Cinnamon Roll Cake

Our family loves cinnamon rolls. 

We make them for Christmas. We make them for Father's Day. We make them for Leighton's birthday. We make them because it's Tuesday. We make them because it's raining. We make them to celebrate. We make them just because. 

We don't need a reason to make cinnamon rolls, really. 

To be honest, the family is thrilled with any variation of this beloved treat. Bread, muffins, pancakes . . . 

Cake.  

This cake has been a family favorite for years. Moist yellow cake with sugary cinnamon swirled throughout and topped with a sticky glaze. It's all the deliciousness of cinnamon rolls in a fraction of the time. 

Tyler picked this cake to celebrate his 6th birthday a couple weeks ago. Each of the kids have looked at this picture as I'm typing this and have asked when I'm making it again. Hmm, maybe I'll throw it together in the morning and call it coffee cake, ha. With a name like that, it's totally acceptable for breakfast, right?

If you love cinnamon rolls, you need to make this cake. Then you can have a piece for breakfast, too. 

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Ingredients
Cake:

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoons salt

3/4 cups sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients for the cake until thoroughly combined. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 cake pan.
2. Mix together ingredients for the filling and drop by spoonfuls around the batter. Swirl the filling with a knife.
3. Bake the cake at 350° for 30-35 minutes, or until done.
4. Combine the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the warm cake.

Tasty Tuesday: King Cake

I've always associated Fat Tuesday with paczki. I'm amazed to hear how many people have never eaten one or even heard of them though! Pretty much they're like fruit or cream-filled doughnuts. But better. The kids have mentioned them multiple times since we made them a couple years ago. Instead of making them again this year, we made another Fat Tuesday treat - king cake.

While we don't partake in or condone the festivities of Mardi Gras, we do enjoy yummy food. I had never had king cake before or really knew much about it. The cake represents the 3 wise men that visited Jesus. Oftentimes, a small plastic baby is baked inside the cake as a special surprise.

A traditional king cake is very similar to cinnamon rolls. The dough is made, rolled out, filled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and rolled. Instead of being cut, the log is formed into a ring and baked. It is then topped with a simple icing and decorated with purple, yellow, and green sugar.

The kids had fun making this, but even more fun eating it! We're a big cinnamon roll family, so I knew they would love it. Alyssa was very impressed with how "beautiful" and "fancy" it looked with the stripes and Jake would have gladly eaten half the cake in a singe sitting had we let him. "It is Fat Tuesday," he argued. Hmm, good point!

I have a feeling we won't be waiting until next Fat Tuesday before making this again.

King Cake

Cake Ingredients:

¼ cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)

½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp softened butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c sour cream
3½ Tbsp white sugar
3½ c all-purpose flour, or as needed
2½ tsp active dry yeast

Filling Ingredients:

½ c white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp melted butter
1 c chopped pecans (optional)

Glaze Ingredients:

1½ c confectioner's sugar
1½ Tbsp melted butter

⅛ tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk, or as needed
1 Tbsp purple colored sugar

1 Tbsp green colored sugar
1 Tbsp yellow colored sugar
 

Directions:
1. Place the warm water, salt, softened butter, egg, sour cream, 3½ tablespoons of sugar, flour, and yeast into a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer, select the dough cycle, and start the machine. Check the dough after about 5 minutes of mixing, and add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of water or flour if the dough is too dry or wet.
2. Mix ½ cup of sugar, the cinnamon, and 5 tablespoons of melted butter together in a bowl. Grease a baking sheet, and set aside.
3. When the dough cycle is finished, remove the dough and roll out to a 10x28-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Spread the cinnamon-butter mixture over the dough, and sprinkle on an even layer of pecans, if using. Starting at a long edge, and roll the dough into a 28-inch long log. Place the rolled dough onto the prepared baking sheet, seam side down, and form the dough into a ring. Moisten the ends of the dough with a little water; pinch the two ends together to seal. Cover the dough ring with a cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
4. Bake the cake at 375 degrees F until the top is golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.
5. Mix the confectioner's sugar, 1½ tablespoons of melted butter, vanilla extract, and just enough milk to make a smooth but not thin glaze.
6. Remove the cake from the oven, and cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack. While the cake is still warm, spoon the glaze onto the cake, allowing drips of glaze to dribble down the sides of the cake. Immediately sprinkle the cake with alternating bands of purple, green, and yellow colored sugar.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.

Cinnamon Rolls: Take Two

Nope, it's not Tuesday. But I asked my family yesterday if they wanted cinnamon rolls. It was more of a rhetorical question. I just like seeing their eyes get wide and hearing the excitement in their voices, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" 

We have a recipe that we love, but I have been dying to make Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. They  claim to be the Best of the Best. I have read about these rolls on multiple blogs. Everyone adores them.

