Easter Cake Roll Recipe

Do you love making bright, colorful sweets and treats for the spring holidays? Well, then you are going to love this Easter Cake Roll Recipe! This beautiful Easter Swiss roll cake is perfect to make for your Easter dessert table, but it is also just great for any Springtime gathering! 

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Why you are going to love this Easter Cake Roll

This Swiss roll cake recipe is made in a jelly roll cake style that is just bursting with bright, beautiful colors! We love making a cake roll using cake mix because it frees up time so that we can focus on the cake roll design, and NOT all of the prep work of making a cake from scratch!

Our Easter Cake Roll recipe is really easy to make a cake mix cake roll with a simple box of white cake mix and some filling. So if you are trying to figure out how to make a Easter cake, we have you covered! 

This is going to become one of your favorite cakes to make for Easter because it is so bright and festive and can even be made ahead of time!

This recipe was inspired by my Carrot Cake Cookies Recipe and goes really well with this Easter Sheet Cake with cream cheese frosting. 

Where can I find the recipe card for this Recipe?

If you would rather skip all of my cooking tips, important information for this recipe, and similar recipe ideas – and get straight to the recipe, just hit that jump to recipe button and it will take you down to the printable recipe card! I know that a lot of people are old fashioned - like me! - and like to have a printed out recipe card for their family's recipe book.

Are you looking for more Quick and Easy Dessert recipes to serve like this Easter Cake Roll?

Check out these really fun Easter cake ideas and recipes that we have shared on The Rebel Chick. We have everything from We have everything from Easter cake eggs to an Easter torte made with sugar cookie dough to our famous Mandarin Orange Cake!

You can also type “Easter recipe” in the search bar in the top right hand corner of the screen and you will see a listing of ALL of the Easter recipes I’ve shared over the years. 

Now let's start talking about How to make this Easter Cake Roll Recipe

This bright and cheery Easter cake recipe is so easy to make and it's perfect for the entire family! All you need are a few basic ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen.

Here are the necessary ingredients for making this Easter Cake Roll Recipe: 

• Eggs
• White cake mix
• Sour cream
• Vegetable oil
• White frosting
• Whipped topping, thawed
• Rainbow sprinkles - you can use any type of rainbow sprinkles but we like Wilton!
• Food coloring

Hint: The food coloring I used was Wilton Color Gels in Pink, Golden Yellow, Leaf Green and Violet. 

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How to make this Easter Cake Roll Recipe

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and lining a 10x15x1 baking sheet (otherwise known as a Jelly Roll Pan) with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray and then set it aside. 

Line a muffin tin with 5 paper liners and set it aside. 

Add your room temperature eggs to a mixer and beat them on high for 5-6 minutes until they are bubbly and frothy.

Add into the mixing bowl your box of cake mix, sour cream, water and vegetable oil. Beat these ingredients together for 30 seconds on low speed and then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on medium for 1 minute until everything is combined well. 

Pour 3-½ cups of the cake batter into a separate bowl. Use a 3 tablespoon portion scoop to scoop the remaining batter into 5 cupcake liners. Bake these cupcakes according to the box cake mix package directions. 

With remaining the 3-½ cups batter, divide it into 4 equal bowls. You will then color each bowl of cake batter a separate color with each one of the colors of food coloring.

Place each color of batter into a separate pastry bag and snip the tips. 

Now this is where you need to have patience and a steady hand!

Pipe the batter onto the prepared baking pan in a diagonal pattern, alternating the colors.

Gently tap the jelly roll baking pan to fill in any gaps and evenly spread the batter. 

Bake your cake for 8-12 minutes or until the cake is done in the center when a toothpick is inserted in it. Remove it from the oven immediately so that it does not overcook.

For the actually rolling of the cake roll, you are going to generously sprinkle powdered sugar onto a thin, clean towel.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and placing it onto the powder sugar covered towel.

Place the cake roll top down on the towel, so that the bottom/darker part of the cake faces up.

Now you can just discard the parchment paper. Starting on a short end of your cake, roll the towel and cake into log shape. Set your rolled up cake roll aside to cool completely. 

To make the icing, simply mix together the frosting and the whipped topping. 

Carefully unroll your cooled down cake roll and begin the spreading of the icing on the top.

Sprinkle your frosted cake very generously with a layer of the rainbow sprinkles.

Now you are going to roll your cake roll back up and then wrap it completely with nonstick plastic wrap.

Refrigerate your finished Easter cake roll for 2 hours or just until you are ready to serve it. When you are ready to serve your Easter Cake Roll, unwrap it from the plastic wrap and slice it into 12 slices, about 1" wide each. 

Hint: If you would like to make a cream cheese frosting instead of using a tub of white premade frosting, that's okay! Just mix 8 ounces of cream cheese and 1 stick of unsalted butter (at room temperature) with 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract and 2 cups of powdered sugar.

