Easy Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Icing
Can you believe Easter is almost here already? Soon everyone’s favorite rabbit will be hopping down the bunny trail with colored eggs and other goodies for all of us. Yum!
But what does that poor little bunny get in return for all his hard work? If we leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus at Christmastime, it seems only fair to leave some kind of treat for the Easter Bunny, too. And we all know rabbits love carrots…so how about a nice carrot cake for our furry friend?
Carrot cake with cream cheese icing is a classic, but it has that problem where you can never quite get the icing and the cake to balance out in every bite. You either eat from the top down and run out of icing, or you eat from the bottom up and run out of cake.
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So here’s my solution: am easy carrot cake roll. It has layers of carroty cake and creamy icing rolled up together, so you get a perfect balance of cake and icing in every bite. Plus it has a nice rounded shape that looks a little bit like one more, really big Easter egg.
Of course, just because you’re making it as a special treat for the Easter Bunny doesn’t mean you can’t have some of it yourself to go with your Easter ham. I’m sure he won’t mind.
Easy Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Icing
(printable recipe at bottom of post)
INGREDIENTS:
1 box carrot cake mix
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 (12oz) container vanilla frosting
½ cup powdered sugar
DIRECRTIONS:
1. Prepare cake batter according to the box directions, but cut back the amount of water required by ¼ of a cup. Leave amounts for oil/egg the same.
2. Line a 10½ by 15½ inch pan (aka jelly roll pan) with parchment paper, and I also sprayed mine with non- stick spray for extra assurance that it wouldn’t stick.
3. Bake for approximately 10 – 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. While the cake is baking, spread a clean dish towel on the counter and sprinkle with powdered sugar on top of the towel.
4. When cake is finished baking, take it out of the oven and quickly turn it over the kitchen towel. Carefully remove the parchment paper and discard.
Starting from the short end, begin to roll the cake up WITH the dishtowel. Keep rolling until the cake is rolled into a tube. Let it cool completely for a few hours.
While cake is cooling, let’s make the frosting!
5. In a mixer, blend the prepared frosting and cream cheese until very well incorporated.
6. Carefully unroll the cooled cake and spread the HALF icing over the entire surface of the cake, and then roll up again, being mindful not to push the icing out the end of the cake. Set the cake onto the serving dish and finish by using the remaining icing to ice the top of the cake.
7. Chill cake until ready to serve. When ready to serve, slice the cake in rounds starting from the short ends.
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XO
Corey, Darryl, Big D & Little D
Easy Carrot Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Icing
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Ingredients
- INGREDIENTS:
- 1 box carrot cake mix
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1 12oz container vanilla frosting
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- DIRECRTIONS:
- Prepare cake batter according to the box directions, but cut back the amount of water required by ¼ of a cup. Leave amounts for oil/egg the same.
- Line a 10½ by 15½ inch pan (aka jelly roll pan) with parchment paper, and I also sprayed mine with non- stick spray for extra assurance that it wouldn't stick.
- Bake for approximately 10 – 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, spread a clean dishtowel on the counter and sprinkle with powdered sugar on top of the towel. When cake is finished baking, take it out of the oven and quickly turn it over the kitchen towel. Carefully remove the parchment paper and discard. Starting from the short end, begin to roll the cake up WITH the dishtowel. Keep rolling until the cake is rolled into a tube. Let it cool completely for a few hours.
- While cake is cooling, let's make the frosting!
- In a mixer, blend the prepared frosting and cream cheese until very well incorporated.
- Carefully unroll the cooled cake and spread the HALF icing over the entire surface of the cake, and then roll up again, being mindful not to push the icing out the end of the cake. Set the cake onto the serving dish and finish by using the remaining icing to ice the top of the cake.
- Chill cake until ready to serve. When ready to serve, slice the cake in rounds starting from the short ends.
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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This cake roll looks so good and decadent………..! Yummy!
What a delicious it is yummyyy! i love the recipe
When I unfolded the cake in the towel it cracked in several places. I had to kind of frost and re roll trying to get the shape. Why? Did it crack you think?
Hi Corey—Can’t wait to try this. Just double-checking that you meant to start rolling from the short end and not the long end ( which is what it looked like in the photo). From the short end, you’d end up with a shorter, fatter roll, which I’m not sure is what was meant. Would appreciate clarifying. Thanks for the recipe!
Yep, you want to start from the short end. So if you look at it top down, the cake is a rectangle. There are 2 long sides and 2 short sides. You want to start from one of those shorter sides. If you started from a long side, you wouldn’t have enough to form the “roll”. I hope that makes sense. Yes, you will end up with a shorter fatter roll.
Can’t wait to get baking. Is oven temp what the cake box states?
Yes Linda 🙂 I hope you love them!