I had to make them.

 And make them I did. I prepared the dough last night and assembled the rolls this morning. My family impatiently waited for them to rise a final time before baking. I'm not so sure that cinnamon rolls are considered the breakfast of champions, but no one seemed to mind.

I really, really wanted to love these. Really. I mean, it's Pioneer Woman's recipe. The maply-coffee flavored icing is one of those things that you're going to either love or hate. It was so good, Jake and I could slurp it through a straw. Leighton and Alyssa didn't care for it. Once it was poured on the rolls though, you could barely taste it. The whole thing melded into one flavor. The icing is thin enough to pour and seeps into all the nooks and crannies. Once it all soaked up, it was more of a glaze than the frosting we love.

Don't get me wrong, the rolls were delicious. They reminded me of coffee cake or a cinnamon roll doughnut. As far as good ol' cinnamon rolls though, everyone asked me to stick with our usual recipe.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tasty Tuesday: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

As soon as I mention the word cinnamon, Jake's eyes go wide and ears perk up. I'm sure I could put cinnamon on anything, and he would eat it. I've also mentioned how much we like breads. Then, what could be better than cinnamon swirl bread?

Ingredients:

1 large room temperature egg             1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup milk                                          3 1/2 cups bread flour
3/4 cup water approx.                           2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup softened butter                        1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup sugar

Filling:
1/3 cup melted butter, cooled                1 egg white
1/3 cup sugar                                         1 1/2 tsp sugar ( for the topping)
3 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Put the egg and milk in a measuring cup, and add enough warm water to make 1 cup. Pour into the bread machine pan. Add the softened butter, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set the bread machine to the dough cycle. When it beeps, add the raisins if using. Let continue to end of cycle.

2. Once done, remove the dough from the machine and dump it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to a 10×12 rectangle. Brush the surface of the dough with egg whites. Next, brush with melted butter. Combine the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over dough, leaving 1 inch edge all around.

3. Roll the dough from the short side, and pinch the ends together where they meet. Roll the ends under, and place the dough in a greased 12 inch loaf pan. Cover and let it rise in a warm place for one hour.

4. Once dough has risen, brush the top with egg whites and sprinkle with 1 1/2 tsp sugar. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes.

Oh. My. Goodness. This bread is good. It tastes like one big cinnamon roll. In fact, I must have thought that was what we were making because I rolled the dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. I had to ball it up and start over. I was concerned the dough would be over-worked, but it was still delish. Also, I don't have a 12 inch loaf pan. I squished the dough into my 9 inch pan.

While the bread isn't as good as our cinnamon rolls, (Is there anything that good?) it will be added to our bread list. I also read that this bread is great for French toast. Truly though, I would have to make 2 loaves for that to happen. We eat it too fast!

I had a revelation today. I know, this is going to sound obvious to some, but it just hit me. Like 2 seconds ago. I have always used bread machine yeast in my bread machine. Makes sense. But, I use it for making dough in it also. I'm guessing that I should use regular active dry yeast when making just dough since it rises after too and will rise better. Leighton already gave me the go-ahead to try it tomorrow. What a guy! We might make that French toast after all. 

Tasty Tuesday: Cinnamon Rolls

We took a break from the apple recipes this week. We also made these on Monday. That's one of the joys of homeschooling. We have the opportunity to be flexible. Yesterday, I made homemade biscuits and gravy for dinner. Usually, big breakfasts like that are reserved for Saturdays when the whole family is together. Every few weeks or so, we have Pillsbury cinnamon rolls afterward. I figured that it would be a nice treat to make them from scratch since "breakfast" was actually dinner, and I had more time to prepare them. Every time I make them, we ask, "Why do we ever use the cans of refrigerated rolls?"  

Ingredients:
Dough

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup butter, melted

4 1/2 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling 

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened

Frosting

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start. (My machine takes 90 minutes for the dough cycle.)

2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

I don't have any pictures making the dough. I was busy preparing dinner at the same time. Excuses, excuses . . .

She pretended she was rolling out play dough.

Look how hard he was working!

They enjoyed "cleaning" the counter with their hands and licking them.

Jake helped cut the log.

Before rising

After rising

After cooking

Look at all that yummy goodness!

These are also good reheated. Or room temperature. Or cold. Basically, these are just really, really good! I have a feeling we'll be making fewer Pillsbury and more homemade.


* Update *
Since this post, we've only made these cinnamon rolls. No more cans of rolls for us! I usually prepare the rolls the night before and keep them in the fridge. I pop them in the oven in the morning when we're ready for breakfast. As they're baking, I make the frosting.