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This Fall Spice Swiss Roll is the perfect way to celebrate Halloween and the colder winter months. Delicately spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, and filled with a tangy cream cheese frosting that makes this swiss roll (aka. cake roll or roulade) a great crowd pleaser for Halloween.
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Hi friends! I hope you’re all well?
What are you doing for Halloween this year?
We’ve decided [last year (!!!!)] that we’d have a Halloween party this year. Yup, I needed a whole year to plan it! When you’ve got 3 kids who each want to invite a gazillion friends each, that needs a years worth of planning, amirite?
The plan is for the guests to arrive quite early since they have school on Halloween. Listen to a spooky song playlist while I serve a buffet of spooky sandwiches, finger foods, and creepy cakes.
Then once they’ve finished eating perhaps some games. Imagine ‘pass the parcel’ with a twist. Some layers maybe filled with slime or something not so nice. Or maybe that game where you have to blindly put your hand in a box and feel around! There’s going to be slime in that too! Muahhahahahaaa!
Then maybe a movie, if we have time. And trick or treating, of course. I can’t wait to get in on the fun. I’m just a 35 year old overgrown child myself. 🙂 This was me last year.
At least I can get in on the Halloween fun early this year by making this Fall Spice Swiss Roll and prepping on the buffet table.
I had decided a Swiss Roll (aka. Roll Cake to you Americans, or Roulade to you French peeps) because they’re such a crowd pleaser and can be accommodated to the amount of guests easily – thinner slices for more people, thicker for less – you get the idea. 😉
And Swiss rolls are also a fatless sponge = less calories. In my world that means I can eat more!
I popped to my local Tesco to pick up the eggs, sugar, flour, and cream cheese needed for this recipe and got to work.
Most of the items are in the Home Baking aisle with the exception of the cream cheese and eggs.
I had planned on piping a design onto my Swiss roll by colouring some of the batter black. I tried that t.w.i.c.e.! Both came out great, but oddly the parchment paper stuck to the design on both occasions. What the heck?
On the first attempt, I greased the pan and lined with parchment – stuck. On the second attempt, I greased the pan, lined with greaseproof paper and even tried greasing the paper too – no such joy, stick stuck!
However, if you fancy your hand at decorating the roll cake, just reserve around ¼-½ cup of batter to colour and a #1 or #2 piping tip.
Or you could just make this Fall Spice Swiss Roll instead. The cake has all the flavours of fall (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves), with a delicious tangy cream cheese frosting. What’s not to love?

Fall Spice Swiss Roll
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 swiss roll
This Fall Spice Swiss Roll (aka. Roll Cake or Roulade) is delicately spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, and filled with a tangy cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients:
Swiss Roll
- 125g (1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ⅛ tsp allspice
- dash of cloves
- 3 large eggs
- 170g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 85g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 85g (3oz) cream cheese, softened
- 190g (1½ cups) icing (powdered) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- icing (powdered) sugar, to dust
- sprinkles, optional
Directions:
- To make the Swiss roll, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5. Grease and line a swiss roll pan (I used a 40x29 cm / 15x11 inch pan) with parchment paper, set aside.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Whisk the eggs on high speed for around 2 minutes, or until starting to increase in volume, then gradually add in the sugar, continuing to whisk for a further 3 minutes on high, or until thickened.
- Sift and fold in the flour mixture until combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Do not over bake - see notes. While baking, lay a clean lint-free tea towel or a piece of parchment paper large enough to fit the unrolled cake on the counter.
- Once baked, immediately invert the cake out onto the clean towel or parchment paper and roll up short end to short end. Allow to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese until combined, then gradually add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla.
- To assemble, carefully unroll the cake and using an offset spatula, spread the cream cheese frosting in an even layer, leaving around 1-inch from the edges.
- Re-roll the cake. Using a serrated knife, trim the edges to neaten up. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30-minutes for the cake and frosting to firm up.
- To serve, dust the cake with icing sugar.
- (Optional) Pipe some frosting swirls on the outside of the cake and add some sprinkles, if desired.
Notes:
To prevent cracking when rolling, do not over bake this cake. My oven only took 10 minutes, so I'd recommend doing the toothpick test at around 8 minutes to ensure you don't accidentally over bake.
Don't have large eggs in? Use 4 medium eggs instead.

What’s your favourite Halloween treat?
5 More Halloween sweets and treats ideas:
Four Easy Halloween Treat Ideas by Sprinkle Bakes
Mummy Halloween Cupcakes by Sugar & Soul
Homemade Halloween Oreos by Baking A Moment
Halloween Muddy Buddies by Shugary Sweets
Halloween Snack Mix by Crazy for Crust
what a beautiful looking swiss roll. I bet it tasted great with all of those spices!
Great post! This looks pretty much what I need for Halloween 🙂 Looks great and easy to make, low with calories . ! Thank you very much for sharing this, I bookmarked the recipe right away! 🙂
This looks fantastic! I just found your sure when trying to do a search converting British baking measurements to American measurements. Have you ever tried making this by adding some pumpkin into the cream cheese mixture. For an extra fall flavor?
I made this the flavor is great I added a splash of vanilla in the cake I baked it or 10 minutes and it was over baked it kinda came out like a cookie it still tastes really good though next time I’ll know to bake it for a shorter time overall this is a great recipe!