This Carrot Cake Roll is a fun twist on the classic carrot cake! Soft spiced carrot cake is rolled up with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and dusted with powdered sugar. It’s the perfect dessert for Easter or a spring dinner party!
If you love carrot cake as much as I do, you should also try Carrot Cake with Buttermilk Glaze and Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!
Carrot cake is one of my go to desserts this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, carrot cake is definitely delicious all year long but for me, it just tastes like spring and Easter.
This Carrot Cake Roll is a twist on the classic. It’s a very simple carrot cake with nothing fussy in it and it gets rolled with with a sweet creamy filling. And then it’s topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar to make it look even prettier.
This is going to be the star of your dinner party or Easter celebration!
Why You’re Going To Love This Recipe
- A Carrot Cake Roll is soft, moist carrot cake rolled with cream cheese and dusted with powdered sugar! What’s not to love?!
- It’s super impressive! If you have a spring dinner party or Easter event to attend, take this cake roll and everyone will be so impressed.
- Making a cake roll is actually really easy. Compared to a regular cake, it’s only a small amount of batter to mix up and then it’s only 10 minutes to bake it! Just make sure you roll it up before it cools (to prevent cracking) and it will all work out.
Ingredients for Carrot Cake Roll
- Cake flour – this makes for a light and fluffy cake. If you don’t have cake flour, use all-purpose flour but take 1 ½ tablespoons out of the required amount and replace that with 1 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch.
- Spices – you are going to need cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Vegetable oil – you can use canola oil if you prefer.
- Milk – use dairy milk or non-dairy, whatever you have in your house.
- Vanilla
- Shredded carrots – you want them pretty finely shredded so they really soften up when baked.
- Powdered sugar – you’re going to dust the cake with powdered sugar. It helps it from sticking when you are rolling the cake and also acts as a decoration.
How To Make Carrot Cake Roll
- Prepare. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a jelly roll pan or 10×15 baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.
- Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
- Combine wet ingredients. Beat together eggs, egg yolk, and sugar and whip together for 90 seconds. Add in the vegetable oil, milk and vanilla and mix just until combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk to incorporate.
- Add carrots. Fold in the shredded carrots.
- Transfer batter. Pour the cake batter onto the prepared jelly roll pan and spread to the edges.
- Bake. Bake for exactly 10 minutes.
- Cool. Place cake on a cooling rack and cool for 10 minutes.
- Roll cake. After 10 minutes, dust cake with a generous layer of powdered sugar. Lay a thin dish towel over the cake making sure that it reaches all of the edges but does not go over the edges by more than ½”. Start at one end and fold the parchment paper in over the towel edge. Roll the cake roll up with both the parchment and towel.
- Cool completely. Let the cake roll cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream cheese – make sure it is softeneed to room temperature so you get a super smooth and creamy filling.
- Unsalted butter – it needs to be at room temperature. If you don’t have unsalted butter, you can use salted butter but leave the salt out of this recipe.
- Powdered sugar
- Cinnamon – you can leave this out if you just want a plain vanilla cream cheese frosting.
- Salt – leave this out if you are using unsalted butter.
- Vanilla – don’t skip the vanilla! It adds so much flavor to the frosting and the cake overall.
How To Roll a Cake Roll
- Make filling. Beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt until smooth and creamy.
- Frost the cake. Once the cake has cooled, gently unroll it. Remove the towel. Spread the filling over the entire surface of the cake as evenly as possible. Roll the cake back up.
- Chill the cake. Wrap with plastic wrap and place it into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.
- Decorate and serve. Once chilled, dust with powdered sugar, slice into 1” thick slices and serve.
How Long Is It Good For?
This carrot cake roll is good for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Make sure to store it in an airtight container to keep it fresh for as long as possible.
Keep in mind that the cake will start to dry out as it sits in the fridge so it is going to taste best on the first couple days after you make it.
Can You Freeze It?
You can freeze this carrot cake roll for up to 3 months. I recommend freezing each slice separately by wrapping them tightly with plastic wrap and then placing them in a freezer ziploc bag.
When you are ready to serve, let the slices defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
More Cake Recipes
- Chocolate Loaf Cake
- Pink Velvet Funfetti Cupcakes
- Meyer Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake
- Funfetti Gooey Butter Cake
- Cherry Coke Cupcakes
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Yield: 10 slices
Carrot Cake Roll
Prep Time
1 hour
Cook Time
10 minutes
Total Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
For the cake:
- ⅔ cup cake flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
- 3 eggs + 1 yolk
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ¼ cup shredded carrots
- Powdered sugar for rolling
For the cream cheese frosting filling:
- 12 ounces cream cheese
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a jelly roll pan or 10x15 baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with baking spray. Cover with enough parchment paper to hang over the sides of the pan on both ends.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar and whip together for 90 seconds. The eggs should be slightly frothy and a little bit lighter in color. Add in the vegetable oil, milk and vanilla and mix just until combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and whisk to incorporate.
- Fold in the shredded carrots.
- Pour the cake batter onto the prepared jelly roll pan and spread to the edges.
- Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for exactly 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from oven and place it on a cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, dust cake with a generous layer of powdered sugar. Lay a thin dish towel over the cake making sure that it reaches all of the edges but does not go over the edges by more than ½”. Start at one end and fold the parchment paper in over the towel edge. Roll the cake roll up with both the parchment and towel. The roll will be quite thick. Rolling it with the towel allows the cake to cool, giving it the memory it needs to roll back up without cracking once it is filled. Let the cake roll cool completely, about 30 minutes.
- While the cake is cooling, make the filling. Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat together on high speed for 2 minutes, scraping the sides down intermittently. The filling should be thick, smooth and fluffy once it is done.
- Once the cake has cooled, gently unroll it. Remove the towel. Spread the filling over the entire surface of the cake as evenly as possible. Roll the cake back up.
- Wrap with plastic wrap and place it into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.
- Once the cake roll has chilled, remove it from the fridge and unwrap the plastic wrap. Dust with powdered sugar, slice into 1” thick slices and serve.
Notes
- If you don't have cake flour, use all-purpose flour but remove 1 ½ tablespoons of the flour and replace it with 1 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 458Total Fat: 29gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 145mgSodium: 653mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 5g
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