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Cinnamon Roll Cake

yields one 8 x 8 inch cake. Double ingredients for a 9 x13 pan (same baking time)
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Ingredients
  

For the Cake

  • 1 1/2 Cups of unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup 4 Tbsp of butter, melted

For Cinnamon Topping

  • 1/2 cup 1 stick butter softened to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1 generous Tbsp cinnamon

For the Frosting/Glaze

  • 3 oz of Cream Cheese softened
  • 3 Tbsp butter softened
  • 1 Cup powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • dash of salt

Instructions
 

For the Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 x 8 inch square baking pan, or if you plan to remove entire cake from pan- line pan with foil or parchment leaving overhang on all sides.
  • Put all the ingredients for the cake in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium to high speed about 30 seconds until combined. Scrape batter into prepared baking pan and spread evenly with a spatula. (just scrape bowl well and no need to wash before mixing the topping in the next step)

For the Cinnamon Topping

  • Combine all the topping ingredients in same mixing bowl. Beat until thoroughly combined and smooth. Drop by spoonfuls evenly over batter in the pan. Swirl with a knife into cake batter- this is a thick batter and doesn't easily swirl- so do your best and it's o.k. to have some large areas of the cinnamon mixture in the batter- this is what makes the cake good!
  • Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until set and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (test in cake part not cinnamon swirl). Top will be golden (due to all the butter in the topping!)
  • Remove from oven and place pan on cooling rack. While cake is baking, prepare the frosting.

For the Frosting/Glaze

  • Combine all frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until combined and smooth. Spread evenly on still warm or hot cake.

Notes

This cake is best served warm but is also great at room temperature. It can be re-warmed quickly in the microwave.
***Please remember oven temps vary widely- my rule of thumb is to start checking a cake several minutes before the lowest amount of baking time called for in recipe and keep checking every few minutes until it's done. Then take note of how long it takes in your oven.
Adapted from Kitchen Nostalgia