May 8
2009

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

in Uncategorized

What better way to wrap up Cupcake Week than with comfort food in cupcake form? I love a good cinnamon roll, and cinnamon rolls work really well as cupcakes. After you roll up your dough and slice it into pieces, you just throw those pieces into cupcake liners (I double up on liners because these cinnamon rolls are nice and gooey) for their second rise.

I think they are so pretty when they come out of the oven. Being in the confined space of a cupcake tin forces the rolls to expand up and out, showing off their beautiful cinnamon and sugar spirals.
At this point you can slather the frosting on so that it melts into the cupcakes, or you can wait for them to cool and then frost them, so that they really look like cupcakes.
If you take the 2nd route, you can pop them in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds when you’re ready to eat one and the frosting will still retain its “form.”


Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 tsp. or 1 packet (1/4 oz./7 g) dry active yeast
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 cup warm milk (approximately 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1. Dissolve the yeast and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar in the warm milk in a large bowl and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.

2. Mix in the eggs, butter, salt, and other 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Add flour and mix until well blended and the dough forms a ball. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about one hour).

3. 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. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners (I like to double them up because these cinnamon rolls are so moist), and lightly spray over the top of them with cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into a 12×22 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 24 rolls (I use a length of dental floss–works like a charm!).

5. Place each roll in a cupcake liner. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Let rolls cool completely before frosting (or else the frosting will melt and slide off).

Frosting
2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

P.S. Flop on over to see LollyChop’s felted cupcake “sculpture” and tell her thank you for being such a genius and coming up with so many good ideas for Cupcake Week! She needs lots of nice things to be said because she’s having surgery today to have her gallbladder removed. What a trooper! For those of you interested in hearing how her surgery went, I’ll be posting an update here tomorrow.

{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }

meg May 8, 2009 at 9:16 am

Ohboy! I almost have to run out to buy a cinnamon something because I am at work and cannot make them now.
YUM! Thanks FujiMama for the great cupcake week!

Reply

Princess of Everything (and then some) May 8, 2009 at 9:37 am

Why have I not thought to do this!?!?!

Wonderful idea!

Reply

Bob May 8, 2009 at 10:08 am

Mmmmm, cinnamon rolls. Very cute. :)

Reply

Frieda May 8, 2009 at 10:51 am

Ah, man! You got me with the photo of the sliced open cupcake! Now I gotta go make these! Great job!

Reply

Hester May 8, 2009 at 12:14 pm

These look delicious!, I have to make some time to try these, thanks for sharing!

Reply

LizzieG May 8, 2009 at 1:44 pm

Mega-Yummy! They look good enough for a party and I bet they smell sooo wonderful. Thank you Fuji Mama.

Reply

Jenn May 8, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Yes, cinnamon cupcakes!! I’ve tried making mini-ones, but not yet cupcakes. This is definitely one for the books.

Reply

Melissa @ For the Love of Health May 8, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Okay I think these are probably my favourite out of them all for Cupcake Week! SOOOO yum!

Reply

MomChops May 8, 2009 at 2:28 pm

OOOOHHHHH, I can hardly wait until hubby gets home from the road. He LOVES him some cinnamon rolls, he is going to love these little pupplies for sure! Bless you m’dear!

Reply

Cassie May 8, 2009 at 3:36 pm

you have got to be the most clever girl ever!!!

i bet you made those from scratch!! but i’m wondering if rolls in a tin would work just as well?

Reply

Fuji Mama May 8, 2009 at 5:13 pm

Cassie– Yes, I made them from scratch, but yes you could probably use the rolls that come in a tin. The only problem I foresee is that the rolls might be too wide to fit in the cupcake cups. I made my cinnamon roll slightly longer and thinner, otherwise I would have been smashing those puppies in to fit! Let me know if you try it and how it comes out!

Reply

K and S May 8, 2009 at 6:04 pm

these look so good! and I love their cute size!

