A pumpkin roll looks like a bakery thing. It’s not, really. This pumpkin roll recipe is a thin, spiced sponge cake baked in a 15×10-inch pan for about 13 minutes, rolled up warm in a towel, cooled, then unrolled, spread with cream cheese filling and rolled back up. That’s the whole magic trick. Slice it and you get that pretty swirl everyone takes pictures of.
Turns out a lot of people are hunting for one right now. Searches for “libby pumpkin roll recipe” shot up about 400% on Google Trends in the US over the past month. Which makes total sense, since it’s the dessert that shows up at every November potluck, and Thanksgiving’s on Thursday, November 26 this year.
If you’re planning a whole pumpkin dessert table, our pumpkin recipes page has the pie, the cheesecake, the bars, all of it.
Quick Facts
- Makes: one roll, about 10 slices
- Bake time: 13 to 15 minutes (yep, that’s it)
- Total: around 2 hours, mostly cooling and chilling
- Pan: 15×10-inch jelly roll pan
- Make ahead: yes, and it freezes like a champ
On this page: Why rolls crack · Ingredients · The towel trick · Filling · Fixes · Freezing · FAQ
Will My Pumpkin Roll Crack? (The Honest Answer)
Maybe a little. And that’s fine! Almost every pumpkin roll gets a small crack or two on the outside, and powdered sugar hides it. The big, cake-splitting-in-half cracks come from two things: overbaking, and letting the cake cool flat before you roll it.
So the whole game is this. Pull the cake the second it springs back when you poke it. Then roll it up hot, right away, in a towel. A warm cake bends. A cold one snaps like a cracker.
Pumpkin Roll Ingredients (and What You Can Swap)
Nothing fancy on the list. Exact amounts (cups and grams, both) are in the card. This is more of a “what if I don’t have ___” chart:
| Ingredient | What it does | Swap |
|---|---|---|
| Canned pumpkin puree | Moisture, color, flavor | Thick homemade puree, drained |
| 3 large eggs | Makes the cake bendy | None, they’re the structure |
| All-purpose flour | Light sponge | 1:1 gluten-free blend |
| Cinnamon, ginger, cloves | Warm spice | 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice |
| Cream cheese | Tangy filling | Mascarpone, for a softer filling |
| Chopped walnuts (optional) | Crunch on top | Pecans, or just skip them |
Oh! Before anything else, get the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge. Like, now. They need an hour on the counter, because cold cream cheese beats up lumpy and there’s no real way to un-lump it.
The Towel Trick (This Is the Whole Secret)
Okay, deep breath, this is the part of any pumpkin roll recipe that scares people. It’s really not bad. Get your towel ready while the cake bakes: a clean one, flat on the counter, buried under a little snowstorm of powdered sugar. Thin tea towels or flour-sack ones are what you want here. Fluffy bath-style towels leave lint on your cake, ew.
When the timer goes, you’ve got to move kinda fast. Knife around the edges, cake flipped out onto the sugary towel, parchment peeled away. Then you take one short end and roll cake and towel up together, kind of like a sleeping bag. Snug, not squashed. It sits seam-side down on a cooling rack for about an hour while it “learns” the curl. That’s why it rolls up again later without cracking in half.
Tore a little corner? Who cares. Keep going. The filling glues everything together and the powdered sugar on top covers the rest.
Cream Cheese Filling That Stays Put
For the filling you just beat soft cream cheese with soft butter, powdered sugar and a little vanilla until it’s fluffy. Easy part. The trick is where you spread it. Spread it right out to three of the edges. On the far end though? Leave an inch naked. Rolling pushes the filling forward, so that bare strip catches it instead of it oozing out the end.
Then plastic wrap, tight, and into the fridge it goes for an hour or more. I know. Waiting is the worst. But warm filling smears, and cold filling gives you those clean, bakery-looking swirls.
RECIPE
Pumpkin Roll With Cream Cheese Filling
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar 30 g
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 94 g
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200 g
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree 163 g
- 1 cup walnuts chopped, optional
- 8 oz cream cheese 227 g, softened, block style
- 1 cup powdered sugar 120 g, plus more for dusting
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter 85 g, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Equipment
- 15×10-inch jelly roll pan
- Parchment paper
- Thin cotton kitchen towel
- Hand or stand mixer
- Offset spatula
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 15×10-inch jelly roll pan, line it with parchment, then grease and lightly flour the parchment.
