Pumpkin Roll

This classic spiced Pumpkin Roll cake recipe is perfect for the season!

A moist, thin pumpkin spiced cake is spread with cream cheese frosting and rolled into a beautiful, flavorful dessert!

Ingredients for the Pumpkin Roll

Here's a quick look at the main ingredients for today's pumpkin roll cake!

Ground cinnamon, Pumpkin Pie Spice, and Ground Ginger give our pumpkin roll wonderful flavor! You can adjust spices to your liking, we love it just as it is!

Canned Pumpkin Just as with our Pumpkin Bundt Cake, we use Libby's Canned Pumpkin (or something similar). You don't want to use pumpkin pie filling as that will not give you the same outcome.

Cream Cheese (for filling) We use "full fat" cream cheese for richness and the best consistency.

(Filling: Note that the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and butter pictured apply to the filling only as some prefer not to frost their pumpkin cake rolls. You'll see in the recipe card that we doubled these ingredients so that we could frost the outside of the pumpkin roll as well!)

How to Make a Pumpkin Roll

You can find the full, printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Preheat the oven to 375℉. Lightly grease and flour a 10"x15" jelly roll pan with vegetable shortening and line it with parchment paper that is about an inch or two longer than the pan on the two short sides. (The additional length of parchment is optional but will give you something to grab onto as you lift out the baked cake.)
• Dry Mixture: Combine the flour, salt, spices, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium sized bowl. Whisk until well combined and set aside.

• Wet mixture: combine the eggs, vanilla extract, and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Mix until well combined and lightened in color. (We used a handheld mixer for 1-2 minutes.)

• Add the pumpkin puree to the wet mixture and mix until smooth. (We used a mixer for this.)
• Next, stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture, mixing just until combined and smooth.

• Carefully pour the pumpkin batter into your prepared jelly roll pan or baking sheet and use a spatula or back of a spoon to spread it out evenly.

• Bake for 13-15 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly touched, or when a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached.)
• Dust a clean baking towel (that is longer and wider than the cake) liberally with powdered sugar as the cake is baking. This is going to prevent the baked cake from sticking to it.

• When the cake has finished baking lift it out of the pan and flip over onto the sugared towel. Peel off the parchment paper.

• Roll up the cake in the sugared towel tightly.

Then, place the rolled cake on a wire rack to cool completely.

This step of rolling the cake while it is still warm is important because rolling a cooled cake would very likely result in breakage. After the cake cools completely in the rolled position, we'll carefully unroll, add the filling, and roll it back up again.

Assembling the Cake

The filling and frosting that we are using today is a delicious Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. We love the combination of cream cheese frosting and the spiced pumpkin cake!

Once the cake has cooled completely, it is time to assemble the pumpkin roll.

• Slowly unroll the cooled pumpkin cake on the kitchen counter. Spread the top with cream cheese frosting, leaving about a half inch unfrosted on the long sides of the cake as well as the short side that will be on the end as you roll the cake.

• After spreading the top with frosting, roll the cake back up and transfer to a long platter or your cake base of choice. Then wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour so the frosting can set up.

• After chilling the cake, we frosted it (leaving the ends "naked") with cream cheese frosting.

• I added a shell border on each end, and piped frosting pumpkins with an 8B piping tip and leaves with a tip 352. The steps are just little chocolate jimmies that we had on hand. (You could also use buttercream piped with a round piping tip.)

• Because of the cream cheese frosting, this cake should be chilled. However, for best flavor and texture, remove the cake roll from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow plenty of time for it to warm and soften.

Once the first slice is cut, you can really see the beautiful spiral!

Recipe FAQs

More Pumpkin Cakes

Aside from today's homemade pumpkin roll, we've made many more pumpkin cake recipes! Some of our most popular are our Pumpkin Spice Cake, Pumpkin Cupcakes, Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake, and Easy Pumpkin Cake from cake mix!

Pumpkin Roll

BY Melissa and Bebe

This delicious spiced pumpkin roll cake is impressive yet simple to make! It is the perfect fall cake with pumpkin, spices, and a cream cheese filling!

Course: Dessert

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Ingredients

• ▢ ¾ cup all purpose flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (2g) ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (2g) pumpkin pie spice
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 3 large eggs, room temperature (If you are in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water.)
• ▢ 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
• ▢ ⅔ cup canned pumpkin (Not pumpkin pie filling.) (We used Libby's brand)
• ▢ 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Miscellaneous

• ▢ ½ cup powdered sugar for sprinkling on the towel.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting (Half this recipe if not frosting your cake roll.)

• ▢ 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (226g)
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese, softened (We use two 8 oz packages, full fat)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
• ▢ 6 to 6 ½ cups confectioners sugar (690g to 747g)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375℉. Lightly grease and flour a 10"x15" jelly roll pan with vegetable shortening and line it with parchment paper that is about an inch or two longer on the two short sides (This is optional but will give you something to grab onto as you lift out the baked cake.)
• Dry Mixture: Combine the flour, salt, spices, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium sized bowl. Whisk until well combined and set aside.
• Wet mixture: combine the eggs, vanilla extract, and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until lightened in color. (If you prefer a whisk, you can use that. We used a hand mixer.)
• Add the canned pumpkin to the wet mixture and mix with hand mixer (or whisk) once again until smooth.
• Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture, mixing with your spatula or large spoon just until combined and smooth.
• Carefully pour the pumpkin batter into your prepared jelly roll pan or baking sheet and use a spatula or back of a spoon to spread it out evenly. Bake for 13-15 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back when lightly touched, or when a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached.)
• Dust a clean baking towel (that is longer and wider than the cake) liberally with powdered sugar as the cake is baking. This is going to prevent the baked cake from sticking to it.
• When the cake has finished baking lift it out of the pan and flip it onto the sugared towel.
• Peel back the parchment paper. Roll up the cake in the towel tightly. Then place the rolled cake on a wire rack to cool completely. If working in advance, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• Add the softened butter to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing on low speed until blended.
• Slightly increase the mixing speed until frosting is well combined. If making the frosting in advance, it should be stored in the refrigerator until closer to the time of assembling the cake.
• If the frosting becomes overly soft while you are working with it, pop it in the refrigerator or 10-15 minutes to thicken the consistency.

Assembling the Pumpkin Roll

• Slowly unroll the cooled pumpkin cake on your counter. Spread the top with cream cheese frosting, leaving about a half inch unfrosted on the long sides of the cake as well as the short side that will be on the end as you roll the cake. (The filling will spread a bit as you roll and so this step will eliminate some cleanup.)

  As a general guideline, if making the full amount of cream cheese frosting, you will use about half for filling and the other half for frosting and decorating.
• After spreading the top with frosting, roll the cake back up and transfer to a long platter or your cake base of choice. Then wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour so the frosting can set up.
• Cake rolls are often unfrosted but we wanted to add frosting for decoration and also because it helps to keep them moist and fresh. If not frosting, a dusting of powdered sugar (though a fine mesh strainer) makes for a pretty presentation! You could also pipe on buttercream pumpkins as we did if you'd like.
• After chilling the cake, we frosted it (leaving the ends "naked") with cream cheese frosting. I added a shell border on each end, and piped frosting pumpkins with an 8B piping tip and leaves with a tip 352. The steps are just little chocolate jimmies that we had on hand. (You could also use buttercream piped with a round piping tip.)
• Because of the cream cheese frosting, this cake should be chilled. However, for best flavor and texture, remove the cake roll from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow plenty of time for it to warm and soften.

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