Reply

mamakd May 8, 2009 at 6:16 pm

Yummy, yum, yum! I think I just gained a couple of pounds just looking at those. Cute idea. You could easily throw a cupcake appetizer party from the recipes this week.

Reply

Annie Pazoo May 8, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Oh! I’m starving looking at those — gotta go find the cinnamon right now:-)

Reply

Julianne May 8, 2009 at 10:03 pm

Mmmm, they look scrumptious! Def. going to give this recipe a burl.

Reply

Cristine May 9, 2009 at 1:35 am

So good!

Reply

amyks May 9, 2009 at 6:33 am

Thanks Fujimama for all your incredible cupcake ideas. I am astounded by your creativity, such an inspiration.

Reply

ezeldabeth May 9, 2009 at 2:05 pm

this week has been so much fun…but i think these by far are my favorites…what a great idea! thanks!

Reply

Semsavblanc May 10, 2009 at 4:35 am

O oooh!!! These look fantastic. I must thank you for the Fuji Nana Black Bottom cupcakes. What tricky little surprises (and so incredibly easy to make – my & hubby's first ever cupcakes). They were such a hit today for Mother's day (all the way from the US of A). I pass on all the praise to you and Fuji Nana – Thank you!!!! They were superbly perfect with coffee after our barby! I plan to make every recipe from Cupcake Week, with great thanks to you and Lolly!!

Reply

Jen @ MyKitchenAddiction.com May 10, 2009 at 1:17 pm

These look very tasty! Great idea to turn cinnamon rolls into cupcakes!

Reply

Christine May 10, 2009 at 4:56 pm

I made these this morning and my husband fell all over himself in love with them. He asked that I stop by and let you know this. :) I completely agree with him! Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!

Reply

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) May 10, 2009 at 10:15 pm

Mmmm, just had sushi for lunchies and I think I need these babies for dessert RIGHT NOW!

Reply

Cate May 11, 2009 at 5:41 am

oh my goodness! just when i thought that i couldn’t possibly make another dessert (we have 3 birthday parties this week), i see these. seriously. these look perfect.

Reply

Danica's Daily May 11, 2009 at 10:16 am

What an awesome idea! I LOVE cinnamon rolls and cupcakes. i am definitley printing this one out to make. Thanks!

Reply

Stef May 12, 2009 at 7:38 am

Yum! What a great idea! They look awesome!

Reply

Marta May 12, 2009 at 8:29 am

This looks so cute! What a great idea, I love putting ramikins around them and all. I’ll be making these for sure! Thanks for sharing :)

Reply

lisaiscooking May 12, 2009 at 8:57 am

These look delicious! And, you don’t have to cut the rolls apart. Perfect.

Reply

Anonymous May 12, 2009 at 9:30 am

hi. i was wondering if you could describe STEP 4 in a little more detail? (I want to try to make this tonight!) Once the dough is rolled ot in 12X@@ rectangle, what do you mean by spread dough w/ butter? and are you cutting up the rectangle and re-rolling it again to put into cupcake mold?

Thanks so much!

Reply

Liesl May 12, 2009 at 9:45 am

YUM!!! Everything is better as a cupcake!

Reply

Fuji Mama May 12, 2009 at 10:10 am

Anonymous– Sure! I’m going to break step 4 down a bit more and give you some extra info.

-Roll dough into a 12×22 inch rectangle. (A bit longer and skinnier is great too…just don’t go shorter and fatter because you’ll have trouble getting the rolls into the cupcake molds.)

-Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. (This is the 1/3 cup softened butter listed as the last ingredient. Just spread the softened butter over the top of your rolled out square of dough with a butter knife, spatula, or back of a spoon. Once you have done this, sprinkle the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture as evenly as possible over the top of the butter.)

-Roll up dough and cut into 24 rolls (I use a length of dental floss–works like a charm!). (Roll up your rectangle so that the butter and sugar mixture is on the inside and you get a long log. Then cut that log into 24 pieces.)

– The carefully place these pieces into your cupcake papers in your cupcake mold.

