I made this vegan pumpkin cake roll for my youngest son's birthday in September. Making a cake roll has been my desire for such a long time. I never even tried to attempt it thinking that it was too difficult. I have bookmarked a lot of cake roll recipes with egg/egg whites.
I was not sure about which egg substitutes to use in such recipes. So I was very excited when I found this vegan pumpkin cake roll in the book "Have your cake and vegan too".
I first borrowed this book from the library but after seeing a lot of interesting and easy vegan cake recipes I decided to buy the book and this is the first recipe I'm trying from that book. I'm so excited that this cake roll recipe has turned out great.
If you follow the instructions carefully, making a cake roll is not difficult at all. We made a video of this recipe so that it will be easy for beginners to follow. Actually I wouldn't say that my cake roll is perfect, but it is so much better than what I had expected.
I was anticipating a great disaster like the roll breaking or the cake ripping off, but to my surprise none of it happened. The only thing that could have been better was the roll's shape and thickness.
It was not round and did not have a perfect shape like the cake pictured in the book. I guess that the leftover cream cheese icing from the vegan carrot cake recipe was not enough for this cake roll, making it skinnier than the picture from the recipe.
Recipe
Vegan Pumpkin Cake Roll
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cake:
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup canned pumpkin puree
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil melted
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup icing sugar
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Filling:
- 8 ounce non-dairy cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons non-hydrogenated margarine
- 1 and ½ cups icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Line the bottom of a 11x15-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper (this is a must) and lightly grease the sides with oil.
- In a small bowl combine together the flour, spices, leavening agents and salt.
- In another bowl, cream together the pumpkin and granulated sugar only. Icing sugar is for sprinkling on the towel to roll the cake.
- Add the oil and vanilla and mix until blended well.
- Stir in half the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, blending until just mixed. Add the balance flour mix and blend it once again.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan, preferably using an offset spatula. The spread batter will be very thin. (See My Notes)
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove the pan out of the oven. Loosen the edges of the cake with a butter knife and invert onto a clean dish towel sprinkled with the icing sugar. Peel of the parchment paper. Roll from the long side of the cake, wrapping it in the towel. Let the cake cool on a cooling rack for at least an hour. Prepare the cream cheese filling meanwhile.
Cream Cheese Filling Recipe:
- In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese and margarine.
- Add the icing sugar and vanilla; beat until creamy.
- Make sure the cream is firm, but still easy to spread by storing it in the freezer to firm up for 30-60 minutes.
Assembling the Cake:
- Unroll the cooled cake and spread the filling throughout the cake.
- Re-roll the cake without the towel and wrap the cake roll with plastic wrap.
- Cover it again with aluminum foil or the towel itself and store the cake in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.
- Store leftover cake, wrapped in the fridge.
My Notes
- The cake batter was very thick and I found it very difficult to spread it on the pan. So I would suggest 2 things. Grease the pan lightly with oil and then place the parchment paper on top of it so the paper sticks to the pan and does not lift off while trying to spread the batter. The other tip is to add some liquid (milk/water) to get a better consistency and the spreading can be done easily. Care should be taken while spreading the batter, so that the cake will bake evenly throughout. Mine was very thin in one of the sides and a small piece of the cake did rip off but I was able to stick it back and roll it without any difficulty.
- My cake roll looked thinner than what was pictured in the book. I think some more icing would have given the body for the cake. Maybe following the icing recipe for this cake would yield more icing than I had from the vegan carrot cake which would have given a thicker and rounder roll.
- For those who are wondering if we could use almost a month old cream cheese icing, we can. I had stored it in an air tight container in the fridge and I read that it keeps good for about 3 months. But be sure to check that it does not taste weird. Mine smelled and tasted perfectly fine and so I decided to use it in this cake roll.
- Non-vegans can use dairy products wherever applicable.
