Light and fluffy, but gooey in all the right places, these Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls can be oven-ready in under an hour and are sure to hit your sweet spot.
Being home-schooled for my whole pre-college life had many perks. My favorite (aside from having at least one dog in the “classroom” at all times) was that my siblings and I always had the day off on our birthdays.
While we weren’t (usually) granted snow days, election days, or teacher’s conference days off, each of our birthdays was regarded as a mini holiday and called for the day off for the whole school. Being one of six, this meant 5 scattered “holidays” throughout the year (my only brother had the nerve to be born during the summer, which did nothing for us).
Today is my birthday, and now that I’m older (26 today… officially closer to 30 than 20… *gulp*) my day job doesn’t actually recognize my birthday as a holiday, and so I have to find other ways to commemorate the occasion.
Zach baked me a cake from scratch (which is a huge deal and I can’t wait to see how it turned out tonight!), but I thought I’d start off the morning with something festive, as well.
Something festive and colorfully sprinkled… something like these cheerful cake batter/Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls.
These are a bit different than my no-yeast cinnamon rolls and slightly more involved than my classic cinnamon roll recipe.
However, they turned out beautifully; light, fluffy, and buttery on the inside, filled with sweet, cinnamon and sugar (and, of course, sprinkles) and with a distinct cake batter flavor. I know that some people would rather not use cake mix in their from-scratch goods (I’m usually one of those people), but I find that nothing else quite gives that desirable cake batter taste quite like boxed cake mix, and so I’ve incorporated it both into the actual rolls as well as into the frosting.
The frosting recipe makes just a bit more than you realistically need for 12 cinnamon rolls (or not, I don’t judge), but I use both butter and cream cheese (as I do with my classic cream cheese frosting) to keep the frosting from being too sweet over the already sweet rolls.
Light & fluffy, sticky and sweet, tons of sprinkles and frosting… happy birthday to me!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have!
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Enjoy!
Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 packet instant yeast about 2 ¼ tsp
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups Funfetti cake mix or white cake mix plus 1-2 Tbsp colored sprinkles
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 egg lightly beaten.
Filling
- ¼ cup salted butter softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp colored sprinkles optional
Frosting
- 3 Tbsp salted butter softened
- 3 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 ⅓ cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp Funfetti cake mix or white cake mix + sprinkles
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 Tbsp milk
Instructions
- Prepare a 9" pie pan by greasing with butter. Set aside.
- In small saucepan, heat milk and butter over medium-low heat until butter is completely melted.
- Remove from heat and set aside, cooling the mixture until it is warm to the touch and not too hot.
- Fix your KitchenAid with the dough hook attachment and transfer the butter/milk mixture to the bowl of the KitchenAid. Add yeast, stir well, and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk together flour, cake mix, sugar and salt.
- With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add flour mixture and egg to butter mixture.
- Increase speed to medium-high and stir for 5-7 minutes to knead. Dough should cling to itself and form a cohesive mass (if dough is too sticky, add additional flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, until it is manageable and does not stick to your hands).
- Cover and place in a warm place for 15 minutes to rise.
- Meanwhile, whisk together ¼ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup brown sugar, cinnamon and sprinkles in small bowl.
- Once dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured surface and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out into an even rectangle about ¼" thick (about 14x9 rectangle)
- Spread the ¼ cup butter evenly over the rectangle of dough (if it is too difficult to spread, microwave for about 5-10 seconds so that it spreads easily).
- Evenly sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the butter.
- Starting from a longer end of the rectangle, tightly roll up the dough, pinching the end to make a seam.
- Cut off about 1" of each end of the roll to create even cinnamon rolls and discard the ends. Cut the remaining roll into 12 even pieces and place into the prepared pie pan (the rolls should be touching one another).
- Cover with a dish towel and allow to rise for 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350F.
- Bake 15-19 minutes (until edges begin to turn golden-brown).
Frosting
- While the rolls are baking, prepare your frosting by beating together butter and cream cheese.
- Add powdered sugar and cake mix gradually until combined.
- Stir in vanilla extract and then milk (start with 2 Tbsp, and then add another if it is still too thick).
- Once rolls have finished baking, allow to cool 5 minutes before icing and sprinkling with additional sprinkles, if desired.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Meagan @ The F&B Department
Cinnamon rolls for a birthday?! Oh yeah!!! That’s what I’m talking about!!! I would be super happy with that. And I know what you mean about getting closer to 30. I just hit 30 and freaked out for like a week. Now I’m rocking it, and you will too!!! Happy Birthday, Sam!!!!
Sam
Thank you, Meagan! It’s just such a strange thought, I feel like I just turned 20 last year! And happy belated birthday to you, too! 😀
Mary // chattavore
Oh, yum! What a fun idea!
Sam
Thank you, Mary!
Medha @ Whisk & Shout
These funfetti cinnamon rolls look awesome! And being homeschooled sounds like such a unique experience 🙂
Sam
Thank you, Medha! And it was quite an experience, but a lot of work for my mom! I don’t think I could ever do it if I ever have kids!
Jessica @ Sweetest Menu
Wow, just wow! How gorgeous are these beautiful rolls? I can’t think of a better way to celebrate your birthday! Hope you have a lovely day!
Sam
😀 Thanks so much, Jessica!!
Marsha | Marsha's Baking Addiction
Happy Birthday, Sam! 😀 These cinnamon rolls look absolutely delicious!
Sam
Thank you so much, Marsha!
Mikaru86
The link to the Gimme Some Oven recipe seems broken, other than that this looks really nice. So far I haven’t tried any of the Funfetti recipes, since I’ve never seen that stuff anywhere around here. But this might actually prompt me to go find a suitable substitute (there has to be some similar cake mix available somewhere, but I haven’t used cake mixes much in the past, so I’m not really up to date on the German cake mix market XD).
Sam
Thank you for pointing that out, I fixed the link!
“Funfetti” is really just white cake mix (not vanilla) with sprinkles added, so if you can find white cake mix and some sprinkles/jimmies/hundreds and thousands (not sure what they’re called in Germany), you’re all set!
Thanks for commenting! 🙂