Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake.

Wow, Rach, two posts in a week. Good for you! Haha Food is clearly my muse and I love writing and sharing about it. My last post about the amazingly tasty refried pinto beans was a huge hit for you guys! Lots of "OMG I'm making this immediately!" Very flattering. I kept checking the post itself to make sure I had no typos and my instructions were clear enough. Haha

Ok, let's get to the point! You read the title of this post, you know what's about to happen. The saliva is accumulating in your cheeks. You're ready. I'm ready. Let's talk about it! Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake. 

Yeah that's right! You heard me! All the lovely things you have ever wanted in a delicious, warm, ooey gooey roll, but like half the effort. No waiting for the dough to rise, no rolling out the dough, smearing the melted butter around, rising the dough... again... Well, that or buying a tube of it in the grocery store next to the sour cream and tater tots. But let's be honest here, nothing beats a big fluffy homemade roll. Except this cake. OMG.

I was sifting through the pages of Pinterest months back when I found this recipe. What attracted me to it was the "Bundt" part of it. My dad had just bought a pan a few weeks prior and I was waiting for the right recipe to break it in... and boy did I find it! 

The blog was called Bake Or Break. The lady that writes for it said that she found the recipe on King Arthur's cookbook I think. I took the recipe and tweaked a few things to my taste. Less sugar, more cinnamon, my own frosting recipe, etc.

So... let's make this damn thing! The list:

Dough:

2 Cups Flour (all-purpose/unbleached)

1 Cup Sugar (white)

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt 

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

4 eggs

1/4 Cup Oil (canola/veggie)

1 Cup Sour Cream

1/4 Cup Butter (softened)

1 box Vanilla Pudding Mix (3oz size)

Filling:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Frosting:

16oz Cream Cheese (plain/softened) 

1/2 Cup Butter (softened)

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Salt (kosher)

So many things! Ok, so the obvious first thing that you'll need is a Bundt pan. They come in all kinds of shapes, here's mine:

It's by Wilton. I think it was around $10-15? You can find it at Michael's Craftstore, Walmart, or any specific cookware store. Or, if you're super introverted and don't like human contact very often... Amazon.com 😉

Preheat your oven to 350°. Sift your dry ingredients in a bowl. The flour, salt, baking powder, pudding mix, and cinnamon. 

*Sifting these ahead of time helps with the lumps. Smooth batter, smooth cake, happy tastebuds! If you're using kosher salt, you'll have little grains left in the strainer, just press them through. No biggie.*

In a separate bowl, mix the filling, set aside. This is going to go in layers inbetween the batter. The goal being to replicate the swirls in your typical cinnamon roll. Replicate and totally conquer! 

Now for the wet stuff. Cream your butter and white sugar. Just mix on a medium high speed until pale and fluffy. If you are #blessed like me and have a Kitchen Aid, use the paddle attachment! Let your hair down! You earned it! You deserve to have nice things. Or, if you're slumming it with a hand mixer, just... do that I guess. I'm so sorry, I just can't imagine life without my Kitchen Aid. Game changer.

Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, sour cream, and oil.

*Side note! Quick word about why I use certain ingredients. I use both butter and oil because it gives a dense enough cake but still has some height and flaky-ness to it. Oil creates weight to a cake while butter creates flakes. Using both creates a wonderful marraige, especially for a Bundt cake. The sour cream is kind of like buttermilk for red velvet cake, tangy flavor! I use 4 eggs because it gives me the best consistency in my dough.

The one you're probably wondering most about is the instant pudding mix. Haha I give all the credit to the blog I got this recipe from. The pudding mix gives the cake such a rich, sweet, dense flavor! I think there's pectin in the mix or something. Either way, there's a big difference without it. Use the pudding mix. Haha*

Now you have 3 bowls: wet, dry, and filling. Mix your wet and dry together getting a pretty thick dough. Very sticky. Smells awesome. Time to layer!

Grab your Bundt pan and spray the living hell out of it with cooking spray. You want to be able to lift the cake out of the pan. Would be a shame to have all of that go to waste because you were a dumb dumb and forgot to spray it. Haha

Spoon 1/3 of your batter into the pan and spread out in a smooth layer. 

Time for that filling! Sprinkle 1/3 of the filling around the center of the batter. It's ok if it hits the sides, but you get more "blow-outs" that way. You'll see what I mean in a second. Now for the second layer of batter!

This one is a little more difficult to smooth over the sugar. Be patient. Deep breaths.

Thick, pillow-y goodness! Ok, last layer of sugar. Grab a kabob stick or tooth pick and swirl the top layers of batter and sugar together. 

You'll wanna do this because the sugar is going to boil and harden in the oven. Like a caramel candy on top of your cake. That's a hard pass for me. Haha

Ugh, so pretty. I spray a little more cooking spray on top because I'm paranoid about the candy thing. Haha Pop it into the oven for 50min. Do a toothpick check. If you get some of the filling coming back, that's fine. But raw dough means another 5-10min. Depends on your oven, weather, etc.

Yaaaas bundtcake! Giving me all the life right now! Cool this for 10min, then invert it onto a cooling rack to cool completely. You don't wanna take it out of the pan straight out of the oven because its still cooking technically. It's called "carryover heat". You wanna let the cake start to set first before moving it around. I've been impatient before and it resulted in a sunken in cake and a very weepy Rachel. So sad.

See that line of filling? That's what I meant by a blowout. When I removed this from the pan, I had some cake stuck in the pan where this line of filling was. Luckily, this wasn't too bad and I left with most of my cake intact. Yay me!

Frost it! Oh yeah, I have to tell you how to make it...

Mix the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Sprinkle the salt in. Mix. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Scrap the bowl inbetween mixes. Taste it for more vanilla or salt. Texture should be kinda goop-y, but firm enough to stay on the back of your spatula.

Sooooo good! You could have this for breakfast if you wanted! Make this. Eat this. Love me for it.

R.

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