a strong flavor when baked. Any time you see cloves or nutmeg in my recipes, you know it can be omitted as I usually skip them to save money, haha! Glad to hear you have a darling husband! He’s a keeper. 🙂