How to Make a Cake Roll from a Box Cake Mix

How to Make a Cake Roll from a Box Cake Mix

Keep your cake roll desserts quick and easy and make a cake roll from a box cake mix! Use any flavor and a variety of fillings to make this fun dessert.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword box cake mix recipe, cake roll recipe

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Resting Time 2

Servings

Calories 451kcal

Author Julie Clark

Ingredients

6 large eggs at room temperature
1 box strawberry cake mix (or other flavor) 15.25 ounces
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup water at room temperature

For the filling:

1 cup salted butter 8 ounces
1/2 cup diced strawberries
5 cups powdered sugar 480 grams
1-4 tablespoons heavy cream (as needed to thin the frosting)

Instructions

Make the cake roll:

Preheat the oven to 375º Fahrenheit.
Using whisk attachment on a stand mixer, beat room temperature eggs for 6 minutes on medium speed. (My stand mixer was set to 6.) Set a timer and beat for the whole 6 minutes.
Add the cake mix, oil and water. Beat for 30 seconds on low speed. Scrape the bowl and then beat on medium speed for one minute, stopping to scrape the bowl as needed.
Spray a 10x15x1” jelly roll pan with cooking spray. Lay a piece of parchment paper overtop, pressing down to cover the bottom of the pan and pressing into the corners and up the sides of the pan.
Spread the batter into the pan, making it as even as possible. **Note: In the pictures shown, we used all of the cake batter. However, this makes a very thick layer of cake for the cake roll and can sometimes be tricky to roll. If you'd like, remove up to two cups of cake batter and bake it separately in cupcake tins or a small cake pan. This will give you less cake batter in your cake roll.**
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back when you touch it. If you used less than all of the cake batter, watch it closely as it won't take as long to bake.
Lay out a lint free towel or sheet of parchment paper slightly longer than the cake and sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar. Immediately after the cake comes out of the oven, turn the hot sheet cake out onto the prepared surface. Peel off the parchment paper and cut away any crusty edges of the cake if you'd like. Work quickly because you want to roll the cake while it is very hot.
Quickly roll the cake up in the towel or parchment paper sprinkled with powdered sugar. Leave at room temperature to cool for about 2 hours. Do not put it in the refrigerator. Allow it to cool slowly at room temperature.

Make the filling:

We used a strawberry buttercream filling for this recipe. See the article above for other filling options if you don't like a sweet buttercream.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until it is almost white in appearance. This will take 3-4 minutes.
Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. After 2 cups of powdered sugar, add the diced strawberries. Keep the mixer running and allow the strawberries to soften in the sugar, butter mixture. Then continue to add the rest of the powdered sugar.
The strawberries will create juice from the sugar in the frosting, but if needed, add a tablespoon of heavy cream to thin the buttercream to get it soft. Add up to 4 tablespoons, but add it slowly so the frosting doesn't get too thin.

Assemble the cake roll:

Once you have the filling made, slowly unroll the cake roll, being careful with it so it doesn't crack.
Spread the filling gently on the cake roll, then roll it back up.
Place the cake roll seam down on a cake plate.
Sprinkle the top of the cake with additional powdered sugar if you'd like. You can also cover it with whipped cream or layer cut fruit on it. If you used a chocolate cake mix, you could top it with chocolate ganache.
Store the cake roll in covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it.

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