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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!
Pan size isn’t specified. What size???
Hi Angela! You’ll want to do a half sheet size pan – 18x13in.
If I could give this more stars, I would. Delicious! Thank you, thank you!
Thank you so much Jane! Love to hear this!
I just made this and of course had to take a taste and it is yummy
Yeah!! Thank you for the feedback!
I was looking for a different icing for my Cinnamon Rolls. Oh My Goodness it was sooo good on my cinnamon rolls. Thank you so much for sharing!
Ohhhh… I love that idea!! Thanks for the feedback Tasha!!
I made this for work, and it was a huge hit! Every slice was gone. Delicious recipe!
Yay! Love to hear that! Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment!
Hello! Is this recipe 1 recipe or the 1.5 that fits in the pan?
Hi Kris! One recipe fits in a standard cookie sheet.
this sounds delicious. I am wondering what size is your cookie sheet? Also do you freeze it with or without the icing? thank You
Hi Mary! It is a half baking sheet which is 18×13 inches. I always freeze without the icing.
This is a wonderful recipe! I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how you could prep this ahead of time? Could you make the batter and store it in the fridge overnight? or would it be better to just make it all in advance?
Thank you!
Hi Rachel! You could make it in advance either way. Make the batter and then store it in the fridge and bake the next day. Or you could bake it and let it cool completely and then cover it and then frost it before serving. Great question! Enjoy!
I have a question, pls. I made this on Saturday. Batter tasted great, all seemed to come together, looked great, etc., but when I went to slice it I discovered all of the cinnamon filling had gone to the bottom and stuck to the pan ( which I did coat well w/ spray) I couldn’t cut the cake with out it falling apart. Where did I go wrong please? Thank you!
Hello! It sounds like you swirled the cinnamon filling too deep. The toothpick or knife shouldn’t touch the bottom of the pan and the mixture should be dotted all over because if too much is in one area it is too heavy and will sink. Does that make sense? I hope this helps!!
I’m wondering if you bring your eggs and milk to room temperature before incorporating? I didn’t because the recipe doesn’t specify, and my batter curdled pretty badly. Still waiting for it to cool to see how much that changed the outcome.
Hey Nicole! I don’t usually bring them to room temperature, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to do that. How did the cake turn out? It shouldn’t have curdled at all, but if your eggs were super cold, then it should have caused the separation. I hope it turned out ok!