Taste & Texture
Nutrition
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Key says
*edit
The recipe ingredients were a little unclear (Plus I’m an inexperienced baker) & lead
me to making the mistake of putting the 1/4 c icing sugar into the cake mixture. It might be helpful to move that to another location or to specify within the directions that it’s not added, just set aside for sprinkling on the towel post bake. The cake is still cooling, so we’ll see how it turns out! I plan to skip adding sugar to the cream cheese to balance the sweetness.
Madhuram says
Thanks for pointing out, Key. Will change it.
Amanda says
I made this after reading the entire thing, to include the notes and the video. My roll failed miserably and I’m a pretty sufficient cook/baker. The cake part didn’t yield enough cake. It was very thin and cracked/broke in several places. The filling was very runny. I added more powdered sugar to thicken but I think it could use another tub of cream cheese. If I make this again, I’ll double the cake part and try two tubs of cream cheese. Overall though the flavors are very good!
Madhuram says
Yes, the cake is pretty thin unlike the usual cakes we are used to, but I didn't have trouble with the frosting consistency. But it was not enough to make it look like a big cake. Somebody else had suggested to roll it up the other way round across the width to give a better volume.
Heather says
this looks delicious !
Madhuram says
Thanks, Heather.
Jake says
For some reason, every time I make this, the cream comes out very thin. Almost soupy.
Madhuram says
How come!? That's strange.
Jake says
I wish I could find out. I've made this recipe a few different times and I follow it to the t. I can't, for the life of me, figure out what's going wrong.
Madhuram says
Did you try increasing the quantity of sugar and reducing the cream cheese?
Pearle says
Have you tried using aquafaba to replace the eggs? I'm going to try it tomorrow using this recipe as a base. You did put in your notes that the batter was too thick so I think just adding aquafaba to this recipe will work. Or at least that is what I'm hoping for.
Madhuram says
I haven't Pearle. But hearing quite a lot about it as an egg replacer. Will have to try. Please leave your observation once you do it.
Dreama Black says
Please correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't non-hydrogenated margerine still have dairy? If so this can not be vegan.
Madhuram says
There are specific vegan brands which don't contain dairy like Earth Balance. It's made with vegetable oils.
Dreama Black says
The Earth Balance has "lactic acid" which one source of that is "dairy". It doesn't say that it is not obtained from dairy. As someone who has to avoid dairy at all costs, it pays to research all questionable ingredients. I have used Earth balance before and got sick from it. That is when I looked and researched the lactic acid.
Madhuram says
Hmm...but their website says that it's vegan. http://earthbalancenatural.com/product/original-buttery-spread/
Aimee B. says
Madhuram is correct. There is a vegan Earth Balance. Visit their site for more info. https://earthbalancenatural.com/product/original-buttery-spread/
Heather says
I don't have coconut oil could I use another oil instead?
Madhuram says
Yes any oil should be fine Heather.
Crystal says
I think, even though the recipe stated to roll from the long side, every other recipe I've read for a typical pumpkin roll is saying to roll from the short side. That'll guarantee a thicker spiral inside. Going to use this recipe next week, but I'll try from the short side. Also, for anyone who can't stand store bought non-dairy cream cheese, there's an incredibly easy and delicious one in Miyoko Schiner's book, Artisan Vegan Cheese. It's cashew based and fantastic!
Madhuram says
Hmm..that's interesting to know. I will try it too sometime.
Pipli says
Can I use plain veg oil instead of coconut oil? And any substitution of pumpkin puree? Want to have vanila and chocolate eggless roll cake... Please suggest..
Madhuram says
Yes for the oil. Not sure for the second question. Haven't tried it so can't give a suggestion. Sorry.
Diane says
What's the nutrional content of the pumpkin roll?
