Amazing cake packed with cinnamon deliciousness. Cinnamon roll inspired cake roll filled with delicate cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
CINNAMON CAKE ROLL
How can you possibly make Cinnamon Rolls any better? Making it into a cake, of course!
It’s been a few weeks since I made a nice dessert to share with you. Last week, I made a Pumpkin Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Frosting for my father-in-law, for his birthday. As we were eating it, I thought that it would be really nice in a cake roll too. Hubs was actually looking forward to that cake roll until I flipped the switch on him. I just thought that carrot cake was a little overdone lately and pumpkin has been frequenting my kitchen several times a week. I just needed a little break from pumpkin but cinnamon….I can’t take a break cinnamon. Cinnamon rocks! Cinnamon rolls rock too and so does cake!
You can see where I’m going with this…
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Cinnamon Roll Cake Roll
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- __
- 5 Tbsp melted butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- __
- Powdered sugar for rolling
- Filling:
- 8 oz cream cheese room temerature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup COOL WHIP topping
- Glaze:
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Cake:
- Preheat oven to 375 and line 17x11x1 pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil spray (make sure to get the sides too).
- Beat eggs with electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes until thick and light yellow.
- Slowly beat in granulated sugar.
- Lower speed to low and add water and vanilla extract.
- Still on low, slowly add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat just until batter is smooth.
- Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly.
- In a small sauce pot, over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Stir for a couple of minutes and then drizzle over the cake batter. Carefully swirl the cake batter.
- Bake for 8 minutes and touch the center of the cake to make sure it's done.
- Run a spatula around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Let it rest for a few minutes.
- Generously sprinkle a clean kitchen towel with powder sugar. Carefully, turn the cake pan upside down onto the towel. Gently remove parchment paper. Trim off crusty edges if necessary.
- While the cake is still hot, gently roll cake with the towel from narrow end (don't make it too tight and don't press).
- Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.
- Filling:
- Beat cream cheese on medium-high speed, until smooth, 1-2 minutes.
- Lower the speed to low and beat in powder sugar and cinnamon.
- Turn up the speed back to medium-high and beat for about 3-4 minutes, until the frosting is light, smooth and fluffy.
- Turn speed back down to low and fold in COOL WHIP. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and fold until all mixed.
- Unroll cake carefully. Spread frosting all over the cake, leaving about an inch and a half one of the short ends(not the one you start rolling on).
- Carefully roll the cake back up (starting with the side that has filling to the edge) and place cake on the serving dish, seam down.
- Glaze:
- Warm up heavy cream and vanilla, but not too hot. Add powder sugar to the warmed heavy cream and whisk slowly, until all smooth. Drizzle all over the cake.
Video
Nutrition
Karyn K says
I made this today and 8 minutes was not long enough. I increased the time by 4 minutes and the cake broke when I unrolled it. I didn’t roll it tight and I let it cool completely. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I make roll cakes all the time and I don’t usually have the cakes break. I was able to use the filling to keep it together but would like for it not to break when I unroll it. Please let me know. Thanks.
Lea Faletti says
Very very delicious. Thank you
LyubaB says
You are very welcome, Lea! I am so glad you like it!
LyubaB says
It’s only a couple of inches so adjusting the recipe would be a lot harder than having the cake roll be just a little thicker. You may need to adjust bake time by 2-3 minutes longer because it will be a little thicker and you can make about half the amount of frosting because it won’t all fit so don’t add full recipe or it won’t roll. It will look a little different because it won’t be swirled as many times but not too much and will still taste great!
Sharon says
I have a 10×15 jelly roll pan. How would you adjust the ingredients?
Thanks
April says
I made this recipe last night – It is absolutely delicious!
Here are my take-aways :
– The batter was REALLY liquid-y. This took several minutes longer to cook – and the cake is pretty dense as a result. I’m wondering if I needed a tad more flour?
– The cinnamon swirl was a bit hard to get right – It was very very thick and as soon as I poured it into the batter – it became hard, and I couldn’t swirl it. It still tasted good at the end, but I’m wondering if it doesn’t need a little more butter or less of something else to prevent it from becoming hard? Did I cook it too long?
– My icing layer was significantly thicker – do you use all of it?
Overall, I really like this recipe, and definitely will be making it again – hopefully with a few tweaks to get it just right!
LyubaB says
Hi, April
I am sorry it didn’t turn out exactly right. The batter its suppose to be liquidy but it could be your oven runs a little hotter than mine. You can check it with an oven thermometer to see if it runs hot or not, let me know if you’d like a link on how to test it. Yes, the cooking of the cinnamon layer can be messed up by cooking it too long. The butter should be melted then added to the sugar right away, don’t let it simmer at all. I did use all the icing to drizzle, if it was too much for your taste you can use half of it. Let me know if these suggestions help you.
Gladys Cross says
Are there only 3 Tabelspoons of flour on the cake or am I reading this wrong?
LyubaB says
Hi Gladys,
It is 1 cup of flour. I have the recipe card broken up into different sections the first one is for the actual cake. Hope this helps, let me know if you have anymore questions.
Trisha says
I haven’t tasted it yet but just got through making it. I’m sure it tastes good but a few adjustment (for my end only). I let it bake an extra minute (9 minutes) and took it out cause I was afraid it may be overcooked. It was a little undercooked. I noticed areas where there were a bit more cinnamon swirl was undercooked. So, the bad thing is, it sort of broke here and there while I was rolling. For me, I would probably bake 10-12 minutes (it could be my oven and house temperature too). For the cinnamon swirl, let it cool completely before I swirl it on the batter. I will retry with these changes and re-comment.
Ellie says
The cake and filling are good – the streusel is a disaster. Something about the proportions were wrong for me and it ended up an absolute disaster. I tried it twice, same result. Sad face.
lyuba says
Oh no! I’m sorry. I will remake it and double check everything. Thank you for letting me know!
darlene says
I was just wondering how thin the cinnamon swirl should be ? Mine was a bit thick and was wanting to separate from the butter.
lyuba says
Hi Darlene!
You definitely want to get them thin so that there is always batter around them, that way the batter doesn’t break apart. What you can do is add the cinnamon swirl mixture into a squeeze bottle or a zip-lock bag and making sure there is only a small opening cut, drizzle the mixture in the thin line. That way, the drizzle will be thin.
I hope you enjoy it!
Natalia says
Making this very soon! Looks SO good!
Just have a question regarding serving. Should it be served immiediately? Or can I make the cake and put in the fridge overnight, take it out in the morning, make the glaze and then serve it? Thanks!
Lyuba says
Hi, Natalia. These do not have to be served right away; they can be refrigerated and served the next day.
marcie says
This is a genius idea, Lyuba, and it turned out so beutifully! Pinned to try, and thank you for linking up my cake roll!
lyuba says
Awe, thank you, Marcie!! 🙂
It was my pleasure!
Melissa Lemire says
Wonderful. Thank you for this guide.
lyuba says
Thank you! I hope you will give it a try!