When the temperatures drop, heat up your home by serving a delicious, winter-themed cake for dessert. This Hot Chocolate Cake Roll is everything you love about the classic beverage but in cake form! A Chocolate Crème Cake Roll is covered with hot chocolate frosting and topped with marshmallows to create a wonderfully decadent and addicting flavor combination. It’s guaranteed to help carry you through these long winter nights and into the sunny days of spring.
Hot chocolate is one of those treats that instantly makes winter feel a little more manageable, especially when you’re coming in from the cold after a day of sledding or snowball fights (both of which are favorites with my children). Around our house, it’s a go-to treat, so turning that familiar flavor into a dessert just made sense. This Hot Chocolate Cake Roll takes everything we love about a warm mug of cocoa and dresses it up into something fun you can actually slice and share.
Starting with a Dutch Apron® Bakery Chocolate Crème Cake Roll keeps things simple while the hot chocolate frosting, marshmallows, and peppermint touches give it that classic hot chocolate feel. It’s playful without being complicated, which makes it great for holiday gatherings, weekend treats, or anytime you want a dessert that can please multiple different palates while still looking so good that anyone who sees it just wants to take a swig (or, in this case, a slice).
More Winter-Inspired Recipes You’ll Love
Chocolate Truffle Pinecones
These truffles are an easy, no-bake dessert made with rich chocolate cake and frosting that gets shaped into festive pinecones and finished with a light dusting of powdered sugar. They look impressive but come together with minimal ingredients and simple steps.
Baked Alaska Christmas Tree
Featuring layers of chocolate and peppermint ice cream wrapped inside a rich, chocolatey base and topped with snowy, toasted meringue, this dessert is crafted to delight guests and elevate any holiday celebration. It’s elegant, memorable, and the perfect centerpiece for a season filled with sweet moments.
Polar Bear Cake Roll
A decadent Chocolate Crème Cake Roll, rolled in vanilla-flavored crème filling, makes up the base of this adorable cake roll. It’s decorated with buttercream frosting and coconut flakes for a flavor and texture combination that work together beautifully. Finally, it is finished with icing decorations to give the polar bear its signature features.
What You’ll Need
- Large mixing bowl
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- Cake board
- Turntable
- Piping bag
- Bench scraper
Storage Information
A frosted cake can last up to a week when stored in the refrigerator. The frosting helps to lock in the moisture of the cake, keeping it fresh while you wait to serve. If you cut the cake first and then want to store it, put the pieces in an airtight container or cover the cut sections with any leftover frosting you may have. The cake can be stored like this for a week in the refrigerator.
You can make this hot chocolate frosting the day before you assemble your cake roll and refrigerate it overnight. Then, when you’re ready to start decorating your cake, take it out and let it come back up to room temperature. You may need to mix it again for a few minutes before applying.
Tips for Making a Hot Chocolate Cake Roll
- Don’t take your cake roll out of the freezer until you are ready to start putting on the frosting. A cold cake is easier to decorate as it is less delicate. A room temperature cake is tender and fragile which means it is more likely to fall apart.
- If you like a creamier texture for your frosting, put in an extra 1/4 c. icing sugar. If you prefer a thinner frosting, add more milk. I recommend adding in 1 tbsp. of milk at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.
How to Make a Hot Chocolate Cake Roll
Hot Chocolate Cake Roll
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy7-8
servings300
kcal11
When the temperatures drop, heat up your home by serving a delicious, winter-themed cake for dessert. This Hot Chocolate Cake Roll is everything you love about the classic beverage but in cake form! A Chocolate Crème Cake Roll is covered with hot chocolate frosting and topped with marshmallows to create a wonderfully decadent and addicting flavor combination. It’s guaranteed to help carry you through these long winter nights and into the sunny days of spring.
Ingredients
1 Dutch Apron® Bakery Chocolate Crème Cake Roll
1 c. butter, room temperature
3 1/2 c. icing sugar
1/2 c. cocoa powder
4 tbsp. homogenized milk
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Marshmallow crème
Big marshmallows
Little marshmallows
Peppermint sticks
Directions
- Make the Hot Chocolate Frosting
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter on medium speed until smooth, lighter in color, and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Add to the bowl with the butter.
- Combine the milk and vanilla with the other ingredients in the bowl and beat on low speed for about 1 minute.
- Add in the salt and beat on high for 1 additional minute.
- Frost the Cake Roll
- Remove the Chocolate Crème Cake Roll from its packaging. Cut the cake roll in half. You’ll use one half for this recipe. Place the other half back into the clamshell and put it in the refrigerator. You can enjoy it later.
- Place a small dollop of frosting on the center of your cake board. Take the remaining half of your cake roll and stand it vertically on one end of the frosting dollop. This helps “glue” it in place.
- Carefully, set the cake board on the turntable.
- Fill a piping bag with the hot chocolate frosting. Starting at the bottom of the cake roll, pipe a ring of frosting all the way around. Continue piping rings upward, stacking them on top of each other until the entire cake roll is covered including the top.
- Hold a bench scraper gently against the side of the cake while slowly spinning the turntable. Scrape off any excess, wiping the scraper clean between passes until you have smooth, even sides and top.
- Chill for 10-15 minutes to let the frosting firm up slightly.
- Decorate the Cake Roll
- Place a heaping amount of the marshmallow crème on top of the cake roll. You will use this to stick on the marshmallows.
- Sprinkle a lot of little marshmallows on top of the crème, placing a few large marshmallows among them as you go. If you want to add another layer of marshmallows on top of your first layer, you can use more of the crème to help them stick.
- Next, take a peppermint stick and push it into one side of the top of the cake roll, so it looks like a straw.
- You can add more marshmallows and peppermint sticks to the base of your cake roll as decorations. If you want more peppermint flavor, crush a peppermint stick and sprinkle the pieces over the top of your cake roll.
Notes
- Storage Instructions: A frosted cake can last up to a week when stored in the refrigerator. If you cut the cake first and then want to store it, put the pieces in an airtight container or cover the cut sections with any leftover frosting you may have.
- Special Tools: Large mixing bowl, stand mixer or hand mixer, cake board, turntable, piping bag, and bench scraper
- Want to Change the Texture of Your Frosting? If you like a creamier texture for your frosting, put in an extra 1/4 c. icing sugar. If you prefer a thinner frosting, add more milk. I recommend adding in 1 tbsp. of milk at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.
About the Author:
Brand Wind is a graphic designer at Dutch Apron® Bakery where he creates a wide variety of materials pertaining to a variety of delicious desserts; his portfolio includes social media promotions, motion graphics, and, occasionally, lending an (actual) hand to make sure each recipe turns out just right. Brandon lives in Iowa with his wife and three children and enjoys creating his own comic books, playing guitar with his band, and going on whatever adventure his wife has planned for the weekend. He strives to be a constant reminder to his kids that, no matter how old you get, you can still be young at heart!
