Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

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If you love licking the bowl, you'll be in heaven with this recipe for cake batter cinnamon rolls that are fluffy, soft, full of cinnamon, and topped with a dreamy cake batter cream cheese icing.

I know this is a bizarre time of year to be posting a cake batter recipe when I should be up to my eyeballs in pumpkin and cinnamon (okay, okay, I am up to my eyeballs in those recipes), but what can I say? My life sort of rolls like this these days.

As things turned out, I was making confetti cake bread dough for another project. Problem was– the recipe makes a huge amount of dough. Not such a bad thing when you’re feeding guests or making a birthday feast… but when it’s just a Tuesday night in October? Annnnnnnnd you’re not so great a halving a recipe (sad but oh-so-true)? Then it’s an issue.

So I decided to do a little multi-tasking and create a recipe to post. I’ve been wanting to try cake batter cinnamon rolls forever and wasn’t going to waste the opportunity!

Side note: this is probably a good time to warn you– this recipe does make a lot. If you make the recipe as written below, it will make 2 – 9×13 pans of cinnamon rolls. If you don’t need that many, you can always half the recipe or freeze half of the dough before it has a chance to rise.

If you love licking the bowl, you'll be in heaven with this recipe for cake batter cinnamon rolls that are fluffy, soft, full of cinnamon, and topped with a dreamy cake batter cream cheese icing.

Despite the fact that this recipe makes such a large batch, I absolutely adore it. Thanks to cake mix, the flavor is right on. And even though yeasty recipes can be a little finicky, this one has always turned out perfectly soft and fluffy for me each time I’ve made it.

And that cake batter cream cheese icing? *swoon*

It is like you’re literally licking cake batter off your fingers, but somehow so much better. That stuff hung the moon.

Plus, there are sprinkles. And who can argue against a dessert with sprinkles?

If you love licking the bowl, you'll be in heaven with this recipe for cake batter cinnamon rolls that are fluffy, soft, full of cinnamon, and topped with a dreamy cake batter cream cheese icing.

Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls

Yield: 24 cinnamon rolls

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
  • 2 1/2 cups of warm water
  • 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
  • 1 box of confetti cake mix
  • 5 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the filling:

  • 12 tablespoons melted butter
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon

For the cake batter icing:

  • 1/3 cup confetti cake mix
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • splash of vanilla

Instructions

Prepare the dough:

  1. Sprinkle the yeast over 2 1/2 cups of warm (about 125ºF) water. Sprinkle the salt over the yeast, allowing the weight of the salt to sink the yeast into the water. Let the yeast-water mixture sit and become foamy (about 5 minutes).
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a bread hook, mix together the wake mix and all-purpose flour. Add the foamy yeast mixture and the vanilla extract.
  3. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic (about 5-6 minutes).
  4. Remove the bread hook. Grease the bowl liberally with non-stick cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled in size (I usually place my bowl of dough on a heating pad, which speeds things up to about a 30 minute rise time).
  5. **If you are freezing half of the dough, this is the time to do it! Don't let the dough rise before wrapping well and freezing.**

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400ºF and prep the filling.

  1. In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon.*

Assembly:

  1. Once the dough has risen, divide it into two portions.
  2. Roll out one portion into a large rectangle (think a little larger than a 9x13 baking dish).
  3. Pour half of the butter onto the dough and brush out to the edges. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture over the butter, spreading evenly.
  4. Roll up the dough starting on the long end. Cut into 12 slices, discarding the ends. Place them in a well-greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
  5. Repeat with second portion of dough.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Make the icing:

  1. Using a small food processor or electric mixer, combine the cake mix**, milk, cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
  2. Spread icing on baked cinnamon rolls. Garnish with additional sprinkles if desired.

Notes

*I know this seems like a lot. Every time I make these I think "this is WAY too much!" But then, when it's all baked and on my plate, I'm so glad I stuck to the measurements ๐Ÿ™‚ .

** Yes.... you'll need a second box of cake mix just to make this icing using only 1/3 of a cup. But it's SO worth it. And there are plenty of fun recipes out there using less than a full box of cake mix-- so be sure to save the remains for another treat!

 

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14 thoughts on “Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls Recipe”

  1. I’m hoping I can substitute a plain yellow cake mix for the funfetti one (just not a fan). They look so yummy, and I’m with Averie – so glad to see something not pumpkin! Going to try this weekend!

    Reply
  2. Hey what a brilliant idea using cake batter and flour. I don’t mean to be a typo Nazi, but you have a small typo in the recipe instructions step 2. It says “wake” not ”cake” batter. I scratched my head a little bit wondering what “wake” batter meant while putting everything together. I am seriously frothing at the mouth while waiting for these to rise. I can’t wait to taste them, cause I LOVE confetti cake. Yummy!! Thank you for the great idea.

    Reply
  3. These looked and sounded so good unfortunately the dough did not raise at all. I followed your instructions to a tee. I still continued to use the dough because I didn’t want to waste a box of cake mix and 5 cups of flour. Then when I put the melted butter on and the sugar there was so much extra sugar that it has to be a mistake because I had at least a cup of brown sugar that could not fit on the dough that was rolled out. After I baked it the rolls were swimming in the brown sugar/butter mixture. We are eating them and they are ok but I would recommend to cut the brown sugar in half.

    Reply

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