Monday, March 26, 2012

Cinnamon Roll Cake


via
This recipe is from Nikki over at Chef in TrainingSee her recipe or follow the recipe here (with my additions and improvements in red):
Cinnamon Roll Cake - Serves 16
Nikki credits Grin and Bake it for this recipe.
Cake:
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt (Next time I am changing this to 1/2 tsp salt.)
1 cup sugar
4 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 cps milk
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted (Just in case you are not an experienced baker, most baking uses unsalted butter.**)
Topping:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (See butter comments below.**)
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsps flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tbsps milk
1 tsp vanilla
(Read through the instructions completely before beginning. In #2, the sentence about adding the melted butter in last is very important. I learned the hard way.)
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2) In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
3) For the topping, in a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake. (Make sure to get the topping swirled all the way to the edges. I thought I accomplished this, but still ended up with a 1/2 inch of just cake with no topping around the edge of the pan.)
4) Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean. (The words "nearly clean" are important here. The cake develops deep groves into the cake, that make it look just like a cinnamon roll. You don't want to cook for so long that these groves dries out.)
5) For glaze, in a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.
**Salted or unsalted butter, that is the question. There are many reasons not to use salted butter. A few are: the amount of salted added will vary according to the manufacture, salt in salted butter is used as a preservative and some people believe (myself included) that unsalted butter brings out a true delicate butter flavor in whatever dish you put it in. 
All of that said, I still felt that the cake did not have enough salt to balance the large amount of sugar in this recipe. Next time I will continue to use unsalted butter and increase the salt added to 1/2 tsp.
Serving suggestions: Ice cold milk or large mug of coffee!
Nutritional Information:
16 Servings
Amount per serving: 
Calories:               417     
Fat:                        19g
Carbs:                64.7g
Fiber                       .6g
Protein:                4.1g
Weight Watchers Points Plus Values: 12
Final thoughts: I took this cake to a potluck/meeting and received huge compliments on it. It looked like a cinnamon roll and, more importantly, tasted just like a cinnamon roll. It was just that good. And so for that reason, I give this recipe 5 pins and one OMGosh this is good!
Enjoy! (I agree!)
If you just hopped over here from Pinterest, Welcome! Feel free to check out any of the other recipes I have reviewed. And come back for another visit sometime soon. - Lynn

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