Sweetapolita’s Cinnabon-style cinnamon rolls

 
Listen, if you are on a diet, don’t make these. Because there is absolutely no way you can exercise portion control if you get a whiff. Maybe you will have the self control to devour only half of one after pulling them out of the oven and smearing on the frosting.  You’d be forgiven for ripping off a piece and swallowing it whole. Indeed.

But the next morning when you open the fridge and find the tray of cinnamon rolls staring at you, you will find yourself reaching for a plate and warming another one in the microwave for a few seconds and then slathering on more frosting. The aroma is intoxicating, the rolls soft, the frosting perfectly sticky sweet. The smell lingers and snakes its down from the kitchen and into the family room and taps you on the shoulder, impatiently, reminding you it’s ready for the taking.

The only way around it is to make these and give them away. Right away. I am speaking from experience. If you haven’t already met her yet, allow me to introduce you to cake designer Sweetapolita, also known as Rosie Alyea aka my new girl crush. I find myself checking her blog incessantly, endlessly inspired by the whimsy in her cakes and cupcakes. And she is a true perfectionist.

If you couldn’t tell by her photographs, you will know from her recipes. Detailed yes, but they also pass the taste test once you try them yourself. She’s also a local, having been taught by the likes of some of the best in the business at the Bonnie Gordon School of Confectionary Arts, where I attended a few classes and have blogged about in the past. Well, that’s quite an introduction isn’t it? Rosie, if you’re reading this, I’d love to meet you for tea and to worship at your feet. Serious. Anywho, you can find the recipe for these cinnamon rolls here.

At first I wondered whether it would be worth it to go to all this trouble to make just 12 rolls, but the truth is it wasn’t all that much trouble and these are 12 gigantic rolls.

Substitutions: None, but I did end up letting the dough rise for hours, rather than just one hour, due to circumstances out of my control when I had to rush out of the house to deal with a family emergency. When I returned, I punched some of the air out of the dough, but I’m convinced these would have not turned out quite so doughy if I had returned on time. For that reason, I was unable to roll the dough quite as thin and then to roll it as tightly as I hoped. In the future, I will take greater care to do so, and I think the rolls will look better and have more layers for the cinnamon-brown sugar mix to hide in.

Would I make this again? Um, yep. I probably will, because ordinary cinnamon rolls can’t live up this recipe And you should probably make it too, as long as you are not within smell-wafting distance because I may have to break down your door.

Grade: Five stars out of five.


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2 responses to “Sweetapolita’s Cinnabon-style cinnamon rolls”

  1. Amy Avatar

    These look amazing, Mary – even more gooey than Sweetapolita’s! One of my culinary goals is to learn to work with yeast before the end of the year and I had my eye on this recipe as well.

    I’m wondering if I’d be able to make them in advance and then let rise/bake Christmas morning. Any ideas?

  2. Mary Avatar

    Thanks very much! To be honest, I’d avoid letting them rise after working on the in advance. I wish I had stuck to the time period as I was unexpectedly called out of the house for hours and they had risen much too much. I wonder, though, if you could put roll them in bun form and them freeze them until you needed to bake them… Hmmmm.