This Pina Colada Swiss Cake Roll is an indulgent tropical treat! A light and airy pineapple cake rolled with sweet coconut whipped cream and topped with pineapple coconut buttercream. This cake looks difficult and sounds exotic, but it’s made easier with cake mix and a few other convenience items!
Have you ever heard the term kit-bashing? Kit-bashing is when you buy a kit to make something, and then use the pieces of the kit to make something completely different than what the kit was intended for.
I love cake mix, love, love, love it! But I rarely use a cake mix to make a cake the way the instructions say. I’ve come up with a new term for when you are using cake mix, but not following the directions on the box–Cake bashing! I usually have several boxes of cake mix on hand to make my favorite cookies and fruit squares, but today I’m showing you a whole new way to appreciate cake mix. With just a few modifications we’ll take cake mix and end up with a light and airy, easy to roll sponge cake. 
If you’ve never made a Swiss cake roll before there are a few important things that you have to know before you start.
- It’s not as hard as it looks.
- You’ll need parchment paper and a clean tea towel (not a dish towel, but a tea towel, like made of flour sack.
- Cake rolls take hardly any time to bake because they are so thin, but because they are so thin you want to make sure that the batter is spread as evenly as possible.
- When it comes time to roll your cake you want to roll it nice and tight so that it will hold it’s shape later and not go flat.
- This is the most important thing to know! You want to roll your cake short and fat, with lots of rolls. Not tall and skinny with hardly any roll.
(I don’t know why, but as soon as my cake comes out of the oven I have to remind myself about number 5 every single time! I had to make this cake twice because the first time I rolled it tall and skinny and it hardly had any roll at all. It was more like a long tunnel cake. That’s not what we are looking for! LOL)
Pina Colada Swiss Cake Roll
A light and airy pineapple cake rolled with sweet coconut whipped cream and topped with pineapple coconut buttercream.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 box pineapple cake mix
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
For the Filling:
- 1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 5 Tablespoons cream of coconut
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
- 1 stick of butter, softened
- 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice concentrate
- 1 Tablespoon cream of coconut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a 15x10x1 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs on high speed for 5-6 minutes, they should be thick and lemon colored. Add the cake mix, water, and oil to the eggs. Beat on low for 30 seconds and then increase the speed to medium and beat for one minute.
- Spread 3 1/2 cups of cake batter into your prepared pan, making sure to spread the batter as evenly as possible.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the center. While the cake bakes prepare a clean tea towel by lightly sprinkling 1/4 cup of powdered sugar over the towel.
- Immediately after removing the cake from the oven invert the cake onto the prepared tea towel and gently peel off the parchment paper. While the cake is hot, roll the cake up in the tea towel. Roll from the short end so that you have several rolls.
- Place the rolled cake on the counter, seam side down and let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes cooling at room temperature, place the cake in the fridge to cool for 1 hour.
- To make the coconut whipped cream filling: first place a glass or metal bowl and the beaters to your mixer into the fridge to chill for 5 minutes. Pour the heavy whipping cream into the chilled bowl and beat on high until very stiff peaks form, almost to the point of being butter. Add 5 Tablespoons of cream of coconut and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and gently stir until combined.
- To make the frosting: Beat together the softened butter, pineapple juice concentrate, cream of coconut and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar.
- To assemble the cake: After the cake has completely cooled, gently unwrap the cake from the tea towel and unroll the cake.
- Evenly spread the coconut whipped cream over the cake.
- Reroll the cake as gently, yet tightly as you can. Trim the ends if desired and place the cake onto a serving tray.
- Spread the top and sides with frosting, reserving about 1/3 cup frosting for decorating. Add 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring to the reserved frosting and pipe on decorative rosettes.
- Store in the fridge. Best eaten within 2-3 days.
Notes
There will be excess cake batter left. There should be enough cake batter to make 6 cupcakes or 2 dozen mini doughnuts. Or if desired the remaining cake batter can be discarded.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 12 ServingsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 660
Nicole
Tuesday 6th of August 2019
I used the filling in a pineapple sponge, and added cherries it was wonderful. Thanks
Amy D
Wednesday 7th of August 2019
Sounds lovely! Glad you enjoyed it Nicole.
jane
Tuesday 2nd of August 2016
That is beautiful!
Amy D
Wednesday 3rd of August 2016
Thanks so much. I'm not much of a cake decorator usually, but this one actually turned out just like I'd envisioned.
Stephanie Chavez
Tuesday 2nd of August 2016
I've never made a cake roll, but have always wanted to. You've got me inspired to make one! Thanks for the detailed instructions. I'll give it a try soon!
Amy D
Wednesday 3rd of August 2016
Oh Stephanie, once you make one you'll be hooked. And the awesome thing about this recipe is that since it uses cake mix you can easily change it up to make different flavor combinations.