The pumpkin roll became a Thanksgiving staple in the 1970s and ’80s, when Libby’s began printing the recipe on their canned pumpkin labels. A thin spiced pumpkin cake is baked in a jelly roll pan, rolled up in a powdered-sugar-dusted towel while still hot to set its shape, then unrolled and filled with a cream cheese filling before rolling back up. Mary Ringlein’s version is the classic.
Ingredients
3 eggs
1 c sugar
¾ c canned pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
¾ c flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
— Filling —
1 c powdered sugar
2 (3 oz.) pkgs cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease and flour a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.
Beat eggs on high for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice.
Stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Fold into pumpkin mixture.
Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes.
Immediately turn out onto a clean towel dusted generously with powdered sugar. Roll up the cake in the towel from the short end. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the filling: Beat together powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth.
Unroll the cooled cake. Spread filling evenly over the surface.
Roll back up without the towel. Wrap in foil and refrigerate until firm.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Slice and serve cold.
Roll while hot: Rolling the cake in the towel immediately out of the oven is critical — if you wait for it to cool, it will crack when you roll it. The towel sets the curve while the cake is still flexible.
