Easy Cinnamon Roll Cake is absolute perfection. It’s simple to make, crazy delicious loaded with cinnamon sugar and covered in sweet icing!
This cinnamon roll cake recipe is easily a favorite in my house. I actually thought I had shared the recipe for this cake a long time ago…turns out I didn’t. You see when you bake as often as I do things get jumbled. Maybe it’s all the sugar? Nah…
Anyhow, this is the world’s easiest cake. My kids even request it for their birthday cake which seems so weird to me…hello no buttercream…but we all know kids are weird. Or maybe they aren’t…this cake is that good.
Yes, my cake mix-phobic friends I short-cutted this. I know, I know, you are all probably so disappointed in me. I am always looking for doctored up yellow cake mix recipes, and this cinnamon roll cake is the perfect example of when it’s RIGHT to use a cake mix. But yes please, if you would like to use your own cake recipe please do so. Just start the recipe when you add cinnamon sugar…I’ll explain that in a minute.
But first let’s take a look…the gooey cake, the drippy icing, the swirly cinnamon.
Hold me.
How to make Easy Cinnamon Roll Cake
Like I said the cinnamon roll cake itself it super duper easy. You’re basically doctoring up a cake mix a little bit.
THEN you make a little (a lot) of cinnamon sugar.
You sprinkle that all over the top of the batter…
And gently swirl that in with a knife…
Don’t over swirl it though. You don’t want to mix it all in, you want gorgeous ribbons of cinnamon throughout.
Bake it up and it behold…
And then make a quick icing and behold again…
Your cake will be drowning in icing and loving every minute.
And if you can, wait until the icing sets up to cut it…
Or don’t. I get you.
Make it. Eat it. Love it.
This Easy Cinnamon Roll Cake Recipe will quickly become a favorite in your house!
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Easy Cinnamon Roll Cake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: serves 10 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Dessert
Description
This recipe is one of the most requested cake recipes in my house. My family loves it!
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25- ounce) box yellow cake mix
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup sour cream (not light)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the cake mix, eggs, oil, vanilla and sour cream. Mix on low for 30 seconds and then raise the speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Spread the cake batter into your prepared pan. In a medium bowl whisk together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle this evenly on top of your cake.
- Using a butter knife gently swirl the cinnamon sugar into the cake batter. Don’t over-swirl, as you want ribbons of the mixture throughout the cake.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool cake for 15-20 minutes.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and milk. Pour this over the slightly warm cake. Allow the icing to set, or eat right away!
Notes
Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 367
- Sugar: 36 g
- Sodium: 79.9 mg
- Fat: 21.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 40.3 g
- Protein: 4.5 g
- Cholesterol: 82.5 mg
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Helpful tip… Out of sour cream? Here’s a sour cream substitute!
Made this according to the original recipe the first time and it was wonderful. Then I decided to add some diced apples and pecans into and it was awesome. Thanks for sharing recipe.
Is something off with the icing measurements? Just made a thick blobby mess that was very difficult to spread. I had to add more milk then microwave and was still thick. I ended up having to do two batches just to be able to cover the cake because it was too thick to spread.
That’s strange! Simply adding more milk should thin it out. I would start by adding 1 teaspoon at a time more milk until the desired consistency is reached!
Made this today, the middle never cooked thoroughly even after 50 minutes. My oven is new and I have never had any issues with baking anything. Extremely oily . Maybe next time I will not use as much oil as you suggest…it smells good though.
Mine has been baking for an hour and there is still batter in the middle. oven thermometer is reading 325 too smh
If there are any negative reviews they are insane. I absolutely never take the time to review things but this is super easy and fantastic. Seriously.
SO glad you liked it!!
First time I made this it turned out really oily overly eggy and soggy. It wasn’t great. But the second time it’s been great
I don’t have a stand mixer and I really want to make this is there any thing I can do
You can use a hand mixer!
I don’t have a stand or hand mixer can I use a spoon to mix it
can I use a big spoon I don’t have a hand mixer or a stand mixer
IT might be a little denser than normal. Mixing with the mixer aerates the batter helping it rise, and create a light texture, but since the base of this recipe is a cake mix, it might work! I would recommend using a whisk at the very least!
It looks like a work of art.That is so cool and I love it inside and out ??????.
This cake is delicious, and I am planning to make it again today. However, I have found that I needed to double the ingredients for the glaze, because I just didn’t think there was enough glaze to sufficiently cover the cake. Did anyone else have this problem?
I did have that same problem so I took a vanilla (or cream cheese) can of frosting and frosted over that. Also, not sure why my cake had all the sugar/cinn on top (like I had never tried to swirl it with a knife but I did) and it was dry.
Hi there. I am planning on making this for my boss’ birthday this morning, before work. Your total time in the header was misleading, saying 30 minutes, when in the body of the recipe it calls to bake for 30 and cool for 20, give or take. Other than having to set my alarm for an earlier wake up call, I was wondering if this recipe translates well as cupcakes? This seems to be the best of both worlds: cinnamon rolls and cakes…who could ask for more? REALLY, REALLY looking forward to it. Thanks!
The total time is the prep and bake time. Cool time isn’t included in that. But if you’re taking it to work, the commute time would work for the cooling off if that’s what you’re worried about! But yes, certainly you can make this recipe into cupcakes.
Why regular sour cream? What would happen if I used light sour cream?
There wouldn’t be a huge difference, just the fat content in sour cream plays a part in the texture of the cake 🙂