Cinnamon Roll Cake is a light vanilla crumb cake with thick swirls of cinnamon and sugar throughout and topped with a thin layer of vanilla glaze. If you are cinnamon roll fan, you’re going to want to save this recipe. This cinnamon roll cake is all the flavors you love about cinnamon rolls but in cake form. The recipe takes a fraction of the time it takes to make cinnamon rolls, so it’s perfect if you need to satisfy a craving in short order.
The cake layer has flour, baking powder, kosher salt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and melted salted butter. What I love about this recipe is everything is combined by hand with a whisk. Sifting the dry ingredients first makes the task of removing the clumps with the whisk much easier. Melted butter gets added last to the smooth batter. Melted butter can cause batter to become too dense or tough if mixed too much. Adding it last to an already smooth batter ensures a perfectly moist cake.
The cinnamon swirls consist of packed light brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and softened salted butter. It’s best to use really softened butter. Once combined this layer is much thicker than the cake batter. You’ll want to evenly distribute spoonfuls of the cinnamon sugar paste on top of the batter and use a knife to run it through the batter. Don’t be shy when spreading the cinnamon and sugar. It’s best not to have huge clumps of the cinnamon sugar in one spot or else it can affect bake time significantly. The bake time for a standard oven is 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. If you’re using a small oven, like a double oven, you may want to check the cake at 35 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean or with a few crumbs but not be wet.
Topping the warm cake with the glaze is the final step. Luckily you can whisk up the glaze while the cake bakes and pour it on the cake fresh out of the oven. Allow the cake to set up for five minutes before slicing. Enjoy warm. Be sure to check out my other sweet cinnamon recipes like my world’s best cinnamon rolls and cinnamon swirl crunch bread.
Cinnamon Roll Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 c flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 c whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 tbsp salted butter melted
Cinnamon Swirl Layer
- 1 c salted butter (2 sticks) softened
- 1 c light brown sugar packed
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp flour
Glaze
- 2 c powdered sugar
- 5 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a 9 x13 pan.
- To a large mixing bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- To the bowl add sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour melted butter into the batter and whisk until incorporated.
- Add batter to the greased 9x13 pan.
- To a separate mixing bowl beat softened butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together smooth. It will be thick.
- Drop spoonfuls of the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly on top of the batter.
- Run a knife through the top to create the swirls of cinnamon and sugar.
- Bake in the middle rack for 45-50 minutes.
- While the cake bakes whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.
- Pour glaze on the cake while it's warm.
- Slice and serve.
Notes