Madhuram says
I have not done the calculation for all the recipes.
rain says
dont forget about ground chia as an egg sub! you use it just like ground flax seed, but it doesnt have as strong flavor as flax, plus adds different essentials to your food! 🙂
April L Peterson says
Sugar isnt vegan unless its organic you need to specify this a lot of people are unaware
Madhuram says
Hmm..I don't use organic sugar but years back I have checked the website of the company and they have clearly mentioned that it's vegan.
rain says
not just sugar, anything that isnt organic isnt vegan, unless you dont count all the damage nonorganic food does to insects, the food chain and the planet.
December says
Organic means more than not using pesticides. Organic farming kills a lot more pesticides vs gmo crops that are made to deter those bugs in the first place not to mention that the things organic farmers use as pesticides hurt bees. This is a great recipe. Do some research.
Bee says
Why do you call for 1/4 cup of icing sugar in the cake batter? There is no distinction between the white sugar and icing sugar in the batter. Is that an error?
Madhuram says
Hi Bee, it's not for the cake batter, but to sprinkle on the towel to roll the cake.
Bee says
Can you tell me what to substitute in order to make a chocolate log version of this cake? e.g what should I use in stead of pumpkin puree?
Madhuram says
I haven't tried it Bee, so don't want to suggest something without knowing if it would work or not. Sorry.
Julie R says
Help! I have made this twice and each time my cake is stuck to paper. I greased and floured well, but it continues to stick!!?
Madhuram says
I'm unable to guess where it could have gone wrong because it peeled off the paper so easily.
Flor says
This recipe looks great and I can't wait to try it. On a side note, have you tried rolling the cake from the short side? I've always made cake rolls that way instead of from the long side. That should help with the fullness and roundness you were looking for!
Madhuram says
I haven't tried that Flor, but the recipe did mention to roll it from the long side.
Rachita says
I tried this recipe with butter milk instead of pumpkin puree. it turned out really good. i did a cream cheese frosting too.
Thank you so much.
Madhuram says
So you didn't use the puree at all!? Interesting!
Valan says
I love this recipe! My son has an egg allergy, so he always seems to get the short end of the stick with baked goods. I added some pumpkins spice to my cream cheese mix just to...well spice it up some more. 🙂
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for trying the recipe and for the feedback Valan.
Chasity says
This recipe worked out great... Was very yummy!!! Glad to now have a vegan version of a Thanksgiving staple I grew up with 🙂
Madhuram says
That's excellent Chasity.
Concerned says
I thought you should know that Sara of http://www.nourish-and-flourish.net passed your pictures and recipe off as her own on her instagram site. You might want to report it to instagram as she steals a lot of pictures and recipes and contact her via her blog for theft of intellectual property.
http://web.stagram.com/p/543455420888010496_6469754
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for bringing this to our notice. Will follow up.
sowmya says
Thanks Madhuram!
I made this yesterday. It came out soo well that I had to tell everyone to leave some for the next day. 😛 Thanks so much!!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Sowmya.
sowmya says
Madhu,
I would like to substitute the sugar to make it diabetic friendly. Any suggestions?
Madhuram says
Hi Sowmya, the only change you can make is using stevia or xylitol. Or else see if you can get some date sugar.
Svena says
I made this cake roll twice with common cream cheese (couldn't find a vegan version here ).
Whoever tasted it liked it so much!
Thanks a lot for the recipe!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Svena.
CurryLeaf says
First just one word, WOW. Will surely let you know when I test it out.Its looking perfect
Madhuram says
Thanks Sweatha.
anu says
Hi There,
this recipe looks really nice and i would love to try this for my 2 year old. could you plz explain if
1) will the measurement remain the same if i use fresh pumpkin puree ?
2) for the cream cheese filling what brand of cheese did you use. its so difficult finding a non dairy cheese here in kuwait
thankss
Madhuram says
The pumpkin puree we get in the store is very thick. So the puree you make at home should be thick too, for you to get the desired result. I used Tofutti brand vegan cream cheese but you can use dairy cream cheese too if you don't want to make it vegan.
P. Vasanthi says
Hi Madhu,
Cake is very nice. Video is also very nicely taken.
Madhuram says
Thanks Amma.