Cinnamon buns are a guilty pleasure of mine, I admit. But making them is extremely time consuming. Sometimes you just want that warm, ooey, gooey cinnamon sweet goodness without the fuss. Voila.
Enjoy this with your coffee in the morning or as a dessert. It’s easy and quick enough to make for last minute company or just your occasional sweet craving.
INGREDIENTS
Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla*
1 cup sugar
1 stick melted salted butter
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
Topping
2 sticks softened salted butter (not melted)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon*
Icing
2 cups 10x sugar
5 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla*
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
METHOD
Preheat your oven to 350.
Grease and flour a 13 x 9 pan.
Mix the dry cake ingredients together. In another bowl, mix two eggs, beaten, with the vanilla, milk, and melted butter.
*The type of vanilla and cinnamon you use really does matter. Don’t settle for the supermarket shelf (half alcohol, half flavor) vanilla. And that $2.00 bargain cinnamon you got at SuperG is likely a) not real cinnamon, but cassia from China, b) irradiated, and c) loaded with fillers.
Wherever possible, I prefer to use vanilla paste. The one I use (shown below, far right) is wet enough that you don’t have to make up for any missing moisture. But if you require pure liquid, for a cocktail, for instance, go for a good one (again, shown below). For the cinnamon, look for Ceylon cinnamon. Simply Organic has a number of good options.
Slowly mix in the wet ingredients a bit at a time until it’s all incorporated into the batter with no lumps.
Pour the batter into the pan and set aside.
Thoroughly mix the Topping ingredients. This won’t work if your butter is melted, you really just want it very soft.
Plop the topping in blobs on top of the batter.
Run a butter knife through the topping/batter horizontally, then vertically. Don’t stir. You just want “rivers” of the topping through the batter.
Top with pecans, or any nuts or raisins you like.
Bake for 30 minutes.
It’s important for this recipe that you do the toothpick test to make sure the cake is cooked through. Test in several locations. If you see batter on the toothpick, give it another 5 minutes and check again.
Remove the cake from the oven, After about 5-10 minutes, use a skewer or fork to poke a dozen or two holes in the top of the cake.
Mix the icing ingredients and pour over the top of the cake.
Let it sit for an hour or so before cutting. If you can. The smell is absolutely homey and intoxicating.
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