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3 words: cinnamon roll cake.
Do I have your attention?
Let’s set the scene.
I’m 11 years old, at the mall leaving The Limited Too with my mom. She just bought me the coolest bedazzled dress and glitter flared jeans (which I will wear together obvi). We’re walking towards Macy’s when the enticing scent of fresh baked Cinnabon wafts over. I have to have one. So I beg my mom.
My mom is the BEST, so the two of us get one for dinner.
The perfect day: a new outfit for my 6th grade dance and a Cinnabon–truly is there anything better than this?
Now, fast forward 10 years, same me, same sweet tooth and I have a serious hankering for a cinnamon roll with no Cinnabon in walking distance. A tragedy.
I could make cinnamon rolls, but do you even know how LONG it takes to make a homemade cinnamon roll?!
It takes hours–nay days–of premeditated thought and I’m the girl trying to bring her butter to room temperature in the microwave 30 seconds before I make cookies so you know that’s not my style.
Not to worry, friends. I am here to the rescue with this cinnamon roll sheet cake that packs all the punch of a Cinnabon in under 2 hours.
Read on at your own risk.
A tender buttery crumb cake, just dense enough, with huge swirls of cinnamon sugar and a tangy cream cheese glaze come together to make this drool worthy sheet cake.
How to get that defined cinnamon swirl?
No rolling pins required.
Spoon half the batter into a 9 by 13 sheet pan. Sprinkle a thick layer of cinnamon sugar, covering all of the batter. Spoon the remaining batter over the cinnamon layer, spreading to the edges the best you can. Sprinkle the remaining mixture on the top layer in concentrated areas. Using a butter knife make BIG swirls in the batter.
I was an art major and this is about as close to painting as I’m getting these days.
Have fun with it, you’re about to smother it in cream cheese frosting anyway.
Why cream cheese frosting?
The tangy cream cheese is the perfect creamy complement to this cinnamon masterpiece. It’s just sweet enough and lick your fingers good. This recipe makes a lot of glaze, but, like, the frosting is the best part (we can fight it out in the comments if you disagree).
Slather that frosting alllll over and you’ve got yourself an easy sheet cake that’s just about as good a new outfit from The Limited Too and a warm Cinnabon.
Enjoy my loves!
– Sofi
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Hi Sarah,
Want to know if I can increase the quantity by half? Planning to make for 15 people.
Hi Nazia! Yes you can just times the recipe 1.5x!!
Hi, so is the glaze supposed to have salt in it? There’s salt in the instructions for making the glaze but not in the ingredients section
Just use a pinch! Sorry about that–I updated the recipe card 🙂
Hello there!
I am very excited to try this recipe but was wondering if you used Greek yogurt or regular yogurt when making this recipe. My apologies if this was addressed in prior comments, but I could not find any mention of it.
Many thanks and all the best.
We used greek yogurt, but regular yogurt should work too 🙂
Turned out well with a delicious texture and flavour. Very easy to make! Only thing is that I would add more cinnamon and the make the frosting slightly thicker.
Forgot to add my star rating!