Pumpkin Roll Cake

This is another Thanksgiving dessert favorite around here, although it's easy and yummy enough to make year round. I ended up making two of these over a period of four days.....because you don't even use half a can of pumpkin for one cake and I hated to waste the extras.....and the first one went WAY too fast anyways. We needed another one. "Needed" being a relative term here.

One important thing to know about making roll cakes is to use a towel or napkin that doesn't have fuzzies. I've made that mistake before and ended up with not-so-nice little chunks of fuzz stuck to my cake. This time I used a 100% polyester napkin, coated generously with powdered sugar, and it worked GREAT. Linen would work just as well.

Recipe:

3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs on high for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in white sugar until thick and lemon-colored. Add pumpkin and lemon juice.
In another bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg (and cloves and ginger if using....I recommend it); fold into the pumpkin mixture.
Grease a 15x10x1 inch baking pan; line with waxed paper. Grease and flour the paper. Spread batter into pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
Immediately turn out onto a linen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar. Peel off paper and roll cake up in the towel, starting with the short end. Cool.
Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Carefully unroll the cake. Spread filling over cake, almost to the edges. Sprinkle with nuts if desired. (Again, I highly recommend them, but if you have nut-dislikers in your family like I do, it's fine without.) Roll up again. Cover and chill until serving. Dust with additional confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Apparently these freeze really well....although I can't say I've tried it. We'd rather just eat them as soon as possible.


Obviously I didn't take the time to coat it evenly with powdered sugar....we were in too great a rush to eat it. But you get the idea.