Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

There’s only one problem with cinnamon rolls: They taste best fresh out of the oven with runny icing. This Bundt cake is also delicious warm, but gets only better as it sits, so you can get a hit of cinnamon roll goodness for days. Including panko in the spiced brown sugar swirl allows the cake layers to pull apart the way yeasted rolls do. The simple vanilla pound cake batter is tender and tangy with cream cheese. More cream cheese — a lot more — cloaks the cake in the form of frosting. Just as there’s no end to holiday cheer, there’s no limit on cream cheese frosting.

Yield: 8 to 12 servings

For the Cinnamon Crumbs

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

⅓ cup/28 grams panko bread crumbs

⅔ cup/150 grams packed dark brown sugar

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Pinch of fine salt

For the Cake

Nonstick baking or cooking spray

2 cups/260 grams all-purpose flour

1½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon fine salt

5 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¾ cup/168 grams unsalted butter, cut in cubes, room temperature

6 ounces/169 grams cream cheese, cut in cubes, room temperature

For the Frosting

10 ounces/290 grams cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup/85 grams powdered sugar, plus more to taste

Pinch of fine salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the crumbs: Melt the butter in a skillet over medium. Add the crumbs and cook, stirring often, until evenly golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, add the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, and stir well. Let cool.

Meanwhile, make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch Bundt pan with baking or cooking spray.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a large liquid measuring cup.

Add the butter and cream cheese to the flour, toss lightly to coat, then beat with the paddle attachment on low speed until small crumbs form. With the machine running, add the eggs in a slow, steady stream. Once half of the eggs are added and the mixture forms a smooth batter, scrape the bowl and turn the speed to medium. Continue adding the eggs in a steady stream, scraping the bowl as needed for a smooth batter. Once all the eggs are added, beat on medium-high for 1 minute.

Use a large spoon to drop dollops of batter (about ¼ of it) into the prepared pan. Use a small spoon to smooth those dollops into a thin, even layer. Sprinkle an even layer of cinnamon crumbs (about ⅓ of the crumbs) on top to completely coat the batter. Dollop another ring of batter over the crumbs and use the small spoon to gently nudge the batter to the edges of the pan and the center tube. Cover with another layer of crumbs. Repeat the layering until all the cake batter and crumbs are used, sprinkling any final crumbs over the last cake layer.

Bake until a cake tester or wooden skewer comes out with a few tiny crumbs attached, 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then flip out of the pan onto a rack. The cake can be wrapped tightly and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until smooth. Scrape the bowl, add the powdered sugar and salt, and beat again, starting on low speed, then going to medium-high, until smooth. With the machine running, add the vanilla. Taste and beat in more powdered sugar if you’d like.

You can ice and eat the cake warm if you’d like, or wait for the cake to cool completely before frosting it. The frosted cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before serving or enjoy cold.

TIP: This might be helpful to you, it's how I make most cakes (and will make this one): Wet ingredients creamed and mixed in larger bowl. Dry ingredients mixed in smaller bowl, then added to wet, mixed by hand til just blended. Old school I guess, less mess and the bakes come out deliciously!