Guida’s Famous Pumpkin Roll

Have you ever had this feeling in the kitchen?

“I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m a great baker.”

“Sure, I can make that - no problem!”

This line of thinking is dangerous, my friends!

I started with the perfect set-up: a birthday-celebrating mother who loves pumpkin, a cream cheese loving father who was in charge of picking dessert, and a high-fiving fiancé who swears up, down, left, and right that his sister-in-law’s pumpkin roll recipe is the world’s greatest.

Not batting an eyelash, I quickly signed up for the task, completely ignoring my never-done-a-roll baking history in favor of a how-hard-can-it-be attitude.

Um. Turns out, it can be hard! Not only did Guida walk me through the recipe, she also walked me through the rolling steps. I took notes, I pictured it in my head, and I was ready to go. Per her suggestion (which I thought was totally unnecessary at the time), I opted to make a practice roll early in the birthday week.

I was sure that Guida’s suggestion of using a cookie pan would spread my batter too thin, so I opted to drop my batter into a 9x13 pan (mistake #1). While that was baking, I dutifully sprinkled powdered sugar onto a dishtowel to prevent the cake from sticking later on and awaited the ding of the timer.

A little too thick, eh?

I gave the cake a few minutes to cool, and then flipped it onto the dishtowel for its initial roll (mistake #2). Laws of physics came in, and the major gust of wind I produced with my flip sent powdered sugar flying all over my countertops. Not only did my counters then see the best scrub they’ve seen since we moved in (silver lining?), my dishtowel had the chance to become deeply attached to its new cake friend - so attached that half the cake stuck to the towel when I tried to unroll.

Lessons learned for next time:
-When someone tells you that a big pan is OK, trust their experience over your “ideas”.
-Powdered sugar stuck in a coffee maker is not the worst thing that can ever happen.
-Even if it’s ugly as sin, pumpkin roll is one of the tastiest desserts ever created.

Round two went more smoothly, and Mother Lisa’s birthday went off without a hitch. As far as fiancé and I, one week and two pumpkin rolls later, we’re going to start focusing the household baking on any non-pumpkin options!

Guida’s Famous Pumpkin Roll 
Ingredients:

Cake

3 eggs

1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup flour

1tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

4 tsp butter, room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix all batter ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Spray a full-size cookie sheet well, and pour the pumpkin batter onto the sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, lay a dishtowel flat on a counter and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. Once the cake is out of the oven, geeennnnnnntly, flip the cake onto the dishtowel (beware of flying sugar). Slowly roll the cake in the dishtowel until you have formed a towel-cake log. Set it aside to cool.

Beat all of the icing ingredients together in a stand mixer. Once the cake has cooled, unroll it and spread the frosting across the cake surface. Carefully begin rolling the iced cake back up, taking care to avoid crack in the cake. You may want a second pair of hands to help you with this.

Refrigerate the cake, and once cool, cut off the excess cake on the ends to reveal your beautiful spiral. Serve with a dark cup of coffee, and enjoy!