The low down on the equipment that you will need to make this Easter Cake Roll Recipe

Cake Rolls evolved over time from the original Jelly Roll. It was called a jelly Roll because it was made in a "jelly roll pan." We now know these as Baking Sheets: 15x10x1-inch baking sheets or a baking sheet with sides. Note, this is NOT a regular cookie sheet! There are sides to prevent fillings from seeping out and onto your oven floor. You can grab one from Amazon.com here!

• Muffin tin - This Wilton muffin pan and cupcake pan is made of steel and reinforced non-stick coating for easy release and quick cleanup
• Parchment Paper - we love the If You Care brand because they are FSC Certified unbleached parchment sheets are made of heavy duty, greaseproof, nonstick paper which is chlorine free and compostable.
• Mixing Bowls - You can't go wrong with the classic Pyrex mixing bowls!
• Measuring Cups - Again, we love the classic Pyrex measuring cups. I have been using mine for decades!

Variations and Substitutions for your Easter Cake Roll

Most people think of a cake roll as those Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls - but you can make a cake roll in ANY flavor that you want! I make everything from Red Velvet for Valentine's Day to Pumpkin at Thanksgiving! The only limits are your creativity!

• Carrot Cake Roll - simply use a box of carrot cake mix and make this a carrot cake roll recipe, and use my cream cheese frosting idea in the hint above!
• Chocolate Cake Roll - just use a box of chocolate cake mix to make this a chocolate cake roll, and then add mini chocolate chips in place of the rainbow sprinkles!
• Pumpkin Cake Roll - use a box of pumpkin spice cake mix and our cream cheese frosting recipe to make this for Thanksgiving or even Halloween!

You can check out this Red Velvet Cake Roll version on my website that is perfect for Valentine's Day, or anytime that find yourself wanting some red velvet cake! It is one of our most popular cake mix recipes that we have shared over the years!

How to Store Your Easter Cake Roll

You can make this Easter Cake Roll recipe ahead of time to give yourself more time to spend with the family on Easter Sunday. Just make sure that you keep it wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge. It will be good for up to 2 days.

IF you have any leftovers after everyone gets a slice, you can store any leftover Easter cake roll covered in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap in the refrigerator. 

FAQS

Share this Easter Cake Roll Recipe with your friends and family on social media!

If you love this Easter Cake Roll recipe as much as we do, please leave me a 5-star recipe rating review below and help me share this recipe on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

If you do make the Easter version of the classic jelly roll cake mix recipe, I hope that you will share that you tried it on Pinterest! I love it SO MUCH when readers share their feedback!

To print this Recipe, simply click the recipe card below!

I know that many people still like to print out recipes and keep them in a recipe binder, or simply have the printed recipe sitting in front of them when it comes time to cook! 

Sometimes it is just easier to go off a recipe when it is printed right in front of you. Who wants to swipe their screen on their phone or tablet when their hands are greasy? So I love offering this option as well!

Print

Easter Cake Roll Recipe

Our Easter Cake Roll recipe is really easy to make a cake mix cake roll with a simple box of white cake mix and some creamy filling.

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Author Jennifer

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 15.25 oz white cake mix
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup water
• ½ a tub white frosting
• ½ a small tub of whipped topping thawed
• rainbow sprinkles
• food coloring pink
• food coloring yellow
• food coloring green
• food coloring violet

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a 10x15x1 baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Line 1 muffin tin with 5 paper liners and set aside.
3. Add eggs to a mixer and beat on high for 5-6 minutes until bubbly and frothy. Add cake, sour cream, water and oil. Beat for 30 seconds on low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on medium for 1 minute until combined well.
4. Pour 3-½ cups of batter into a separate bowl. Use a 3 tablespoon portion scoop to scoop remaining batter into 5 cupcake liners. Bake cupcakes according to package directions.
5. With remaining 3-½ cups batter, divide into 4 equal bowls and color each bowl a separate color with food coloring. Place each color of batter into a separate pastry bag and snip the tips.
6. Pipe the batter onto the prepared pan in a diagonal pattern, alternating colors. Gently tap the pan to fill in any gaps and evenly spread the batter.
7. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until cake is done in the center when a toothpick is inserted in it. Remove from oven.
8. For the cake roll, generously sprinkle powdered sugar onto a thin, clean towel. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and placing it onto the powder sugar covered towel. Place the cake roll top down on the towel, so the bottom/darker part of the cake faces up. Discard the parchment paper. Starting on a short end, roll the towel and cake into log shape. Set aside to cool completely.
9. To make the icing, mix together the frosting and whipped topping.
10. Carefully unroll cooled cake roll and spread icing on the top. Sprinkle with sprinkles. Roll back up and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until ready to serve. When ready to serve, unwrap and slice into 12 slices, about 1" wide.
11. Store any leftover cake roll covered and in the refrigerator.