A classic fall season favorite, Pumpkin Roll Cake is a beautiful dessert! Tender pumpkin cake studded with walnuts is wrapped around a heavenly cream cheese frosting, and it’s easy to make with this recipe.
I have to make a pumpkin roll at least once per year. Typically this dessert crosses my mind at some point in September while I’m enjoying a pumpkin spice latte or a pumpkin muffin from the local coffee shop.
I’m reminded that I have tons of delicious pumpkin recipes that I can make at home, and then I start going through the list to choose which I should make first!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, Pumpkin Cookies, and Pumpkin Pie are all good choices, but if I’m being honest, this recipe for a Pumpkin Roll with walnuts and fluffy cream cheese frosting is probably my favorite.
Read on for my easy Pumpkin Roll Recipe. It’s the perfect dessert to bring to Football parties, fall dinner parties, or holidays.
Why You’ll Love This Easy Pumpkin Roll Recipe
- A Classic Favorite – Whether you’re making a pumpkin roll for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or just as a special autumn treat, everyone loves this pumpkin dessert, and they’ve been waiting for it all year.
- Simple Ingredients – There’s nothing too fancy or difficult to find in this recipe. Canned pumpkin puree, basic baking ingredients, and warm fall spices are all you need.
- Easy Step-by-Step Instructions – Don’t be intimidated by this rolled pumpkin cake recipe. It’s simple to do with my tested recipe, easy instructions, and tips and tricks.
Looking for something a bit different? Try my super easy pumpkin cake with frosting, or a pumpkin sheet cake with bourbon pecan glaze!
Key Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make this easy recipe for pumpkin roll cake:
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Dry Ingredients: Flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt make up the dry team of ingredients.
- Spices: Add cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to the dry ingredients so that you have the perfect pumpkin spice blend in every bite. I don’t usually add ginger to my pumpkin roll cake, but if you like that extra spiciness, feel free to add a ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger.
- Wet Ingredients: Granulated sugar, 3 whole eggs, and pumpkin puree give this cake the right amount of sweetness and moisture. As a bonus, the cake needs no butter or oil!
- Walnuts: Nuts are optional because of course not everyone loves nuts in their baked goods, but walnuts add a lovely crunch and flavor to the pumpkin cake. Chop them into small pieces.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: A pumpkin roll is half cake, and half delicious, creamy frosting filling! You’ll mix powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice with vanilla extract and softened cream cheese and butter to make it.
How To Make a Pumpkin Roll Cake
Get Ready! Pre-Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Set aside and prepare a clean tea towel sprinkled with powdered sugar (you will use this to roll the warm cake when it comes out of the oven).
- Mix Dry Ingredients: Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Mix Wet Ingredients: In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat together the sugar with the eggs and the pumpkin puree until smooth and combined.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix them just until combined (too much mixing will make the cake tough).
- Add Nuts: If you’re using walnuts, now is the time to fold them into the batter.
- Bake: Transfer the pumpkin cake batter to the prepared jelly roll pan, and bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Transfer: Remove the cake from the oven, immediately loosen it from the pan and turn it out onto the tea towel that you sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
- Roll: Roll up the cake and the tea towel, starting from one of the short ends. Allow it to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make Cream Cheese Frosting: While the cake cools, beat together the cream cheese and butter, add vanilla, spice, and powdered sugar, and beat until creamy.
- Frost: When the cake is completely cool, carefully unroll it. Spread the frosting over the cake, avoiding the outside edges.
- Roll: Tightly re-roll the cake. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or until you’re ready to serve it.
- Serve: Serve your pumpkin roll cake chilled, dusted with powdered sugar, and sliced.
Tip!
Choose a kitchen towel that is thin, fairly smooth, and clean. Flour sack tea towels like these are the best choice, and I love the different patterns they come in!
Recipe Tips
- Adjust the Spices if you like. You might notice that I don’t add ginger to my pumpkin roll cake. I like the flavor best without that zing that ginger adds. You can of course add some if you like! I’d suggest no more than ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger. If you don’t have all of the individual spices on hand, use 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice instead.
- Be sure to roll the cake while it’s hot. If you let the cake cool too long in the pan, it will become too tricky to roll it up without breaking it. Be careful not to burn your fingers!
- Don’t frost the edges. The ends of the cake will be less pretty than the rest of the pumpkin roll, so you will probably cut those off and eat them as “quality control”! Skip frosting all the way to the edges, or the frosting will ooze out when you roll the cake.
