Cream Cheese Pumpkin Roll

I wanted to create something this Fall season using pumpkin and I didn't want it to be a pumpkin pie.  I had extra cream cheese filling from a cupcake project and found this Pumpkin Roll recipe on "My Baking Addiction" that would be a perfect combination of both!

It looked great for breakfast, it looked great for a dessert, it looked great for an afternoon snack! It also looked a bit difficult :-/

I braved the kitchen this Sunday rainy afternoon after we took our walk to Starbucks and Safeway (Mike picked me up the biggest can of pumpkin he could find!) and went to town on my pumpkin roll.

The recipe said to use a jelly-roll pan to bake in...I had no idea what that was, but once I searched, it looked pretty much like a cookie sheet.  And I had one of those!

Once baked, I placed the cake upside down on a powdered sugared tea towel (clean of course!)

I rolled the cake in the towel and let cool on a wire rack.  

At this point you can make the cream cheese filling.  As you can see...my cream cheese filling is a leafy green color.  It wasn't exactly what I was going for.  

I wanted it to be golden....but foliage color will have to do! 

Oooooh.....so excited about how well it rolled up.  

 Wrap in plastic wrap or foil and let cool in the fridge for an hour...I hate the anticipation :-///

Okay, so the foliage colored cream cheese may not be the most appetizing to look at.  Mike had a few choice words to describe it.  Buuut, he was a trooper and tried a piece.  

And the verdict....he put away hamburger that was thawing for dinner because he knew he'd be going back for "11 more pieces" of the pumpkin roll. So regardless of the off-presentation....it was a big winner!!!

My tip: don't experiment with food coloring on this one :-/