It’s can be hard to visualize the shaping steps if you’ve never made these before, so here is a video that might help you get the idea if you’re stuck: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/How-to-Make-Cinnamon-Rolls-Video/Detail.aspx

The only different will be the size of your rectangle and you won’t be putting them all in a baking dish, but in your cupcake molds instead.

Of course you can always comment or email me if you have any more questions! Good luck and let me know how they turn out!

Reply

oneshotbeyond May 12, 2009 at 10:17 am

I love the inside! So swirly and pretty.

Reply

oneordinaryday May 12, 2009 at 3:10 pm

Brilliant! Cinnamon rolls as cupcakes?? Why have I never seen this before. I love how they puff out of the liners. Great idea.

Reply

Brilynn May 12, 2009 at 9:06 pm

Those look great!
I love the smell of cinnamon buns baking, there’s nothing better!

Reply

inti May 14, 2009 at 3:46 pm

I made these yesterday, but they rose too much out of their cases and also i was doing too many things at once in the kitchen and overcooked them a bit :( but they’re still yummy! I also subbed in wholemeal flour, and didnt ice them but dusted with icing sugar.
I was also thinking you could use this recipe to make cinnamon bread: just make a fatter roll, slice the same, and then reconstruct into a loaf pan and you’d get lovely marbled slices of bread when its cut.
Thanks heaps!

Reply

Anonymous May 14, 2009 at 3:48 pm

I’m in the process of making these right now!

Reply

Elin May 14, 2009 at 8:51 pm

Hi, Congrats you make it to Top 9 Today :)

Reply

Fuji Mama May 14, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Anonymous– Good luck!

Elin– THANKS!

Reply

krismakes May 18, 2009 at 7:49 pm

oh my goodness, I came over here via Lollychops (whom I just found today) and I cannot beleive all the yummy stuff going on here. I am definetely going to try out some of your awesome recipes. Thanks for sharing.
Kris (from oz)

Reply

Fuji Mama May 19, 2009 at 10:26 am

krismakes– Thanks! Isn’t LollyChops the best?

Reply

Anonymous June 2, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Yummm!make me feel like a cinnamon roll now! ^0^

Reply

Sheri Ann June 11, 2009 at 7:53 pm

Oh yum, oh yum, oh yum, yum, yum!!!!!

(Can I move in with you??!! HA!)

Reply

Fuji Mama June 11, 2009 at 8:44 pm

Sheri Ann– Come on over! :-)

Reply

Amanda July 24, 2009 at 8:01 am

OMG sheer Heaven!!

Reply

Deborah Dowd August 2, 2009 at 5:48 pm

What a great idea- all the deliciousness of a cinnamon roll in a cupcake!

Reply

Jen August 3, 2009 at 8:34 am

I'm a little late on commenting, but how well do these keep? If I make them during the day today will they be good for Hubby to take to work tomorrow? Thanks!

Reply

Fuji Mama August 3, 2009 at 9:06 am

Jen– As like most cinnamon rolls, these are always better the day that you make them! However, they'll still be okay tomorrow, especially if your hubby has a microwave that he can pop them in for about 10 seconds to warm them back up. Alternatively, the rolls can be placed in the refrigerator to rise much more slowly overnight (on step 5), for 8 to 10 hours. Let the rolls sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before baking. Hope that helps! Let me know how they turn out!

Reply

Pierce August 13, 2009 at 2:19 pm

Whoa…I could hurt myself on these…eat way too many. Looks wonderful and I've saved this to my recipe box in Foodbuzz.

Tina

Reply

Ashley August 24, 2009 at 10:09 am

I saw these over on Beantown Baker and they look simply heavenly! I can't wait to try them out :)

Reply

Culinary Cory October 14, 2009 at 8:52 pm

This is such a neat idea. I'm so glad you shared this on Food Blogger forum. I totally booked marked it.

Reply

Federica November 8, 2009 at 9:52 am

complimenti per questa delizia!!!! splendide!!ciao!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: