All posts by Melissa

Cinnamon Roll Cake {Recipe}

Bars & Squares, Cakes

Cinnamon Roll Cake | Lil Miss Cakes

Update 9/2/2016: After making my insanely popular chocolate meltaway cake (based on this original version) I have increased the eggs in the recipe from 1 to 2. It makes the cake a bit fluffier and less dense.

It’s been a while since I have shared a recipe with you, but I’m back with a bang. This cinnamon roll cake is amazing! It has all the flavor of a cinnamon roll without all the hassle. This recipe has no yeast; just mix, spread, dollop, swirl, and bake. The cake is sweet and the texture is the perfect balance of dense and light. It’s dairy free-but nobody will believe you.Cinnamon Roll Cake Slice | Lil Miss Cakes

This recipe is well tested, I made it a few times to make sure it was just right. The first two times I baked this cake, I didn’t even bother to add the icing and we ate just like that. It was simply delicious. The icing is definitely optional, but it does take the deliciousness up a notch.Cinnamon Roll Cake Overhead | Lil Miss Cakes

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Cinnamon Roll Cake {Recipe}
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Ingredients
Cake Batter
  • 1½ cups flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup dairy-free sour cream or unsweetened applesauce
  • ¼ cup soy milk
  • ¼ cup oil
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Cinnamon Topping
  • ¼ cup margarine, melted
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
Vanilla Icing
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 3-5 Tbs. water
  • ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Line an 8x8 inch square or round baking pan with parchment paper or grease with baking spray, set aside.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix to combine.
  4. Add in the egg, sour cream, soy milk, oil, and vanilla and mix on low until smooth and combined.
  5. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread out evenly.
  6. In a heatproof bowl melt the margarine. Mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Once combined dollop the cinnamon sugar mix over the prepared batter. Swirl the batter with a knife to combine.
  7. Bake for about 30-40 minutes. The batter will puff up and turn golden brown, but the sugar will be a bit jiggly. It will firm up as it cools. Cool completely before adding the icing.
  8. To prepare the icing, mix the powdered sugar with the vanilla and a bit of water at a time until it is smooth. I like my icing thick but you can also add enough water to make a thin glaze. Drizzle icing over the cake and enjoy!

Amazon Box Birthday Cake

Celebration Cakes

Amazon Box Cake Side View | Lil Miss Cakes

I had this cake sitting in the archives for quite some time now. I’m a bit behind on posting my cakes, but now is the perfect time to share this one! Since Amazon Prime Day was such a bust, I thought this cake could cheer everyone up. This cake was made for a mom and grandma and was filled with items that are personal to her. I basically got a list of things and figured out a way to turn them into a cute birthday cake. The Amazon shipping box is my favorite part so let me start with that. I baked a square cake and made sure it was nice and tall. After applying the buttercream, I paneled the brown fondant to the cake. What this means is I cut out a rectangle that was measured to fit each side and attached it to each side of the cake. The I cut a square for the top. This method takes more time than covering the whole cake in one shot, but the edges are just so perfectly sharp and squared that it’s my favorite way to finish a square cake. After adding the brown fondant, I used my airbrush filled with dark brown fondant to darken the edges. Then I had cut the Amazon logo out of thin black fondant.

Amazon Cake | Lil Miss Cakes

The water bottle was made out of gum paste. I took an actual water bottle and shaped the gum paste around it. I used a real label to bring the bottle to life. That is the only part of the cake that isn’t edible-it was a bit of a cheat, but I didn’t think that hand painting would do it justice and I don’t have a working edible food printer. The Ebates card was made of gum paste. I cut the logo from black and yellow fondant. It took some time but really looks fantastic.

Barneys Shopping Bag | Lil Miss Cakes

The Barneys shopping bag was made out of fondant with added tylose powder to help harden it quicker. I cut two rectangles and allowed them to dry. I made two skinny curved panels to fill in the sides and then assembled all the panels on top of the cake. I rolled out thin white gum paste and cut random rectangles to look like tissue paper. I piped the logo on with royal icing. The handle was just made out of black fondant that I twisted a bit. The mask was made out of white gum paste and then airbrushed gold. I used black royal icing to decorate the mask.

Barnard Mug | Lil Miss Cakes

The coffee mug was made out of white gum paste. I cut a long rectangle and then shaped it around an empty glass. I shaped a handle out of gum paste as well and allowed both pieces to harden and dry. After a few days, I attached the handle with royal icing. Then I airbrushed the whole thing in blue and piped the logo on with royal icing.

Amazon Cake Top View | Lil Miss Cakes

Here is a top view of the cake with a cute edible Ipad. The Ipad reads “Happy Birthday Mommy, We Love You And Your Mishugas” (Yiddish for craziness). Love this cake and it’s sharp edges!

Mustache and Lips Cookie Straws

Cookies

Mustache and Lip Cookie Straw Gift Package | Lil Miss Cakes

There is a fun Jewish holiday that falls around February or March each year. During the holiday of Purim it is customary to give cute packages of food to family and friends. It becomes a bit of a challenge to come up with creative ideas each year. I like to keep my packages small which in itself is a challenge. The past few years I have been pretty proud of my creativity! I made these cute popcorn cupcakes, fun ice cream scoop cookies, and gumball machine cupcakes that take a bit more planning. This year I made some cute mustache and lip sugar cookie straws to go with a cookies and milk concept.

Mustache and Lip Sugar Cookies | Lil Miss Cakes

Here is what I did. I baked my perfect sugar cookies and used mustache and lips cookie cutters to cut out cute shapes. After the cookies were baked, I iced them with white royal icing. Then for the lips, I mixed up some hot pink icing and using a small piping tip, I made some tiny dots to form the lips shape. Then I connected those lines to create a scribble scrabble look. While the icing was still wet, I dipped them in pink sparking sugar and let them dry. The mustaches were a similar concept. I used black royal icing and outlined the mustaches. Then I filled each side in with 2 lines of icing and dipped them in black sparkling sugar. Once the icing was dry I flipped the cookies over and attached them to these fun paper straws I found at the craft store. I piped a big dab of stiff royal icing on the center back of each cookie and pressed a straw into the icing. I wanted to be able to use the straws with the cookies attached so I attached them a few inches down the straw but if you wanted these for photo booth props, you could just as easily attach them to the highest point of the straw. Once the cookies were dry I placed them in these fun milk jars I found at the craft store and filled them with white chocolate candies. To gift these, I placed them in large cellophane gift bags and tied them up with metallic silver twist ties. Easy and cute!

Cookie Collage | Lil Miss Cakes

My son and I had fun modeling these cookies, but he couldn’t wait to bite into one!