The striking orange and black diagonal stripe pattern is made by coloring some of the batter and piping it onto the baking pan before the cake is baked (see step by step photos below – it’s easier than it looks!)
I had a hankering to make a cake roll. But pumpkin cake rolls have been done. Overdone in fact. I wanted to do something just a little bit different. In typical indecisive fashion, I wavered back and forth, unable to decide whether to make a chocolate cake roll with a pumpkin filling or a pumpkin cake roll with a chocolate filling. Because, surprisingly, chocolate and pumpkin are a remarkably good combination. But then I started looking online at pictures of ornate Japanese cake rolls and decided that was what I wanted to make, with orange and black Halloween-themed stripes. My design is fairly simple and far from perfect. But the two tone stripes are pretty darn cool looking, and I also love the pop of chocolate flavor (the dark stripes are naturally colored with dark cocoa powder.)
The filling is simple: a fluffy whipped cream folded into mascarpone cheese. The mascarpone has a delicate flavor, but more importantly, gives the whipped cream a structure and stability that allows it to hold its own when rolled up in the cake. This is not a buttercream. It’s light and airy and not overly sweet or greasy, like a lightly sweetened cloud. Could you use cream cheese instead? Of course. (Personally, I strongly dislike cream cheese frostings and tend to avoid them). But if you’ve never tried mascarpone you don’t know what you’re missing!
You might be surprised to hear this dessert isn’t overly sweet. In fact the first time I made it Taylor said it actually needed more sugar. I upped it a bit in the second version, but it’s still far less sweet than what you might expect. The sponge cake is moist and bouncy, lightly flavored with pumpkin and spices (this isn’t one of those punch-you-in-the-face pumpkin spice desserts—rather, more of a love tap of pumpkin and a whisper of spice). And the filling is beautifully simple, fluffy and cloud-like, with little more than cream, sugar, mascarpone and a pinch of salt.
The pattern is made by dividing the batter into three bowls (PSA: this recipe uses a lot of bowls. Just accept it and make room in the dishwasher). The main bulk of the batter is naturally pumpkin colored, a light orange. One third of the batter is then colored with cocoa powder, for both a flavor and color contrast. For the thin stripes I added some orange food coloring (Americolor Orange, for reference) for a bit more contrast from the natural pumpkin. The two accent batters are then spooned into piping bags and piped into diagonal stripes on a parchment-lined jelly roll pan (a jelly roll pan is in between the size of a quarter sheet pan and a half sheet pan. It’s uniquely sized just for this kind of cake). Once you’ve piped your design, freeze the whole pan for about 10 minutes to set the design, then pour the remaining natural batter over the top. This batter doesn’t really level out on its own, so you want to smooth the top out as much as possible (a large offset spatula is the best tool for this!) If you prefer to keep things simple, skip the stripes and just pour the plain batter right into the pan. Your cake roll will taste just as good without the stripes. :)
Once the cake has baked, almost immediately lift it out of the pan. Flip it onto a clean piece of parchment, and peel off the other piece of parchment from the back. Then lay a clean tea towel (dusted with powdered sugar) on top, and flip it again. Remove the other piece of parchment and tightly roll up the cake in the tea towel. Be sure the pretty side of the cake is facing DOWN, that way it will appear on the outside of the final roll (the first test cake I made I rolled up inside out and it the stripe effect was lost entirely). Let the rolled cake cool completely, about an hour or so. Then, when it’s completely cool, gently unroll it from the towel and spread the filling into a thin even layer over the whole cake (leaving about 1/2 of empty space at the far end – the filling will squeeze out a bit as you roll it up). Since it cooled in a roll, it should have somewhat of a ‘muscle memory’ and should roll up pretty easily here without cracking. Roll it fairly tight, but try not to squeeze out too much of the filling. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and chill it for at least 2 hours. Once chilled, remove the plastic wrap and slice it with a clean, sharp knife while it’s still cold (it will soften as it sits at room temperature and will be harder to slice cleanly without squishing out the filling). Wipe off the knife blade between each cut for perfectly clean slices.
Happy fall, y’all! Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 12 hours
