Carrot Cake Roll Recipe With Cream Cheese Filling

This soft carrot cake roll is soaked in caramel sauce and swirled with a fluffy whipped cream cheese frosting. A total showstopper for your Easter table this year!

I am SUPER picky when it comes to carrot cake. I don’t like chunks, raisins, or dried fruit in my cake, and I don’t love too much of the warm spices of cinnamon or nutmeg either. The only time I really, truly love it is when it’s paired with caramel and something creamy and light — like this Carrot Cake Trifle or my Carrot Cake Poke Cake. This carrot cake roll is absolutely the type of cake that converts skeptics. If you think you don’t like traditional carrot cake, give this a try — you just might change your mind!

Check out my favorite carrot cake recipes here.

Main Ingredients Needed for This Carrot Cake Roll Recipe

• carrot cake mix*
• cream cheese (room temperature!)
• whipping cream
• powdered sugar (about 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar for dusting your clean kitchen towel)
• caramel sundae sauce
• vegetable oil
• egg yolks (from small bowls, separated)

*I really like Betty Crocker’s carrot cake mix the best — no big carrot chunks or raisins. But feel free to use fresh carrots and grated carrots from a box grater or food processor if you want that from-scratch vibe! Either way, you’re going to get the most flavorful cake and a perfect balance of flavors. If you love exploring all the carrot cake recipes out there, you also have to check out my Carrot Cake Cookies and these adorable Carrot Cake Pancakes!

How to Make a Carrot Cake Roll Step by Step

This roll cake comes together so much easier than you’d think! Start by preheating your oven and lining your 15-inch jelly roll pan (or x1-inch baking pan) with parchment paper — f. line the sides of pan too — then hit it with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: the flour mixture, brown sugar, and spices. In a separate bowl (your medium bowl works great here), combine the wet ingredients — vegetable oil, eggs, and cake mix. Fold everything together with a rubber spatula, then spread the batter into the prepared pan all the way 1-inch past ends of pan for an even, thin cake.

While the cake bakes, dust a clean kitchen towel (a tea towel works perfectly!) with powdered sugar — this keeps the rolled cake from sticking. The moment it comes out of the oven, flip the baked cake onto the towel, peel off the parchment paper-side, and roll it up from the short end, cake jelly-roll style. Let it cool completely on a wire rack. Rolling while warm is the secret to preventing cake cracks later — trust me on this one!

Making the Decadent Cream Cheese Filling

Can we talk about this tangy cream cheese frosting for a second?! Be still my heart. In your stand mixer bowl (or with a hand mixer on medium speed), beat the room temperature cream cheese until totally smooth. Add powdered sugar and whipping cream, then crank it up to high speed with your electric mixer until fluffy and dreamy. This cream cheese icing is honestly the best part of the whole dessert — it’s that decadent cream cheese filling that makes this a classic easter dessert worth obsessing over. The natural sweetness of Libby’s-style spiced batter plus this luscious cream cheese icing? Purpose flour never had it so good!

Recipe Tips & Notes

• For a tight swirl, leave a 2-inch border around the edges and use slightly less filling. I’d rather have a sloppy, generous roll — but best results come from not overfilling past the short side of cake.
• If the cake cracks when you unroll it, don’t panic! Spread your filling with a metal spatula, leaving the 2-inch border, roll it back up from the short end, and place seam-side down. Once chilled, nobody will know. 😂
• The caramel soaks right into the moist cake and disappears — but you will absolutely taste those delicious flavors of carrot cake soaked in caramel. SO good.
• Store in an airtight container in the fridge. A cool cake is a firm, sliceable cake!

This delicious carrot cake roll is such a fun twist on a classic carrot cake — way more impressive than carrot cake cupcakes and just as easy as a swiss roll. Fellow pumpkin roll lovers, this one’s basically your spring sibling! It’s the kind of sweet treat and delicious dessert that works beautifully for an easter celebration or easter dinner spread alongside my 75+ Easy Easter Dessert Recipes. This cute roll is a delicious carrot cake roll your whole family will beg you to make again and again!

Looking for an Easter Showstopper?

I got you covered.

Mini Cadbury Egg Cheesecake Cake

Raspberry Mini Lemon Bundt Cakes

Banana Pudding

Carrot Cake Roll

Yield: 12

This soft carrot cake roll is soaked in caramel sauce and swirled with a fluffy whipped cream cheese frosting. A total showstopper for your Easter table this year!

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Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• carrot cake mix
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup flour (for dusting the towel, DON'T mix into batter)
• caramel sundae sauce (the squeeze bottle kind like Hershey's or Ghirardelli)

For the Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese, cold
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream, cold
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375º.
2. Whisk together the eggs, carrot cake mix, water, and oil.
3. Line a 17x11 jelly roll pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray.
4. Spread the batter in the pan and bake for 15-16 minutes.
5. Lay out a kitchen towel and lightly dust it with flour. Upon removing the cake from the oven, immediately invert it onto the towel and peel off the parchment paper.
6. Start at the short end and gently roll up the towel and the cake together. Place on the counter to cool at room temperature, seam side down. If necessary, place something alongside the cake to prevent it from unrolling.

Make the Frosting and Assemble

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Add the whipping cream and whisk on medium-high until stiff peaks form.
3. Gently unroll the cooled cake. Squeeze the caramel sauce over the cake (as desired) and spread with frosting. Roll back up and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
4. Chill for 3-4 hours before cutting and serving.