Toffee Rum Pumpkin Roll

Okay, the first of my silly toffee related posts is on it’s way.  I made this bad boy tonight.  It’s especially seasonal, with Halloween and Thanksgiving just around the corner, so give it a shot. What, you thought I just did writey things???  Check out the somewhat whimsical directions for a holiday giggle.

Cake:

• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup golden brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin (1/2 15 oz tin)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Powdered sugar

Filling:

• 2 tablespoons spiced rum
• 1 cup whipping cream, chilled
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup soft toffee pieces for garnish
• Additional powdered sugar, for garnish
• Caramel sauce, warmed, and drizzled for garnish

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 F. It’s a cake.  Make sure you have permission to handle hot things before you start.

Line a 15 by 10 by 1-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Not the kind you write with, the kind you buy in the supermarket. Spray the parchment with nonstick cooking spray. Lots of it.

Sift your flour, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice into a bowl. I used one of those old fashioned spirally sifters and it worked well for me.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about a minute. Add the Pumpkin (just less than half a 15 oz tin) to the egg mixture and continue beating till incorporated.   Still using your whisk, add the dry ingredients slowly (so the dry stuff doesn’t go airborne) and beat for another minute.

Get a fresh bowl and beat your egg whites and salt until you have fluffy marshmallow clouds (do not lick the spoon if you value your sanity.) Fold egg whites into the batter.  This part is very therapeutic but resist the urge to do it all afternoon. Less is more with folding. Do it till the whites almost disappear but no more.

Spread your nummy batter onto a baking sheet and level the goop out.

Time at last to put your nummy goop into the oven and bake.  My oven gets excited and will do naughty things to the batter in 15 minutes but your magic might need 18.  Do the toothpick thingy. Come on, if you can do all of the above you can do the toothpick thingy.

Before it cools, apply a thick dose of powdered sugar. Use a lot, imagine your asphalt disappearing under the snow. Put a (for God’s sake) clean kitchen towel on top then flip this bad boy upside down.At the narrow end, fold about three inches of kitchen towel over the end and ever so carefully roll the cake. It can break here, so be super careful.  YouTube is a wonderful place to look for videos if you want a pumpkin roll rolling demo.  Chill for around an hour (the cake, not you) with the ugly seam at the bottom.

AND THEN:

Wash your whisk and start beating the whipping cream and powdered sugar until you get soft peaks.  It’s quite a shock for the cream so to calm it down, add a couple of tablespoons of rum. A little flavoring goes a long way with cream  so resist the urge to throw in the entire bottle. Fold in 6 tablespoons soft toffee pieces.

AND THEN:

Take your super chilled cake from the fridge. Smear your creamy goop all over and re-roll carefully, seam-side down.  Trim the ugly bits off the end with a bread knife as you don’t want to squish your masterpiece at this stage.  Get overly excited with the powdered sugar again.

My husband brought some lovely caramel sauce (the kind you drizzle over ice-cream.) We zapped it in the microwave, just long enough to soften it, but not so long it turned to liquid, then he did the nice artistic drizzly pattern shown above. Good man. He can have a piece of cake.

Last, but not least, we sprinkled with the extra toffee.  Soooo Goood.

Use a cream cheese frosting if you prefer but I find it’s best to omit the toffee and caramel with cheese or it all gets super icky.  Your stomach. Your call.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE on a plate.