Yummy Pumpkin Roll

Have you ever had an Amish made pumpkin roll?  If you have, I am sure you will admit, they are amazing! Well the recipe I am about to share comes pretty darn close.  And it is not too difficult to make.  Rolling it up may be a little intimidating to some, but a little plastic wrap and the freezer takes care of all those imperfections - trust me!

Pumpkin Roll 

3/4 cup flour

2/3 cup pumpkin

3 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup sugar

Mix well.  Line jelly roll pan with greased wax paper. 

Pour batter in prepared pan.  Bake 375 for 10 minutes

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese (room temperature) 

2 TBSP butter or margarine (melted)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream together

 Line jelly roll pan with greased wax paper

  Pour batter in prepared jelly roll pan

 Spread a towel out on your counter.  

Use a tightly woven cotton towel, not terrycloth. 

Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar on the towel.

 Bake on 375 for 10-12 minutes or until done.

After you remove the cake from the oven, 

flip it upside down on the sugared towel.

  Gently remove the wax paper

While the cake is still kinda warm, 

spread the cream filling over the entire surface.

 Now the tricky part - don't be afraid.....using the palm of both hands gently roll the cake up.  (I could only demonstrate with one hand since I needed the other to take the picture. This will get a little messy and the cake will crack. )

 See the cracks?  They won't be noticeable when you serve it, trust me. 

On the counter immediately next to your towel, spread a large piece of plastic wrap.  Now gently pick up the entire roll, be sure to have a good hold on both ends, extending your fingers across as much of the surface of the roll as possible, and place the roll on the plastic wrap.

Sometimes I cut the roll in half (as shown below), and freeze it as 2 smaller rolls, depending on what I have planned for it. When you wrap the plastic around your pumpkin roll, pull it tight.  This will help pull those cracks together. Then wrap the pumpkin roll again on aluminum foil. Place in freezer until ready to serve.

 Cut and serve while it is still cold.

 Yummy!

Field Tile Pumpkin

  In this little project I use an old piece of clay field tile I found in the barn and create a fun and festive fall decoration for the home.

Tile drainage is the agriculture practice of removing excess water from soil subsurface. Back in the day farmers used clay tile such as these. Clay field tile is no longer used by most farmers, instead today's plastic tile serves to reduce the cost, as well as labor involved in tiling a field.  

But lucky me we still have piles of the clay tile in the barn "just in case" 

one of the old clay tiles in the field breaks.  

These clay field tile are the perfect shade of orange for a pumpkin.  

So I cleaned a few up and painted pumpkin faces on them.

Next, I hot glued a piece of felt to the bottom to keep the clay 

from scratching the surface where the tile is placed.

To get the look I wanted, I stained over the entire tile with a 

walnut colored stain.

  

Finally I sprayed the tile with a clear satin sealer.  

There you have it - a fun pumpkin tile perfect for decorating your country home.  I added some Sweet Annie sticking out the top, but I also think bare branches would look adorable popping out the top or you can just keep it plain and simple.