Christmas Cake Roll

Delicious Christmas roll cake with soft and moist crumbs, whipped cream filling, and festive red candy melts drizzle and green sprinkles.

It is my take on a Swiss cake roll for Christmas with and without cream cheese filling. Holiday preparations are the best time of the year and I am ready to experiment with any ideas to find the one (or ones…) for a perfect dessert table.

Fruity cakes are a good Christmas tradition, simple vanilla cake is also a classic, as well as cream cheese frosting, so I decided to add some twists to popular rolled cakes.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Perfect holiday dessert for Christmas Eve dinner. I LOVE the sprinkles inside the filling, when you cut a slice it is so colorful and you just want to scream Merry Christmas!
• An easy rolled cake recipe that comes together in 45 minutes including baking time! No need to make the cake from scratch = no cake flour, baking powder, or baking soda, and figuring out how to measure the flour mixture correctly, no separating egg yolks and stressing about whipped egg whites.
• Can be customized. My original recipe doesn’t have a popular cream cheese filling and I still love it. And if not for Christmas, you can also make a delicious pumpkin roll cake for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients Notes

The cake rolls use super simple ingredients, and you’ll have most of them in your pantry except maybe holiday sprinkles and colored candy melts.

Cake layer

• White cake mix. For more flavor, pick a vanilla cake mix or simply add a splash of vanilla extract to the dry mix. This recipe can be made with any flavor of cake mix.
• Vegetable oil and Eggs to prepare the cake mix.

Cake filling

• Heavy whipping cream
• Confectioners sugar, and a little more for dusting. You can replace it with powdered sugar.
• Green sugar sprinkles
• Red candy melts
• Christmas red and green sprinkles, optional

Kitchen Equipment

• 16×12 rimmed baking pan lined with parchment paper. You can use a half-sheet pan as well 18×13 pan. You can also use a jelly roll pan.
• microwave-safe bowl
• mixing bowl – (small bowl, medium bowl, large bowl)
• flour-sack towel (or tea towel, a large cloth, or parchment paper)
• Offset spatula to evenly spread the filling
• Wire rack
• Hand mixer or stand mixer
• Pastry bag or ziplock bags 
• Baking paper or parchment paper
• Cookie scoop for portioning the filling

How to Make A Christmas Cake Roll Recipe

1: Prepare The Cake Batter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a 16×12 rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
3. Add the eggs to a large bowl. Use an electric mixer or a stand mixer to whip the eggs for precisely 6 minutes. No more, no less., otherwise the baked cake roll will crumble.
4. Once the egg mixture has been whipped, slowly mix in the cake mix, oil, and water.

2: Bake The Cake

1. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking sheet, spreading it into an even layer.
2. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cake is light and springy. The baked cake bounces when you press it.

3: Flip The Cake

1. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, dust a lint-free kitchen towel (such as a flour-sack towel) with confectioner’s sugar and place it on top of the hot cake. Instead of confectioner sugar, you can also sprinkle powdered sugar.
2. VERY CAREFULLY (as the pan will be hot) hold the towel on the pan and flip the cake out of the pan and onto the towel.
3. Peel off the parchment layer.

4: Roll The Cake

1. Starting on the short end of the cake, gently roll the warm cake up into the towel. Gently. If you roll it too tight, it will crack or stick too much to the parchment paper.
2. Place the cake seam side down and set it in a cool, dry place. Let the cake cool completely while rolled up.

5: Prepare The Whipped Cream Filling

1. Combine the heavy cream and confectioner’s sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Whisk slowly to incorporate and then increase the speed to whip well until very stiff peaks form.

Alternative: Cream Cheese Filling

To make a cream cheese filling you will need to beat 4 ounces of cream cheese with half a cup of white sugar, then mix in a few drops of vanilla extract. After that, slowly add a full cup of heavy whipping cream. You can also add some sprinkles.

6: Fill The Cooled Cake Roll

1. Gently unroll the cake from the towel.
2. Spread ¾ of the cake filling on the inside of the cake.
3. Add sprinkles if using and then carefully roll up the cake as tightly as possible without cracking it.

7: Arrange & Decorate

1. Arrange the cake seam side down on the cake platter and then use the remaining filling to decorate the outside as desired. You can use an offset spatula to smooth out the frosting and then add the green sprinkles.
2. Melt the red candy melts according to the package directions – usually microwaving in 30-second intervals in a microwave-safe bowl – stirring in between each interval.
3. Once melted, transfer the chocolate to a decorating bottle and drizzle over the top of the cake as desired.
4. You can wrap the cake roll in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for one hour before slicing.

Storage

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Christmas cake roll freezes well too!

Substitutions & Variations

• The filling flavor can be changed by adding different extracts: vanilla extract, almond, coconut, and even lemon extract.
• Vanilla buttercream is super easy to make: you beat butter with vanilla extract, then add milk and powdered sugar, and mix until it is smooth. Then you spread your buttercream evenly over the cake.
• Toppings: chocolate ganache topping, ginger cream cheese icing, sliced strawberries, piped frosting with more sprinkles or meringue mushrooms, and frosting mixed with melted chocolate chips. Or nothing!
• Decoration: meringue mushrooms are a show-stopper. They are challenging to make but are surely super cute. You will have a double boiler too. Add powdered sugar (5 oz) and 3 egg whites and combine stirring. Then whisk the mix for 1 minute, and add a quarter of a teaspoon of cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat until stiff peaks form. Using 804 piping tip pipe mushroom hats and stems separately. Once they are set, melt white chocolate and use it as glue to attach hats to stems.
• You can color the cake batter. Divide the batter into two bowls and add red food coloring to one and green food gel coloring to the separate bowl with the batter.

Expert Tips To Make The Best Christmas Cake Roll

• To make green and red colored cake layers, you will need two piping bags. Load one with green-colored batter and the other one with red-colored part. Now alternating the colors pipe the dough in diagonal lines directly onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• When the roll is baked, the cake springs. If it doesn’t happen, the cake needs a few more minutes. You can check at around 10-12 min mark first.
• Roll the cake while it is still hot. Otherwise, the cake will cool and dry and when you try rolling it it will crack and break.
• To cut clean slices pop the cake in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

If you love this holiday cake recipe, you’re going to love these other Christmas recipes too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

Try These Favorite Christmas Recipes

Wreath Charcuterie Board

Reindeer Chow

Christmas Cookie Fudge

Christmas Popcorn

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