What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to eat a Cinnabon knock-off with pink frosting? I’ve been making this clone of a Cinnabon recipe for about a year now. Yes it takes time (1.5 hours in the bread machine alone), but they are so worth it. They actually taste like Cinnabon’s own. I love to pair it with a cream cheese frosting as the recipe suggests, but Tim prefers a buttercream frosting so of course I oblige.
Clone of a Cinnabon Roll Recipe
Cinnamon Rolls:
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
Cream Cheese 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
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
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.
Roll dough into a 16×21-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 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
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 saw on Pinterest that people made cinnamon rolls heart shaped for Valentine’s Day and decided to try it out. As you can see from the picture, they weren’t quite perfect hearts, and resembled moustaches. I made two batches, the first batch I made I forgot I was making them a different shape and rolled them up, then unrolled half way and made them into the heart shapes. Even though I had made a mistake, the rolls held more tightly together than the second batch I made by rolling up the two sides separately. I only added two drops of red food coloring to my frosting but it came out a lovely pink color.
I wanted to take a picture of the roll with the frosting but they all got eaten too quickly!
The buttercream frosting recipe was a new one I decided to try out. The frosting came out thick and delicious. I normally have used milk in frosting to thin them out but I had some heavy whipping cream leftover and was able to use this instead. I will probably never use milk again!
Buttercream Frosting Recipe
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream
In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.