- Chilling is important! If you try to cut a pumpkin roll into slices while it’s at room temperature, the frosting will be too soft and smear all over.
Storing Tips
A pumpkin roll can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It’s best if you serve the cake while it’s still cold in order to get clean slices.
Pumpkin Roll Variations
This dessert is completely classic, and really doesn’t need any alterations, but if you want to get creative, here are some decorating and add-in ideas!
- Add a design to the outside of the cake by dying a small amount of the cake batter with black or brown food coloring. Pipe it into swirls or leaf patterns onto the parchment-lined pan, Then freeze the pan for a half hour or so. Then, gently cover the designs with the rest of the batter before baking.
- Instead of powdered sugar, coat the outside of the pumpkin roll with additional cream cheese frosting. Then, decorate with fall-themed sprinkles, crushed walnuts, or mini chocolate chips.
- Speaking of chocolate chips, Add some of those into the cream cheese filling if you’d like! Also, you can use chocolate chips or white chocolate chips in place of walnuts.
- To make a Halloween-themed pumpkin roll, decorate it with spooky gummy candies!
FAQs
Yes, you can freeze the prepared pumpkin roll cake for 2-3 months. Wrap it well in plastic wrap, then with foil, and place it in an airtight container. Thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.
There’s nothing worse than going through all of this work only to have the cake split or crack! Following my instructions for rolling the warm cake with a powdered sugar-sprinkled tea towel is my best tip. If you try to roll a cooled pumpkin cake, it will crack.
Any type of thin kitchen towel without texture or fuzz will work. Opt for a flour-sack-type tea towel rather than a thick absorbent one.
I prefer to use a soft tea towel, but you can certainly achieve the same effect with parchment. The towel absorbs some of the moisture from the pumpkin cake, which gives the final pumpkin roll a lighter texture. Using parchment will result in a more moist cake.
I have tried to make this pumpkin roll recipe in other types of pans, and it never turns out quite right, so I do recommend using a jelly roll pan. This type of pan is a 15×10-inch baking sheet with a 1-inch rim. You can also use this type of pan to make a pumpkin slab pie.
I like the ease of canned pumpkin puree, but if you have homemade pumpkin, you can certainly use it in this recipe! I have a recipe for making pumpkin puree if you need to know how to do it.
The best swirled pumpkin roll cake recipe is right here! Save this recipe- Everyone will be asking you to make it every fall. Pin it for more people to enjoy too!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Pumpkin Roll
Equipment
- Jelly Roll Pan (15×10 inch baking pan)
- Electric Hand mixer or Stand mixer
- Clean Tea Towel
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (32g) powdered sugar to sprinkle on towel
- ¾ cup (94g) all-purpose flour sifted
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅔ cup (133g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅔ cup pumpkin puree
- ¾ cup (105g) walnuts chopped, optional
For the Frosting:
- 8 ounces (226g) cream cheese at room temperature
- ½ stick(4 tbsp, 56g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup (125g) powdered sugar plus extra to decorate the cake
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Set aside and prepare a clean tea towel sprinkled with powdered sugar (you will use this to roll the warm cake when it comes out of the oven).
- In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. To ensure that the ingredients are well mixed, you can sift them all through a fine mesh sieve. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl, with a hand mixer), beat together the sugar with the eggs and pumpkin puree until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until just combined.
- Fold in the chopped nuts if using.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared jelly roll pan, and bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and immediately loosen from the pan and turn into the prepared tea towel, carefully peel off the parchment paper.
- Roll the cake along with the towel and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting: Beat together the cream cheese and butter, add vanilla, spice and powdered sugar and beat again until creamy.
- Carefully unroll the cake roll not to tear, and spread the frosting over the cake.
- Reroll tightly. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, until ready to serve. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes:
- Adjust spices: If you’d like to add ginger, you can include no more than ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger in the cake batter. You can also use a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in place of the spices listed here.
- Be sure to roll the cake while it’s hot. If you let the cake cool too long in the pan, it will become too tricky to roll it up without breaking it. Be careful not to burn your fingers!
- Don’t frost the edges. The edges will be sliced off before serving, so you don’t need to frost all the way to them. If you do, the frosting will ooze out and make a mess.
- Chilling is important! If you try to cut a pumpkin roll into slices while it’s at room temperature, the frosting will be too soft and smear all over.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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