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Cinnamon Roll Cake is a cinnamon roll turned into an ooey-gooey, delicious cake! Swirled with buttery brown sugar cinnamon and topped with a sweet glaze… this is the BEST cake EVER!
We love all things cinnamon roll at our house! You should also try: Quick 45 minute Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes, and Baked Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal!
The Best Cinnamon Roll Cake
This cinnamon roll cake first made its debut on the blog in 2012. One of the first and BEST recipes here on the blog. But the pictures just weren’t doing it any justice. A soft and gooey Cinnabon cinnamon roll turned into a cake!? You know this HAS to be good! The best part is every time I make it, I have all of the ingredients on hand, so there’s no grocery trip required.
This cake gets swirled with buttery cinnamon brown sugar and is baked to perfection. Once you pull it out of the oven, you add on the glaze and it just melts on top perfectly. I am telling you, this cake is to die for. It’s the perfect comfort dessert and great for any occasion! My kids beg me for it all of the time. Serve it fresh out of the oven and it will be gone in a matter of minutes!
Ingredients for Cinnamon Roll Cake
Together, these ingredients come together to create a delightful cinnamon roll cake that’s both comforting and delicious! I know your family will love it as much as mine does.
- Flour: Provides the base for the cake, giving it structure and texture.
- Salt: Enhances the overall flavor of the cake, balancing the sweetness.
- Sugar: Adds sweetness to the cake batter and the cinnamon filling.
- Baking Powder: Helps the cake rise and become light and fluffy.
- Milk: Adds moisture and richness to the batter, so you have an extra tender cake.
- Eggs: Contribute to the cake’s structure and also help bind the ingredients together.
- Vanilla: Infuses a warm, aromatic flavor into the cake, enhancing its taste.
- Butter (melted and softened): Melted butter in the batter adds richness, while softened butter in the filling creates a gooey texture.
- Brown Sugar: Creates a luscious, caramel-like filling with a hint of molasses flavor.
- Cinnamon: For that classic cinnamon roll taste.
- Nuts (optional): Adds crunch and a nutty flavor for those who enjoy extra texture.
For the Glaze:
- Powdered Sugar: Adds sweetness and also gives the glaze a smooth texture.
- Milk: To adjust the consistency.
- Vanilla Extract: For some extra delicious flavor!
How to Make Cinnamon Roll Cake
Grab all of your ingredients and get ready to make the most amazing cinnamony dessert! Cinnamon roll cake will have the whole family hooked after the first bite.
- Preheat Oven, Prepare Batter: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then with an electric mixer or stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once that is combined, you slowly stir in 4 T melted butter. Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 inch pan.
- Brown Cinnamon Sugar Mixture: In a medium sized bowl, mix the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts if you are using them. Then drop evenly over the cake better in your 9×13 inch pan. Use a knife to marble and swirl over the cake.
- Bake: Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center.
- Top With Glaze: Make the glaze by adding the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to a medium sized bowl. Then whisk until smooth and drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Tips and Variations
Get ready to dive into the delicious world of cinnamon roll cakes. Even though this is a super simple recipe, a little insider knowledge can make all the difference. So, I’ve whipped up some handy tips and creative twists to help you create a cinnamon roll cake that you’ll absolutely love!
- Can I Add Nuts to My Cake? The recipe has an option to add nuts with the butter cinnamon brown sugar mixture. You can add chopped pecans or even walnuts for an even better cake!
- How Do I Tell if The Cake is Done? Stick a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean it is done. The cinnamon roll cake will be slightly brown and the edges will slightly pull away from the sides.
- Even Spreading: When spreading the buttery cinnamon filling, try to distribute it as evenly as possible over the cake batter to ensure a consistent swirl throughout.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Ensure that ingredients like butter, eggs, and milk are at room temperature. This helps them mix together smoothly and evenly.
- Cream Cheese Filling: Mix softened cream cheese with the brown sugar and cinnamon for a tangy and creamy filling.
Storing Leftovers
Got some of that irresistible cinnamon roll cake left? No worries, it’s all about savoring the goodness later on! Once it’s cooled down, wrap it snugly in plastic wrap or foil and pop it in the fridge. It will stay good for 3-4 days. When you’re ready to indulge, a quick warm-up in the microwave or a gentle reheat in the oven will bring back that freshly baked magic.
More Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Recipes
Who doesn’t love cinnamon? It’s so delicious and you can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert (at least I do)! Check out some more of my cinnamon favorites.
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Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1½ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 T butter melted
- 2 sticks 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 T cinnamon
- ⅔ cups nuts optional
Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4-5 T milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer or stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once that is combined, you slowly stir in 4 T melted butter. Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 inch pan.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts if you are using them. Drop evenly over the cake better in your 9×13 inch pan. Use a knife to marble and swirl over the cake.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center.
- Make the glaze by adding the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to a medium sized bowl. Whisk until smooth and drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! Instead of doing a glaze could you wait for the cake to cool and ice it with cream cheese icing? Thanks
Yes, that would be delicious! Here’s a recipe for cream cheese frosting if you need one. ☺️
I definitely will try this soon. We love cinnamon flavors. Thank you for this easy recipe!
Hello! Is it possible to make this into mini loaves? Thanks!
Yes that should work!
what would happen if you mixed everything up the night before and waited until the next morning to bake it?
It would turn out great! Just make sure to cover your pan with plastic wrap or tin foil and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it.
Is that tsp or tbsp in the measurements?
Hi! What measurement are you referring to?
Is 4 t 4 tablespoons?
Yes, 4 tablespoons.
Took a lot longer than 30 minutes to bake thru. About 45 minutes. Very good
i made slight changes by adding sour cream to the milk because i did not have enough of it. i also reduced the swirl portion to about 1/4 and added few cut up apples to the dough.
the cake was ripped to shreds by my guests so i guess it came out fine, ha ha. they left me with an empty pan.
the proportions of ingredients are very good and leave a lot of room to play: you can easily add fruits to the batter, use chocolate sauce or cream cheese for the swirl.
good recipe, thanks.
This may be the yummiest cake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I didn’t have milk, so I used half-and-half, and I exchanged 2 Tbsp of the milk in the icing for 1 Tbsp of cultured butter and 1 Tbsp of cream cheese. Just decadent! I know it’d be amazing even without these changes, so I can’t recommend giving this one a shot strongly enough!
I made this this morning after the kids were asking for cinnamon rolls but I wanted to just make something quick and easy. Wow! This is a decadent amazing breakfast treat. I could also see how this would be easily adapted as a base for a blueberry lemon swirl version etc.
Can you use gluten free flour in this recipe
I haven’t tried that before but it should work.
I used King Arthur measure for measure gf flour and cooked the cake 15 mins longer and found that it was
about 50% mush even though a toothpick in the center came out clean!
Super easy and quick to make. My husband took one bite and said “This is absolutely delicious “. Normally all I get is ” it’s good”. My only suggestion would be to have an ice cold glass of milk nearby. I will definitely be making this again.
Made it then made it again about 4 times. It was very good but I was tempted to cut the butter back a little. It altered from too much butter to just enough. I marked it up to not mixing enough. We’ll see… I’m gathering the ingredients to give it another go around.
Really like this one! Thanks for sharing it! I cut the white sugar to about 2/3 cup, and halved the glaze, and found that to be plenty sweet for my taste. But something about this makes for a super-satisfying treat — def keeping this in the rotation!
Does it need to be kept in the fridge?
This can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
I noticed that if I increased the number of servings on the recipe, instructions still said use 9×13 ” pan. Can you give pan size for larger recipe amounts?
I would use another 9×13 if I were to double the recipe!
This looks amazing. Definitely going to have to make this for family breakfast this weekend.
Liked the flavor so much but even though I tested the middle, there were parts underneath that were not done. It was too late to salvage once iced.
Lol that’s your fault, not the recipe’s fault. Not fair for you to drop the star rating because you don’t know how to cook.
It turned out great for us.
Next time, put the parts you can’t salvage in a pie dish or tin, bake a bit more, or flip over and broil a few, but watch it. Works with just about everything. May not be “pretty” but just call it a scramble or jumble. Sounds like your oven isn’t holding even temp all over.