Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Icing Roll

This past weekend was Halloween, on Thursday Dave informed me I was going to have people over for dinner on Saturday night. I usually invite people to Dave's because it is more conducive for entertaining, as in, he has tables. Anyways, Saturday night was my first dinner party.

Trying to muster up some ghoolish cheer I googled like crazy to come up with fun dinner ideas and came across stuffed monsters (peppers) with asparagus antennas, olive eyes, and pepper tops for mouths. I used my own recipe for the stuffing, and broccoli stems for the eyes instead of green olive eyes (yuck!). With a side of my not-best-ever veggie roast, the peppers were very cute and pretty yum in the tum.

The best part of this dinner party was the dessert- I usually don't make desserts that consist of more than ice cream, chocolate sauce and (for Dave) peanut butter. I remembered an awesome pumpkin dessert my mom had made one year, and cannot take credit for any of it, but figured it is a must share recipe since it is so delicious and so easy.

Shopping List:

• 2/3 cup of canned pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 cups of sugar (1 cup and ½ cup)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tspn cinnamon
• ¾ cup flour
• Chocolate chips
• 2 tblspns butter ( I used salted whipped butter)
• 8 oz cream cheese
• ¾ tsp of vanilla
• 1 cup of powdered sugar

Putting it together:

                For the Batter:

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Grease a 10x15 pan with butter, cover with wax paper, also grease the wax paper with butter.
3. Mix the first six ingredients (1 cup of sugar), pour into the greased pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
4. Cook for 15 minutes on a rack in the middle of the oven.
5. Prepare a Turkish towel by dusting it with the remaining ½ cup of sugar.
6. When the cake is cooked, flip it onto the sugared towel and peel off the wax paper.

For the Icing and Roll:

1.       Mix the last 4 ingredients until whipped smooth

2.       When the cake is cool apply the icing evenly.

3.       Using the towel as a guide, roll the cake.

4.       Cover with wax paper and refrigerate for at least one hour.

5.       Slice and enjoy.

Notes:

-          I didn’t have a Turkish towel, so I picked out the least absorbent towel I had. I noticed it was very moist underneath the towel so slipped a cooking rack below the towel to raise the cake and promote a little air flow. I don’t know if it was useful or not.

-          I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips, everyone was really happy they weren’t raisins.

-          Thicker slices and a serrated edge help make clean slices.