Pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling (gluten-free)

This is easy to bake gluten-free pumpkin roll recipe with delicious cinnamon and vanilla cream cheese filling. Great to serve at family gatherings and parties.

It’s always fun to go down to our local farm to pick some pumpkins in the autumn. We always have a great time carving our pumpkins and then making pumpkin puree from the leftovers to keep for later and to create lots of pumpkin sweet treats.

Why make this recipe?

• Relatively easy to make recipe, even for beginners
• Gluten-free
• Deliciously light sponge with light cream cheese filling – a fab combination of flavours

MORE PUMPKIN RECIPES

• Pumpkin Pie (without evaporated milk) >>
• Pumpkin Cake Donuts (Healthier option – baked recipe) >>
• Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake (no bake) >>

My top tip

Roll the pumpkin roll into a tea towel dusted with icing sugar straightaway after you take it out of the oven. This prevents the cake to harden and the sponge cools down staying softer (because it’s inside the towel).

If you don’t do this, be careful about rolling the pumpkin sponge, because it can crack.

Any specialist equipment needed?

You’ll need a shallow large baking tray, so that the cake mixture is about 1 – 1,3 cm thick. I also use greaseproof baking parchment to line the tin as it’s much easier to take out (and transfer) the sponge when it’s baked.

Time saving tip

This pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling cake is best about 12 hrs after it’s been assembled to get the sponge softened with the cream filling and to cut easily. This means that the recipe can be easily made 12-24 hrs before you want to serve it.

Ingredients for gluten free pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling

For the pumpkin roll

4 eggs

1 cup white (caster) sugar

1 cup gluten-free flour

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

¼ teaspoon fine salt

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

1½ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon or use 2 teaspoons of my Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

For the cream cheese filling

1 cup cream cheese full-fat

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 – 1½ cup confectioner’s sugar depending on your taste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pumpkin roll filling variations

Whilst the cream cheese filling is one of my favourite ones, I know that not everyone is fond of the taste. Or perhaps, you’ve already made the traditional cream cheese frosting and you fancy trying something a bit different. Either way, here is my list of favourite pumpkin roll-filling variations

• Lemon or lime curd filling (whipped with butter to keep the filling thick) >>
• Apple sauce & Butter >>
• Homemade apple curd & Butter
• Lemon frosting or other lemon frosting alternatives
• Toffee or Caramel sauce (whipped with butter)
• Mascarpone cheese (swap the cream cheese and use the filling recipe as it is)

*if the flavouring is runny, you’ll need to mix it and whip it into unsalted butter or double (half and half) cream to make sure that your filling holds inside the sponge. If the filling is very sweet (most of these are) don’t add any more sugar, just butter to make the filling thicker.

MORE PUMPKIN RECIPES

• Pumpkin Pie Spiced Muffin >>
• Pumpkin & Chia Smoothie >>

How to make Pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling (gluten-free)

Preheat your oven to 350F or 180C.

Spray a 15×10 inch cookie pan or shallow baking tin with cooking spray, then line with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with sugar until light and fluffy, using an electric handheld whisk or mixer.

Add the pumpkin puree, salt and cinnamon or the pumpkin pie spice.

Slow down the mixer to low speed and add the flour, baking powder and xantham gum. Mix until all combined and smooth.

Pour the pumpkin roll mixture onto prepared cookie sheet and spread out in an even thin layer.

Tap the baking sheet to make sure that the top of the batter is level and to get rid of any air bubbles.

Bake in a middle shelf for about 15 minutes, until it’s golden brown in colour.

Using a clean tea towel, dust it with a icing sugar and place on the top of the pumpkin roll tin. Place another cooling rack on top of that or a large cutting board and turn round. Carefully remove the baking parchment.

Keeping the edge of the tea towel over edge of cake, gently roll it up with the towel.

Leave to cool down completely.

To make the cheese cream filling, mix the cheese cream, softened butter, icing sugar and the vanilla extract together.

To assemble the pumpkin roll, carefully unroll the cake roll and spread the cheese cream filling inside.

Roll it back up fairly tightly and place on a suitable tray or a plate, keeping the roll seam underneath (so that the roll doesn’t unroll)

Cover it loosely with a cling film to prevent it from drying out and let to rest overnight or for 12 hrs in the fridge.

To serve, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices.

Serving size

This easy pumpkin roll recipe makes 1 roll, which gives you 8-12 portions, depending on how thick you cut them.

How to serve this recipe

This gluten free pumpkin roll is perfectly fine as it is with just a light dusting of icing sugar.

To make the cake extra special you can add an extra spoonful of pumpkin butter, homemade vanilla ice-cream or sweet apple sauce.

Can this recipe be made in advance?

This gluten-free pumpkin roll recipe is best after about 8-12 hrs of chilling in the fridge, so it’s perfect to be made in advance.

How to store pumpkin roll

It’s best to keep it in the fridge closely wrapped or inside an airtight container and eat within 2 days.

Can I freeze gluten free pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling?

To be honest, I would not recommend to freeze a cake with a soft cheese filling, so I’m afraid that as it is this gluten free pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling is not suitable for freezing.

It won’t go off or anything if you do freeze it, but when you defrost it, the pumpkin roll will become softer and you might find that the cheese cream filling might be quite runny.

You can, of course, defrost the pumpkin roll and serve it in a bowl with some icecream, crumble topping or fresh fruit and turn it into a different kind of pudding. It will still taste great!

Freezing the pumpkin roll sponge

Whilst I wouldn’t recommend to freeze the whole pumpin roll with the filling, you can freeze the pumpkin roll sponge itself (before you add the filling). To do that, make sure that the sponge layer is completely cooled down after baking. Leave the greaseproof paper under the sponge and place the whole tray in the freeze as it is.

Once completely frozen, remove the tray from the freezer and wrap the sponge tightly in a cling film. Place back in the freeze (without the tray) and keep flat.

The pumpkin sponge can be frozen for up to 6 months, although try to use it up within 3 months. This is because the sponge is quite thin and it can easily defrost, go soft or take on flavours from other foods in the freezer.

One problem you’ll encounter with this, is that unless you have a completely flat area of your freezer and the space, it’s quite difficult to store something as big as this pumpkin sponge. This is why I normally cut the sponge in to 4 pieces before I start the freezing process. Afterwards, I stack the sponge pieces on top of each other with a layer of cling film or greaseproof paper and finally wrap the whole stack of the sponge together.

This means that I’ll have slightly smaller pieces to work with, but this also allows me to make my pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling for just two people or just for me. It also means that I can have something sweet ready in just a few minutes by whipping the cream cheese frosting and taking a sheet of pre-baked pumpkin sponge from the freezer.

To defrost the pumpkin sponge, I’d really recommend to defrost the sponge on a flat surface in a room temperature. My trick is to use a cooling rack (the one you’d use for cooling down baked bread) and move it around my kitchen a bit – leaving warm air to come up from underneath as well as from the top to defrost the sponge.

The sponge will defrost quite easily and if you keep it wrapped it will be even slightly more moist than if you had just baked it. It should be very easy to roll the sponge and fill it with your cream cheese filling.

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