Pumpkin Rolls - updated with pictures!

Some of you may have noticed my obsession with pumpkin rolls. I start thinking about them in August and if I weren't too lazy to bake every other day, I would happily eat them for breakfast 3 or 4 times a week.

Sunday is T1's birthday so today he needed birthday celebration treats for school. The last birthday child had brought blueberry muffins and,the school being a sort of crunchy health food kind of a place where we're asked to bring treats that don't sugar them up too much, I was thinking pumpkin muffins. Matthew requested pumpkin rolls instead.


My last batch were done with fresh ground whole wheat flour and the texture was not nice. It would have been better if I'd sifted a few times but still- grainier than I wanted. I also have concluded that I don't like powdered sugar. It tastes like chlorine to me. So this time I tweaked the recipe and am really pleased with the results. When you look at the picture, you see some slices at the top of the platter are much prettier than the rest. Those are the ones from the frozen roll of the previous batch. If you freeze these and slice them frozen they will be much, much prettier.

In a small bowl, combine: 

1.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

In your mixer bowl, beat together until fluffy

 6 eggs

2 cups succanat or organic cane sugar crystals

then add

1 small can organic pumpkin

1-2 teaspoons of vanilla

then mix in the dry ingredients until just well combined

Line two jelly roll pans (the big cookie sheets with a side on them) with waxed paper or very well greased and floured parchment paper. Pour the batter in and spread it evenly then bake about 15 minutes.

When the cakes are done, pull them out of the oven and quickly turn them onto either a lightly floured tea towel or another sheet of waxed paper and roll them up, towel/paper and all. Cool completely on a rack before unrolling to fill.

Frosting:

Whip together in the mixer bowl that you washed while the cake part was baking:

3 8 oz packages of cream cheese
1/2 lb of butter
1 cup succanat or cane sugar crystals
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour cream

unroll the cakes, spread frosting and re-roll without the paper or towel. Cut off the ends to make it look prettier and eat the 'defective' end slices with a cup of tea for the baker!

These freeze beautifully. I should do several more for an emergency coffee hour stash but we always seem to eat them.