Pumpkin Roll

Last autumn I was all about the pumpkin recipes…but this year? Not so much.

But then I saw this simple, pretty pumpkin roll recipe in People (from Kristen Chenoweth’s mom), and decided to give it a shot on a lazy Sunday. Aside from a minor powdered sugar incident (seriously, me and powdered sugar just do not go together) that resulted in the season’s first snowfall, all went well.

What you need:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cups canned pumpkin

1 tsp. lemon juice

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ginger

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

1 cup finely chopped pecans

For the filling:

1 cup powdered sugar

4 tbsp. margarine or butter

6 oz. cream cheese

1/2 tsp. vanilla

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Grease and flour a 15″x10″x2″ jelly roll pan. Line the pan with wax paper.

3. Beat the eggs at high speed for 5 minutes, then gradually add the sugar.

4. Stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice.

5. Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and then stir in the pecans. Fold the sifted ingredients into the pumpkin mixture.

6. Spread batter in pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cake sit in pan another 10 minutes, then turn out onto a clean tea towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Peel off the wax paper, and while the cake is still warm roll it up in the towel, lengthwise.

7. Beat filling ingredients until smooth.

8. When cake is cool, unroll and spread with filling. Reroll (without towel), cover with plastic wrap, and chill at least one hour.