Cinnamon Roll Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

These Cinnamon Roll Muffins with their generous topping of cream cheese frosting were highly anticipated in my house, and they barely lasted half an hour.

My boys hovered over me as I was recipe testing a few days ago.  I started out with testing doughnut recipes- nothing of great significance and nothing worthy of sharing.   The end result of my breakfast recipe testing was muffins… these cinnamon roll muffins… these glorious little bites of heaven.

They’re a simple muffin really.  I decided to make them mini, and I think they turn out best that way.  

How to make Cinnamon Roll Muffins:

Make the muffin batter. Make a cinnamon swirl. Swirl the cinnamon swirl into the muffin batter. Scoop into mini muffin tins, and bake for about 12 minutes.

Out of the oven, they are delicious little, tender muffins… reminiscent of that classic cinnamon roll flavor.  They’re totally edible right here and now if you don’t like the idea of adding frosting.

BUT… to make them even more cinnamon-roll-like, I dip the tops of them into a thick and rich cream cheese frosting.  Oh. YEAH.

It’s a good one for the holidays, don’t you think?  Those relatives… the ones who are opening cupboards in your kitchen looking for something good to eat?  Feed them these and you’ll have happy relatives indeed 🙂

No ratings yet

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

By RecipeGirl.com

Fabulous breakfast muffins!

Prep: 25 minutes mins

Cook: 12 minutes mins

Total: 37 minutes mins

Servings: 20 mini muffins

SaveSaved Pin Print

Save this recipe!

Get this sent to your inbox, plus get new recipes from us every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email *

Save

Ingredients

MUFFINS:

• ▢ 1¼ cups all purpose flour
• ▢ 4 tablespoons granulated white sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ ¾ cup milk
• ▢ 1 large egg, beaten lightly
• ▢ ¼ cup (½ stick) salted butter, melted
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

SWIRL:

• ▢ ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

FROSTING:

• ▢ 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• ▢ ¾ tablespoon butter, at room temperature
• ▢ ½ tablespoon milk (add up to another ½ tablespoon, if needed)
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 20 mini muffin tins with nonstick spray.

PREPARE THE MUFFINS:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and egg. Slowly whisk in the butter and then vanilla. Add to the dry mixture and stir just until combined. Mix the "swirl" ingredients and gently stir those into the batter (just a little bit... you don't want to mix it totally). Scoop by spoonfuls into the prepared muffin tins.
• Bake for about 12 minutes or until the muffins bounce back to the touch and are baked throughout.

ADD THE FROSTING:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese and butter (if it's not soft enough, zap it in the microwave for about 10 seconds). Whisk until smooth. Whisk in ½ tablespoon of milk and the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar and whisk that in too. Add more milk, as needed, to create a thick-but-pourable consistency. Remove the muffins from the tins, dip the tops in the frosting, then place them on a wire rack to give the frosting a chance to set. Serve immediately. Store extras in a sealed container at room temperature or in refrigerator.

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin, Calories: 108kcal, Carbohydrates: 16g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 20mg, Sodium: 101mg, Potassium: 76mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 10g, Vitamin A: 158IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 39mg, Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Like this? Leave a comment below!