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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!
The recipe calls for 3/4 Milk. 3/4 of what measurement? The cake looks delicious! Thank you.
Hi Sue, Not sure what happened there but it’s 3/4 cup
Made this today, 2 batches for church. The cake part turned out really good! Next time I will use HALF of the filling mixture as I think it was too much with the entire batch. I also made a simple cream cheese glaze instead of the extra sweetened frosting this recipe used. 23 minutes in the oven was just enough time for me. Can’t wait to make it again! Will mix up the recipe and make the cake, then serve with fresh fruit and whip cream. Again, the cake was really good!
Ahhhh I bet that glaze was wonderful and the fresh fruit idea is genius!
I made this for my husband’s birthday and the flavors are spot on, but I misunderstood about the size of the pan. I baked it in a 9 x13 cake pan which I have always called a sheet pan. I ended up with a soupy mess. I used 3 cups of xx sugar in the icing but it was still thin.The cake itself looked OK before I poured it on. It seemed like way too much icing. Maybe I swirled too much also ? I think that since it was in the smaller pan that I could have baked it longer although the toothpick came out clean after I baked it an extra 10 minutes.
Over swirling is something I’ve done as well and it can cause issues. This isn’t a very thick icing so you probably had it right.
Hi.
Question… 15 tablespoons of butter in the filling? 😳. Is it 1.5 or 15?
Thanks!
It’s 15, which was easier than saying 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon 🙂
Love your recipes, wondering if you have ever considered using weigh measurements along with cups? I have found it much easier to duplicate a recipe that way!
Hi Lorri, we haven’t but maybe in the future.
We made this over the weekend but I wish I would have read your whole post instead of skipping straight to the recipe (sorry…ack!).
I was just making it for the family and it was a MASSIVE amount of cake! It was really tasty so I thought I might halve it (and possibly quarter the amount of icing and cinnamon filling) next time. But now that I actually READ I see there is already a recipe for a 13×9 pan. I’m such a dummy! Great recipe though!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The icing instructions say mix all except powdered sugar, but should also say cream cheese (I think)
Juli,
Thank you so much for catching that, I’ve corrected it!
Can corn syrup be subsituted with something else? Thank you!
You can skip it if you need to.
Want to make this but want to half the recipe. What sized pan would you recommend?
I would move it to a 9×13 cake pan! Baking time shouldn’t change much if at all.
For the icing is it two to three cups of powdered sugar or 2/3 of a cup? Thanks!
It’s 2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar depending on it you want it to be more of a glaze or a thicker icing.
This sounds wonderful! However when you say use a cookie sheet, what size are you referring to?
A 12×18 jelly roll