Pumpkin cake roll

So it’s here — the day before Thanksgiving!
It will be our second year in the States during the holiday season. And, if last year we were all crazy about home-roasted turkey, orange-cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and different kind of appetisers (which took us forever to prepare!), then this time we’re too lazy. Don’t get me wrong — I like Thanksgiving! — it just feels a bit different when you are ten thousand kilometres away from your family.

I’m pretty sure you guys have holiday meals planned ahead, but in case you’re looking for a quick and still delicious recipe for a dessert right now, here it is. Moist, perfectly spiced pumpkin cake roll with light and fluffy cream cheese filling coated in pieces of toasted pecan — what a divine pairing!

For the cake batter:
the recipe is slightly adapted from FoodieCrush blog

3 eggs
200 g granulated sugar
150 g canned pumpkin puree
1/2 lemon, juiced
105 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
120 g pecans, chopped and slightly toasted
100 g powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F. Line large rectangle baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment beat eggs for several minutes and then start to add granulated sugar. Whisk until mixture increases in size and becomes pale yellow. Change the attachment to paddle and add pumpkin puree and lemon juice, stir until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together all dry ingredients. Add them to the mixing bowl and fold into eggs-pumkin mixture. Try not to overmix batter. Spread the mixture onto lined baking sheet and sprinkle the top with chopped pecans all over the surface. Bake for 15 minutes.

While the cake is in the oven prepare clean kitchen towel and cover it with powdered sugar. After removing cake from the oven invert it — still hot — to the towel. Sift powdered sugar to another side of the cake and roll it the kitchen towel. Let it cool in this shape.

For the cream cheese filling:
230 g cream cheese, at room temperature
100 g powdered sugar
60 butter, at room temperature

In the bowl of stand mixer combine cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add butter and thoroughly mix together until the mixture is smooth, add vanilla extract. Unroll the cake and evenly spread cream cheese filling. Re-roll the cake, put in air-tight container and let it rest in refrigerator for several hours. Slice with a sharp knife and share the cake with your family and friends!

Are you into pumpkin desserts? Which is your favorite?