This classic Pumpkin Roll recipe is one of those classic Fall cake roll recipes you will want to make over and over, a crowd favorite, made with delicious pumpkin cake and luscious cream cheese filling, all rolled into the perfect Fall dessert.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
If you love pumpkin recipes, you are going to enjoy this pumpkin roll cake, which is like the fall version of large Swiss rolls. This recipe is the best pumpkin roll recipe since you can make a simple pumpkin cake batter for a pumpkin sponge cake and turn it into a rolled cake from the sheet pan.
Once you have a cooled cake, you can use the sweet cream cheese filling as a delicious creamy center to roll between the piece of parchment paper and the tender pumpkin cake.
For this recipe to make the pumpkin roll without using a cotton tea towel (some use a towel to roll it up, this recipe does not), you will use parchment paper instead! The parchment paper serves a dual purpose and is easier to handle.
But if you want to keep things simple, our pumpkin sheet cake is a fabulous choice!
Key Ingredients:
When making this recipe, it is important that you use pure pumpkin puree. Pumpkin pie filling is not the same and will not work as a substitute. With the combination of the fresh pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, you will get the best flavor for this easy pumpkin roll recipe.
To make the cream cheese frosting, you will want to make sure that the cream cheese is at room temperature before you make the cream cheese mixture for the best results. If not, you will end up with a large bowl of chunky frosting.
See the full list of remaining ingredients below!
How to Make The Best Pumpkin Roll:
- Preheat oven to 375°F and prepare a 10×15-inch jelly roll pan with a sheet of parchment and non stick spray.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl and whisk it all together.
- In another bowl, beat sugar and eggs until creamy (about 2 minutes), then mix in vanilla and pumpkin puree.
- Fold in dry ingredients until just combined.
- Spread batter evenly on the baking sheet, and bake for 13–14 minutes, until set and springy.
- Lift the cake using the parchment, roll it up (with parchment), and cool seam-side down.
- Mix cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk until creamy.
- Unroll cake, spread filling (leaving ½-inch border), then roll back up, peeling away parchment.
- Chill for 1 hour, dust with powdered sugar, slice, and serve.
Recipe Variations:
Add a little cinnamon or nutmeg, or any of your other favorite warm autumn spices, to the frosting for even more flavors to come through the whole homemade pumpkin roll recipe.
Top the unbaked cake with a little brown sugar sprinkled on top to add a sweet crunch to the cake for added texture.
Sprinkle chopped pecans on top of the frosting layer for a sweet and crunchy pumpkin roll cake, like we do on our pumpkin poke cake.
Pumpkin Roll Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 ¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup pumpkin puree
Filling
- 8 ounce cream cheese, softened
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 ⅓ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon milk
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉.
- Spray a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan (cookie sheet) with non stick cooking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper with some extra paper hanging over the sides of the narrow edge of the pan (10 inch side).
- Then spray the parchment paper in the pan with more cooking spray. (So now both sides of the parchment paper have been sprayed). Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice with a whisk. Stir just until combined. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl mix the sugar and eggs together with a hand mixer. Beat until creamy (about 2 minutes).
- Add in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. Mix until well blended.
- Then add in the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix just until combined, Do not overmix.
- Carefully place batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly to cover the entire pan. Place in the preheated oven and cook until cake is set. (About 13-14 minutes) The top should spring back when touched with finger.
- When cake is done cooking, quickly remove from pan by holding onto the overhanging parchment paper on each narrow end of the pan.
- Place on the counter and begin to roll the cake up with the parchment paper. Roll snug, but not so tight that is mashes the cake. When done rolling up, place seam side down against the counter to cool. You could also carefully lift and place on a wire rack to cool for a few hours.
- After the cake is done cooling, make the filling by placing the cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk in a large mixing bowl. Cream together with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Unroll the cake very gently. Spread the filling over the entire cake leaving about ½ inch leaving about ½ inch around the edge on all four sides.
- After your spread on the filling, carefully roll up the cake roll again. But this time do not roll with the parchment paper.
- Cover and chill for about an hour.
- Sprinkle cake roll with powdered sugar and slice into 1 inch thick slices and serve.
- Store cake in the fridge. It also freezes well.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.Storage and Freezing Tips:
Prepared pumpkin rolls can be stored, covered, and in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To freeze, wrap the pumpkin roll tightly first in a layer of plastic wrap and then in a layer of foil. Store it in the freezer for up to 1 month. When you’re ready to serve, remove the frozen pumpkin roll to room temperature 1 hour before serving.
Explore More Delicious Pumpkin Desserts:
- Pumpkin Pie Cake for when you need the best of both worlds.
- Pumpkin Dump Cake for when you need a fast and easy cake recipe.
- Pumpkin Honey Bun Cake that can be enjoyed as breakfast too!
- Pumpkin Layered Magic Cake is the best layered cake for Fall.
I’ve ALWAYS been intimidated to try any of the “roll” recipes. My kids were always doing a fundraiser around this time of year and so I took the easy way out and bought them. My husband LOVED this recipe! It was super easy and your instructions were well written. I did jump the gun on adding all the dry ingredients together instead of creaming the sugar and eggs. I’m not sure if that affected the sponge texture, but it rolled like a charm. Thank you for a new addition to some of our fall favorites.
Hi Kathy. We are so glad you liked the Pumpkin Roll. We have a friend that is so good at roll recipes and we thought it was intimidating too. Not anymore! This Pumpkin roll is so easy!
I loved this recipe. I made 6 rolls and they all turned out great. Very easy to make and very delicious
Momma Cyd, I made this the other day with my daughter. I cooked it for the 14 minutes and it was still wet on top so I extended the cooking 3 min, it was still wet and so i did 3 more. I did that about 2 more times. We rolled it up finally and when we unrolled it, it was a mess. We basically started over and the same thing happened. I was smarter and I did make it work. What am I doing wrong? I am using the regular sheet cake pan which dimensions are a bit bigger than the ones you give. My oven cooks everything else just how it should. Is the cook for 14 minutes correct? What if I turned the oven down to 350 degrees and cooked for 30 minutes? Any other suggestions? Pumpkin roll is a favorite of mine since childhood made by my best friends mother.
The main thing you need to be sure and do is place the pan in the preheated oven and bake it for about 14 mins or until the cake is set. The cake should spring back when you touch it with your finger. If your cake takes longer until it’s set or springs back when you touch it with your finger, that is fine! Hope this helps.
I have made these for years. Made over 100 at a time for gifts. The last few years I’ve had trouble with them being “sticky” after I unroll them. I’ve tried everything I know and have reached out to several ppl to try to correct this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
We have wrapped up our cake roll in both parchment paper and a thin flour sack dish cloth. Both have worked great. Be sure you wrap it up warm – right from the oven.
I really messed up already!! I added the sugar to the dry mixture…i put it aside and started over..why is it that the ingredients ate listed then we begin the recipee but have to go to end of the recipee to find the measurement?? That’s why I messed up going back and forth..anyway..would I be able to use that dry mixture plus suger…sigh…for this recipee?? Or perhaps a different recipee?? I hate to waste it. Also my eggs aren’t e not completely room temp..is that gonna be a problem?? I will let you know how I do and how it tastes. I’m not real good at this baking but I wanted to give them as xmas gifts to neighbors
Thanks for reading. Happy holidays