Pumpkin Cake Roll

My favorite hubby had a birthday this week. I'll be posting what I made for his dinner in a little bit. I think it's healthy to start with dessert first : ). His request was a pumpkin cake roll. It's one of those things that kind of intimidated me, but I made it last year successfully so I felt empowered to do it again. And because we all know that pumpkin is fabulous when paired with chocolate, I added mini chocolate chips.

First things first. You need to prepare the pan. Grease it, line it with wax paper with a little tail hanging over the end, then grease and flour the wax paper. Believe me, you really need to do it all, otherwise you'll have a mess on your hands when you go to flip it out. I was lazy and just used PAM spray and it worked fine. Turn on the oven to 375.

Next, whip up your batter. It comes together quickly.

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. each cinnamon and cloves

1/4 t. salt

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips.

Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a medium bolw, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow. Beat in the pumpkin, then the dry ingredients, and last of all, the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. It will be a pretty thin layer. Bake for 13-15 minutes,, until golden and the top of the cake springs back when you touch it lightly.

Sprinkle a tea towel liberally with powdered sugar while the cake is baking. As soon as you remove it from the oven, carefully flip the cake out onto the towel, then peel the wax paper off. Roll up in the towel and leave on a rack to cool completely.

For the filling, beat together 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 6 T. softened butter and a teaspoon of vanilla. In my experience, it is best to soften the cream cheese at room temperature rather than to microwave it. Otherwise your frosting or filling turns out soupier.

Unroll your cooled cake and slather the filling all over. Re-roll it (sans towel...duh) and wrap it in saran wrap. Chill for at least an hour. I chilled mine over night and it held up nicely.

Stick a few candles in the top and you've got yourself a party on a platter. Yes, I'm aware that it's a Christmas platter. I'm rather limited in my selection of serving pieces for this shape of cake. And yes, he's older than 6. 33 candles would have been a little much for that cake - more like a porcupine!

Happiness on a plate. Both kids gave it a thumbs up, and Alan hoarded the last piece until the next day.