A tender pound cake with flecks of vanilla bean paste, swirls of spicy cinnamon sugar, and a tangy cream cheese icing. This Cinnamon Roll pound cake is like the Cinnamon Roll’s sophisticated older brother. You know, if there were such a thing!
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my “Yesterdays”. Actually, the song “Yesterdays” from Guns –n– Roses has been stuck in my head for a straight week, which in turn has forced me to think about yesterdays.
And well, as Axl Rose succinctly put it – Yesterday’s got nothin’ for me. The older I get, the more I choose to live in the now. In the today. In this very moment. Yesterdays are for learning and moving on. Not for dwelling over. I’ve come to realize that no matter how much you dwell on Yesterdays, the events will not modify or change over time.
Your yesterdays will forever remain the same. What changes is how you feel them, how you view them, how they affect your everyday life. I view my Yesterdays much like a rear view mirror. Oh, they’re there – Back there – I can see them. Faded, somewhat. Because time does that. Time fades that ledger of memories you hold so tightly. And these memories, these Yesterdays, they got nothin’ for you. Damn you, Axl Rose. I didn’t mean to get philosophical on you, and shit. I meant to show you this bad ass Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake.
Flow with me…
I know it’s still hot outside and here I am, forcing you to turn on your ovens. I am truly torn between summer recipes and moving on to the spicy warmth of fall. As I was thinking that maybe – Just maybe – I could shove another couple of summer recipes in your faces, this Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake from Crème de la Crumb caught my eye. I don’t even remember how it happened. Pinterest, maybe. All I remember is yelling; “Someone needs to take two sticks of butter out of the fridge now – Right now!!!!!”
And the rest friends, is history. I made some changes to this recipe. It is truly rare when I keep anything in its natural state. It’s not my stilo. I baked this cake in a Bundt pan because it was Sunday and I like my Sunday jammies easy. I wasn’t about to find, butter, and line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper. I just wasn’t. My basement is huge.
I grabbed the first pan I saw and it happened to be a large Bundt pan. Roll with it, people. I reduced the sugar a bit, which is crazy because I could eat sugar out of the container. Again, roll with it. I replaced the vanilla Greek yogurt with sour cream for extra tang and added a full tablespoon of vanilla bean paste. Mostly ‘cause I can’t resist vanilla flecks in my cake situations. And finally, I doubled the cinnamon sugar. Because, hot dam – cinnamon sugar is the shi-et. This cake takes forever to bake. In my oven it was a whopping 53 minutes of sheer insane torture. The scent alone is intoxicating; like those old school cartoons where the scent would hold you by the nostrils and pull you towards it. Yeah, like that.
I made the glaze a bit heavier on the cream cheese side and I poured it over the cake while it was still warm. I also sliced it while it was still warm. I ain’t got no shame in my game, boo. I went in. We all went in. And went in again. And before we knew it, half the bundt cake was gone and we were eyeing the rest with sick desire. This Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake is tender, sweet, and resplendent in fall spice. When you cut into this cake you can hear a soft crunching sound from the cinnamon sugar. And there is a lot of cinnamon sugar here. It’s like finding swirls of diamonds made of cinnamon inside a piece of tender vanilla flavored pound cake.
This cake is amazing. So amazing my son asked for it again, and again for his birthday later in the fall. And that my friends makes it a winner. Today. And today again. Not yesterday. Never yesterday.
[purerecipe]
Ingredients
For Cinnamon Sugar
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons heaping Ground cinnamon
For the Pound Cake
- 3 cups spooned then leveled All-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks Unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ½ cups Granulated sugar
- 1 cup Sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla bean paste
- 3 tablespoons Heavy cream
- 6 Eggs large
For the Icing
- 3 ounces Cream cheese room temperature
- ¼ cup Heavy cream or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla bean paste
- 1½ cups Confectioners’ powdered sugar
Instructions
Make the cinnamon sugar:
- In a small bowl combine granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Whisk quickly with a fork to combine and set aside.
Bake the pound cake:
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit and place oven rack in middle of the oven. Butter and flour a 10-cup Bundt cake pan. Shake the excess flour and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy over medium/high speed, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape the mixer and add the sour cream, followed heavy cream and vanilla bean paste. Turn the mixer on and beat over medium speed until combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stop and scrape the mixer once more. Turn the mixer onto low speed and add the flour. Mix until just combined, no longer than 45 seconds.
- Remove bowl from the mixer and give the batter a couple of folds, making sure you scrape the sides of the pan. Pour about 1/3 of the pound cake batter into the Bundt cake pan. Bang it a couple of time on your counter to even out the batter. Sprinkle about 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar over the batter. Add cake batter over the cinnamon sugar, followed by second half of the cinnamon sugar. Finally, add the remaining batter to the pan. I like to leave a bit of cinnamon sugar to swirl in the batter, but you do you, boo.
- Place the Bundt pan in the oven and bake for about 50-55 minutes (I usually remove at around 53 minutes) until an inserted bamboo skewer or knife comes out clean. If the cake has not baked through, check every 3-5 minutes until the tester comes out clean.
- NOTE: I wouldn’t trust the toothpick test here, as a toothpick isn’t long enough to penetrate the pan fully.
- Remove pan from the oven. Allow the cake to cool out of the oven for about 3 minutes or so, then gently run a knife over the edges and slowly pulling towards you to loosen the cake from the batter. Be as gentle as possible. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for another 5-10 minutes, then carefully invert in a wire rack to cool completely. While the cake is cooling slightly, make the icing.
Make the icing:
- In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (a hand mixer rocks here too), combine the cream cheese, heavy cream, vanilla bean paste, and confectioners’ sugar. Whisk on high until combined then pour over the pound cake while it is still slightly warm. Allow the cake to cool completely then slice into that bad boy with abandon.
- NOTE: Baking times do vary by altitude and climate, which is why I suggest after the suggested baking time of 50 minutes you check every 3-5 minutes to ensure the cake has baked through. Mine usually bakes at 53 minutes, but in other climates baking times can extend as long as 80 minutes.
