Cinnamon Roll Birthday Cake

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Cinnabon. I loved going to the mall where I could find this delicious smelling shop and staring at the people behind the glass making the dough, rolling it out, sprinkling cinnamon all over it, spreading it with butter, and cutting it up and putting it in the oven. There was something so comforting to me about watching the process, and I also loved to snack on them when I was allowed, as well. I always got the mini version so I wouldn't feel as bad about how many calories were in one, cause there were were a lot.

Recently I thought about making my own, so I went out and bought all of the ingredients, and thought it might be cool to add birthday cake crumbles into the dough, much like this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction (HERE) It's mostly the same recipe, though I prepared the dough differently by making the yeast mixture separately before adding it into the mixing bowl. I'll be honest, though. The thought of making dough had always terrified me. I never thought I'd be able to do it, and I have to admit, I almost gave up on my first try. I must have tried to activate the dry yeast at least five times, and I was getting really frustrated. But finally, after taking a few days off, I came back to it and I figured it out, and was quickly on my way to being a bread maker!

I think because of the temperature of the kitchen and my poor timing skills, I let the dough sit for too long before I started to top it with the filling, so by the time I was ready to roll it all up, it became one giant pillowy log. I cut each piece into about 1.5 inch sizes just like the recipe called for, and placed them in my baking dish (sans parchment paper, as I didn't have any on me - I used tin foil which I sprayed with baking spray instead), and hoped for the best. When they came out of the oven, they were a bit hard to distinguish as individual slices. They must have all puffed up in the oven enough to become one giant cinnamon roll, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that.. so I am donning this a cinnamon roll cake! And it tastes delicious! Next time I would go even crazier with brown sugar and cinnamon because it's a little light on that flavor, and I would try to make the icing with cream cheese (this one didn't have any in the recipe, still good though!), but other than that I'm pretty darn happy with it! Again, the original recipe that I used came from this blog: Sally's Baking Addiction. I cut a slice and put in pink glitter candle in it for effect, but you can see that it would make a really fun alternative for a birthday cake!