Easter Cake Roll
Posts may contain affiliate links, meaning that I may earn a commission if you use a link provided.
This Easter cake roll is a sweet and fruity Easter dessert filled with a surprise sprinkling of mini egg chocolate candies! Make this bright and festive Easter cake in just 30 minutes by using a strawberry boxed cake mix as your base.
Nothing says Easter quite like bright colors, fruity flavors, and festive homemade treats—and this Easter egg cake roll has all three!
Made simple with some boxed cake mix, a few pantry staples, egg-shaped candies, and a few festive decorations, this sweet pink cake roll is sure to be the star of this year’s Easter get-together.
Looking for more colorful Easter dessert recipes? Try these pretty pastel Flower Pretzel Bites, colorful Easter Blossom Cookies, or these adorable Peeps Twinkie Cars.
Adults and kids alike are sure to love this light, fruity, creamy, and fun spin on a classic cake roll!
Easter Egg Cake Roll Ingredients
This section includes ingredient notes and substitution options. Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- Strawberry Cake Mix—Creates a tasty, spongy, and pretty pink base for this cake roll. Please note that you will not use the entire box of cake mix, the recipe call for only 3 cups.
- Eggs—A total of five eggs will give your strawberry sheet cake enough structure and bounce to be tightly rolled.
- Vegetable Oil—Adds moisture to this cake. Coconut oil may also be used as a slightly healthier alternative.
- Sugars—Powdered sugar adds a delicate sweetness to the cake while granulated sugar adds flavor and structure to the cream filling.
- Heavy Whipping Cream—The main ingredient in your cake roll filling.
- Extracts—Vanilla extract will flavor the cream filling while strawberry flavoring will enhance the other fruity flavors in the cake.
- Small Candy Eggs—I prefer to use Cadbury Mini Eggs, but any small egg-shaped candy will work. Have extra eggs? Use them to make these easy no-bake brids nest cookies.
- Decorations—Shredded coconut, additional candy eggs, cool whip, and food coloring will help bring this festive cake roll to life!
Equipment You’ll Need
This easter egg cake roll is a bit of a technical dessert that requires a few unique pieces of kitchen equipment. You’ll want to make sure that you have a 15”x10” jelly roll pan, parchment paper, cooking spray, a large mixing bowl, a stand or hand mixer, a cooling rack, and a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
How to Make a Bright and Springy Easter Egg Cake Roll
This section shows you how to make the recipe with step-by-step photos and instructions. For the full printable recipe, see the recipe card below.
Step 1: To a large mixing bowl, add the strawberry cake mix, eggs, water, vegetable oil, powdered sugar, strawberry flavoring, and red or pink food coloring. Mix until well combined.
Step 2: Transfer the cake batter to a lined and greased jelly roll pan and bake as directed in the recipe card below until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Step 3: As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, gently roll it up into the parchment paper. Place the rolled cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 4: In a separate mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat again until stiff peaks form. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
Step 5: Carefully unroll the cooled cake and evenly spread the cream filling over the entire cake. Add mini eggs and reroll the cake, removing it from the parchment paper as you go.
Step 6: Place the strawberry cake roll on a serving platter and decorate with “grass” (shredded coconut tossed in a freezer bag with green food coloring), piped cool whip, and additional candy eggs.
Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Be sure to check out my Easter cake roll story for another fun way to see how to make an easter cake roll.
Storing and Freezing
To Store: Place leftover Easter egg cake roll into an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Note: I don’t recommend freezing this strawberry cake roll. The cream filling will lose its light and creamy texture when thawed.
Expert Tips and Tricks
- You can sprinkle the small candy eggs all over your cake filling or you can line them up in neat rows. Each method will give your cake roll a unique, but beautiful look.
- If you’re wanting to make a super vibrant and flavorful cake roll, I recommend adding pink food coloring and strawberry flavoring to the cake batter. However, this step is completely optional.
- Feel free to get creative with your cake roll filling and decorations! Lemon zest, freeze-dried strawberries, marshmallow fluff, chopped nuts, pastel sprinkles, and strawberry sauce are all good options!
- Have extra mini eggs? Use them to make Easter Magic Cookie Bars or Rice Krispie Nests.
Frequently Asked Questions
Although you can roll any flavor of cake, you need to make sure that your cake is light and spongy as opposed to dense. Your cake will also roll best if you bake it into a thin sheet.
A jelly roll pan is a particular type of rimmed baking sheet designed for making cake rolls, measuring in a 15 x 10 inches with 1 inch high sides.
The key to avoid cracking when rolling a cake is to roll it when it’s still very hot. The steam from the hot cake will help to prevent cracks from forming. Additionally, it’s important that you let your rolled cake cool completely before attempting to unroll and fill it.
They are essentially the same thing! A traditional swiss roll is simply a cake roll that is chocolate flavored.
More Easter Dessert Recipes
Easter Cake Roll
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake:
- 3 cups strawberry cake mix
- 5 large eggs
- ½ cup water
- 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons confectioners sugar
- ½ teaspoon strawberry flavoring optional
- red or pink food coloring optional
Roll Cake Filling:
- 1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Assembly and Decoration:
- chocolate egg candies
- 2-3 cups coconut flakes
- green food coloring
- cool whip
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare your jelly roll pan by lining it with a piece of parchment that is two inches longer than the pan itself. Spray the parchment with a generous amount of cooking spray and set it aside.
- To a large mixing bowl, add the strawberry cake mix, eggs, water, vegetable oil, powdered sugar, strawberry flavoring, and optional pink food coloring. Mix until well combined. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
- Transfer the cake batter to the prepared jelly roll pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, carefully so you don’t burn yourself, fold one end of the parchment paper over the cake and gently roll the cake up in the parchment paper. Be careful the sides of the parchment paper don’t roll in on the cake. Place the cake on a cooling rack and let cool completely (1 -2 hours).
- While the cake is cooling, prepare the cream filling. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat again until stiff peaks form. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
- Carefully unroll the cooled cake and evenly spread the cream filling evenly over the entire cake. You can place candy eggs on the filling randomly, or spread in a line at the end where you will begin rolling.
- Roll the cake up and place on a serving tray.
- Combine the coconut and a couple of drops of green food coloring in a large freezer bag. Shake until all the coconut has been colored green.
- Decorate your strawberry cake roll with the green coconut shreds, piped cool whip, and additional candy eggs.
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Did You Make This Recipe?
Share it with me on Instagram @crayonsandcravings and follow on Pinterest @crayonsandcravings for even more!
Can I use white cake mix? I don’t eat strawberry an what can I use instead of coconut I don’t like it either
Yes, you can substitute with white or vanilla cake mix if you would prefer. As for the coconut, it is really just used as decoration to give that grass-like look. You could use edible Easter grass (affiliate link) instead of simply leave it out.
My friend is diabetic can I substitute the sugar for Splenda ?
I have only made the cake with sugar so I can’t say for sure how it would come out but I believe Splenda can be substituted for sugar in a 1:1 ratio for baking.
I use monk fruit they also come in packets. I have a husband and grandson with Diabetes
How big is for jelly roll pan?
Use a standard 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan.
The cake mix was a full box 3 cup mine roll up good after i was baked let it sit for 2 hrs to complete cool when I unrolled it just keep breaking not sure what I did wrong help
Gloria
I. Made the cake roll but I don’t want to do the filling yet. How do I store the cake roll till I’m ready. Evidently I didn’t see where my question was answered, can you help me???
I would wrap the rolled cake in plastic wrap and store at room temperature until you are ready to add the filling.
I would use chopped fresh strawberries in top of the whip filling and whole strawberries in the top or I would use a cream cheese whipped topping filling and just swirls of that on the top.