- Lay a thin, clean cotton kitchen towel flat on the counter and sift the 1/4 cup powdered sugar evenly over it.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes until thick and pale. Beat in the pumpkin, then gently fold in the flour mixture.
- Spread the batter evenly in the pan and sprinkle with walnuts if using. Bake 13 to 15 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched.
- Right away, run a knife around the edges and turn the cake out onto the sugared towel. Peel off the parchment. Starting at a short end, roll the hot cake up with the towel. Cool seam side down on a wire rack for about 1 hour.
- Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla until smooth.
- Gently unroll the cooled cake. Spread the filling to within 1 inch of the edges, then roll it back up without the towel.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Dust with powdered sugar, trim the ends and slice.
Nutrition
Notes
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Pumpkin Roll Problems and Fixes
Pumpkin roll recipe didn’t go perfectly? Here’s what probably happened, and what to do next time.
| Problem | Why | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cake cracked badly | Overbaked or rolled cold | Pull at 13 min, roll it hot in the towel |
| Cake stuck to the towel | Not enough powdered sugar | Dust the towel heavily, edge to edge |
| Cake stuck to the pan | Parchment not greased | Grease the pan, line it, grease the paper |
| Lumpy filling | Cold cream cheese | Soften it 1 hour first |
| Filling oozing out | Spread to the edge | Leave a 1-inch border at the far end |
Fun Twists on the Classic
Once you’ve got this pumpkin roll recipe down, you can mess with it. My go-to? A spoonful of maple syrup whipped into the filling. Ginger lovers, chop up some crystallized ginger and stir it into the cream cheese. Chocolate person? Use 2 tablespoons of cocoa in place of 2 tablespoons of flour. And nut-free crowd? Just leave the walnuts off the top, done.
Rolling not your thing? Same flavors, zero rolling: our pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting skip the rolling completely. And for something closer to cheesecake, go with the pumpkin cheesecake bars.
Can You Freeze a Pumpkin Roll?
Oh yes. It’s probably my favorite thing about this pumpkin roll recipe. Wrap the filled roll in plastic, then a layer of foil, and it’ll happily sit in the freezer for up to about 3 months. Need it Thursday? Move it to the fridge Wednesday night. In a hurry? Slice it frozen (cleaner cuts, honestly) and give the slices 15 minutes on the plate.
Fridge life is about 3 to 5 days, wrapped. Just don’t let it hang out on the dessert table all afternoon. With cream cheese inside, the USDA’s 2-hour danger zone rule applies, and the FoodSafety.gov chart covers the rest.
Pumpkin Roll Recipe FAQ
Can I use a different pan than a jelly roll pan?
I wouldn’t. The 15x10x1-inch size is what makes the layer the right thickness. Bigger pans (like an 18×13 half sheet) make it so thin it overbakes in a blink. A smaller pan gives you a thick cake that won’t bend.
Why roll it hot? Seems backwards.
Right? But warm sponge is bendy, and it cools into the rolled shape. So later, when you unroll it to add filling, it basically wants to curl back up. Let it cool flat and it’ll fight you, then crack.
Is it okay to make it the day before?
Better than okay, I’d actually recommend it. After a night cold it cuts so much cleaner. Just dust on more powdered sugar before serving, since the first layer kinda soaks in.
Pumpkin roll vs Swiss roll?
Cousins. A Swiss roll is any thin sponge rolled around some filling, usually jam. This one just has pumpkin and fall spices in the cake and cream cheese inside.
Fresh pumpkin instead of canned?
Only if it’s thick. Runny puree turns the cake gummy, so drain it first in a fine strainer. If you love pumpkin and cream cheese together, my pumpkin cheesecake is your next project.
Roll One Up This Week
Make this pumpkin roll recipe once for practice, eat it, then make the real one for the holiday. That’s the plan I’d follow anyway. If you give it a go, leave a star rating on the card and tell me in the comments how your first roll went (cracks and all, no judgment). And pin it for later, because you’ll want it again at Christmas.
