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It’s happening!! I love sheet cakes! This Cinnabon cinnamon roll sheet cake is one of my newest obsessions. Plus, Cooked Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting!
Sheet cakes are one of the greatest inventions (can you call recipes inventions?) of all time because you can feed a crowd with the exact same amount of work as any other dessert. #winning!!
How to Make a 9×13″ Cake into a Sheet Cake
This recipe was adapted from Life Love and Sugar’s Cinnamon Roll Snack Cake because I needed to take sheet cakes to a function and wasn’t wanting to make a cinnamon roll sheet cake that uses a cake mix. I have nothing against it, but I wanted a Cinnabon cinnamon roll sheet cake from scratch.
Suddenly I was stuck with the dilemma, how to make a 9×12″ cake into a sheet cake. For one who hates math it’s really quite amazing that I figured out that I could not merely double it as a sheet pan has a low lip compared to a cake pan, so I knew I’d had overflow.
I did a quick google search and found our that in order to make a cake in a sheet pan you needed to make 1.5 times the recipe instead of doubling it.
It turned out perfect!!
Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
A cinnamon roll sheet cake is soft and fluffy, a hint of buttery and then the most delicious cinnamon swirls all over inside.
When you are swirling in the cinnamon mixture it can be easy to keep swirling but remember that the cinnamon is getting swirled, you just can’t see it as well since it sinks a little, but baking will bring it right up again.
If you swirl too much you mix it all together and the cake won’t bake up correctly, and more importantly, you could end up with big gaps in the cake batter. No Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake should have big holes in it, though it will be sunk in a little where the swirls are, that’s normal.
Cooked Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
We took the cooked vanilla frosting to a whole new level by turning it into a cooked vanilla cream cheese frosting. It’s the best of both worlds as the glazed cinnamon roll lovers get their thinner frosting while the cream cheese frosting lovers still get all of that delicious flavor.
Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
You know what it tastes like? Cinnabon. It tastes like cinnabon cinnamon rolls, but instead it’s a cinnabon cinnamon roll sheet cake and Cinnabon frosting but as a glaze. Man, it’s good!
More CAKE RECIPES You Have to Try:
- Apple Cake with Caramel Frosting
- Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Better Than Anything Cake
- Carrot Cake
- Banana Cake
- Strawberries and Cream Jello Cake
- Banana Pudding Cake Recipe
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
- Gingerbread Cake
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Lemon Jello Cake
- All our Cake Recipes here!
Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake Video
Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, loosely packed
- 6-7 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
- 15 Tablespoons Butter, melted
Cake
- 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup Sour Cream, plus 1 tablespoon
- 3/4 Cup Milk
- 3 Large Eggs
- 3 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 3 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
Icing
- 4 1/2 Tablespoon Salted Butter
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 4 1/2 teaspoon Corn Syrup
- 4 Ounces Cream Cheese
- 2-3 Cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 grease a cookie sheet (13×18 in half size baking sheet).
- To make the cinnamon filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, 6-7 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
- Add the melted butter and mix until combined. Set aside.15 Tablespoons Butter
- To make the cake batter, combine the sugar and butter to a large mixer bowl and beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Make sure you beat it in order to give the right texture1 1/2 Cup Sugar, 1 Cup Unsalted Butter
- Add the sour cream and mix until well incorporated.1/2 Cup Sour Cream
- Add the milk and mix until well incorporated.3/4 Cup Milk
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.3 Large Eggs, 3 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.3 Cups All-Purpose Flour, 3 teaspoon Baking Powder, 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
- Drizzle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the cake. It will cover most of the top of the cake.
- Use a toothpick to swirl the cinnamon mixture around. the swirls will be hard to see
- Bake the cake for 22-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs, then remove from the oven to cool.
Icing
- To make the icing, combine all the icing ingredients except for the powdered sugar and cream cheese in a small sauce pan.4 1/2 Tablespoon Salted Butter, 3/4 Cup Sugar, 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream, 1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, 4 1/2 teaspoon Corn Syrup
- Heat on low heat until the sugar is melted, then turn heat to medium to bring to a boil.
- Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat and immediately pour into a heat-proof glass bowl.
- Using a hand mixer, beat in the cream cheese and the powdered sugar and allow to cool slightly and thicken.4 Ounces Cream Cheese, 2-3 Cup Powdered Sugar
- Pour the icing evenly over the cake.
- Serve warm.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Classic Chocolate Sheet Cake
Mom’s classic chocolate sheet cake with cooked chocolate frosting!
This recipe is awesome! It turned out perfectly. I was a little afraid when the filling was thinner than I expected- & I couldn’t see my swirls- but the directions addressed that! I made it for a ladies board meeting & birthday- everyone loved it!
Love to hear this Kerrie!! I’m so glad it was a hit with your group!! Thanks for the support!
I made this and had my family come over for taste testing and everyone gave it two thumbs up. We are adding this to our holiday buffet.
Yay! Love to hear this Becky!!
I made this cake exactly as written. The cake turned out moist and tender. That is the good part. This cake is waaaay too sweet, almost gaggy sweet. The other thing is that the cinnamon was waaaaay too much also. That is not something that you want to get too much of either. 3 tablespoons would have been probably too much, but 6 tablespoons (not teaspoons) is biting in the mouth, and off-putting. Your recipe called for 6 to 7 tablespoons of cinnamon and I fear that if I had used 7 tablespoons it would have been inedible (which it almost was with 6 T). The icing did not need the cooked part to the recipe. A very simple cream cheese icing, or vanilla icing would have been better. The cake takes a long time to make and is in three parts. With 15 tablespoons of butter in the filling, and 1 cup in the cake, and 4 1/2 tablespoons in the icing, the cake is rich anyway. (I love rich, but not things way too sweet). This cake could be a winner if the problems I addressed were fixed.
Thank you so much for the feedback Sara!
No need to make cinnamon rolls with yeast again! This recipe is wonderful.
Yay! Thanks Wendy!
The icing sounds good – but this cake is so SWEET with no frosting that i wont be trying the icing. Cake recipe is not a keeper for me. Too thick – i triple checked to make sure i added everything to the batter. Then using the sheet pan made the “cake” way too thin for my liking.
Flavor is fine but the filling thickened up so much it didnt ‘’pour’ for me as another reviewer said- maybe warmed in the micro?
Thanks for the feedback Wendy!
I was excited to make this, now I am just frustrated and irritated. The filling did not drizzle over the batter, more like blobs that didn’t really want to swirl in with a toothpick. Seemed like way too much filling. So my cake has deep craters and I will see what it looks like when I cut it. More like bread pudding and wax it really 5-6 TABLESPOONS of cinnamon, overload. All in all, a waste of butter
Hi Deborah! I’m so sorry for the frustration! It sounds like something definitely went wrong. Were you able to watch the video in the post? That shows exactly how the filling should look and how the cake comes together.
Sadly, this took too much time…too much butter and other ingredients that didn’t seem necessary; too much icing leftover; had a spill and big mess in my oven due to over spill; took much longer to bake; very disappointed; Would recommend emphasizing the size of sheet cake and maybe a pan underneath the sheet…would have prevented a lot of mess to deal with; taste was not up to par due to issues…
Sadly, this took too much time…too much butter and other ingredients that didn’t seem necessary; had a spill and big mess in my oven due to over spill; took much longer to bake; very disappointed; Would recommend emphasizing the size of sheet cake and maybe a pan underneath the sheet…would have prevented a lot of mess to deal with; taste was not up to par due to issues…
Hi Carol! I’m so sorry for your frustration. I’ve added a note in the recipe card about the size of the baking sheet that should be used.
My cake is still liquid in the center after 25 minutes..
That’s fine! Just keep baking until the center is set. Some ovens take longer than others!
Can this be made & baked a day ahead.
Absolutely! Just keep it covered and in the fridge and then let it come room temp before serving. Enjoy!