Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls (Funfetti) – Beragampengetahuan
16 mins read

Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls (Funfetti) – Beragampengetahuan

Make someone’s birthday wishes come true by waking them up with these extra soft & sprinkle-loaded birthday cake cinnamon rolls. Like a cross between cinnamon rolls and confetti cake, this extra-special breakfast treat is perfect for kicking off an extra-special day. Top with vanilla or cream cheese icing, and don’t forget the birthday candle!

*Wishes for a second helping.*

birthday cake cinnamon rolls with icing in parchment paper-lined pan.

Like a sprinkle-loaded stack of birthday cake pancakes, these Funfetti cake-inspired rolls are the happiest treat on your special morning. I published this recipe way back in 2013, and make them a few times each year when a family birthday rolls around. And, on several occasions, I’ve made these INSTEAD of birthday cake, because… honestly… cinnamon rolls for dessert just makes sense.

And some people just don’t like cake. Yes, I know you’re out there!

I’ve made very few edits to the original recipe (because it’s just so good), but I do have new photos and streamlined instructions for you here.


Contents

You’ll Love These Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls

  • Filling tastes like cake mix, but it’s not from a box
  • Fluffy, buttery, and tender dough
  • Loaded with colorful rainbow sprinkles, like a batch of confetti cupcakes
  • Topped with cream cheese icing (and more sprinkles!)
  • Almost like having confetti cake for breakfast
sprinkle funfetti cinnamon roll with cream cheese icing on top and a gold candle blown out.
birthday cake cinnamon roll with sprinkles on top on blue plate.

The dough for these birthday cake cinnamon rolls comes from my raspberry sweet rolls. It’s my favorite dough, and I based my ultra-popular overnight cinnamon rolls recipe off of it, too. And it’s quite easy! If you’re afraid of working with yeast, please do not be intimidated; there is hardly any “work time” involved, just some “wait time” as the yeast does its job.

Patience is yeast’s best friend.

Are You a Yeast Beginner?

This Baking with Yeast Guide is a wonderful starting point. I answer many common yeast FAQs in easy-to-understand explanations, so you can learn the basics before beginning.

I chose to use this particular dough recipe as the base for these colorful rolls because I love how fluffy the end result is. The rolls are soft, tender, buttery, and sweet and truly make a wonderful “starter” dough recipe for any sort of filling. And I figured their fluffy, pillow-y texture and buttery taste would make the perfect base for a confetti cake center. Swirls of sprinkles and sweet dough—how can you go wrong?


Grab These Ingredients for the Sweet Roll Dough:

  1. Whole Milk: Whole milk is ideal for the richest-tasting sweet rolls. Buttermilk works just as well without any changes to the recipe.
  2. Sugar: You need white granulated sugar for the dough, both for flavor (these are sweet rolls, after all) and to feed the yeast. You’ll use some again in the filling.
  3. Yeast: You can use active dry or instant yeast. Follow the directions exactly as written regardless of which you choose.
  4. Butter: This is a rich dough, meaning it has fat to help guarantee softness. Use softened butter and, to help it blend easier, cut it into 4 pieces before adding.
  5. Vanilla: This is a new ingredient I use in the dough; the original recipe didn’t call for it. You also need vanilla in the icing. You can use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
  6. Eggs: Like butter, eggs promise a softer, richer dough.
  7. Salt: Dough is bland without salt.
  8. Flour: Flour provides the dough’s structure. You can use either all-purpose flour or bread flour. You’ll notice the rolls are a little chewier if you use bread flour.

Here’s the dough:

dough in glass bowl of stand mixer.

I usually use a stand mixer to make this dough.

What if I Don’t Have a Stand Mixer? If you do not own a mixer, you can mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/rubber spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters.

After the dough comes together, it will be a little soft and sticky—that’s normal. Knead the dough on a floured counter or keep it in the mixer for kneading—whichever method you use, it should be about 5 minutes of kneading.

Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set it in a draft-free area to rise until doubled in size—it takes about 2 hours. After that, punch the risen dough down:

dough risen in glass bowl and shown again punched down.

Roll it into a rectangle shape that’s about 12×18 inches in size. Then it’s time to fill it!

Baker’s Tip: If the dough keeps shrinking as you roll it out, stop what you’re doing, cover it, and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten. I often do this when I’m making pizza dough. When you return to the dough, it should stretch out much easier.


Cake Mix Filling

Now let’s talk about the filling. The crème de la crème of today’s rolls. How did I achieve the cake batter flavor without cake mix? Well, I began thinking about the texture and taste of actual cake mix. Creamy, buttery, powdery smooth, vanilla-y, and sweet. (Everything we know and love about these cake batter chocolate chip cookies!) I took those 5 main attributes and brainstormed ways to get them without using a box mix.

For that creamy taste and texture, the secret ingredient is powdered coffee creamer. You could also use dry milk powder. For the buttery flavor, I used (surprise!) melted butter. For the powdery smoothness, I used all-purpose flour. For the vanilla flavor, I used vanilla extract. And for the sweetness, I used a mix of white and brown sugars. Voila! You have a cake batter filling without a box cake mix.

Stir in 1/2 cup of sprinkles, but do not use nonpareils (the little balls) in your homemade cake batter mix. I always say non! to nonpareils in baked goods because they bleed their colors in the oven. You can sprinkle nonpareils on top of the frosted rolls before serving, however!

crumble mixture with rainbow sprinkles in glass bowl on pink surface.

Fill the Rolls

Spread softened butter all over the rolled-out dough, and then sprinkle with cinnamon, followed by the homemade cake crumbles. The butter will allow the crumbles to stick and the cinnamon is just necessary for cinnamon rolls, right?! I do not suggest leaving out the cinnamon as there may not be enough flavor without it. Plus, cake batter + cinnamon rolls… need I say more?

spoon sprinkling sprinkle crumble filling on buttered dough.
hands rolling up dough with sprinkle filling.

Use a very sharp knife to cut the roll into 12 rolls.

3 sprinkle cinnamon rolls cut before baking.

Arrange in a greased baking pan, cover, then let the rolls rise until a little puffy, about an hour. This is the 2nd rise. (Alternatively, you could let the rolls rise overnight. See Notes in the written recipe below for overnight instructions.)

Here are the sprinkle cinnamon rolls before and after that 2nd rise:

sprinkle funfetti sweet rolls before and after rising.

Then it’s time to bake. Your birthday breakfast is almost here!

funfetti cinnamon rolls with sprinkles after baking in glass pan.

The Icing on the Cake 😉

The original version of this recipe called for vanilla icing, but I really, really love these sweet rolls with cream cheese icing. It’s the same deliciously smooth and silky icing I slather on my classic cinnamon rolls, as well as my raspberry swirl sweet rolls.

But feel free to use vanilla icing if cream cheese frosting isn’t your favorite.

I love the pops of color inside the swirls of soft, fluffy dough—a gorgeous tie-dye effect. It doesn’t matter what birthday you’re celebrating, whether it’s their 5th or 95th; kids and kids-at-heart can’t help but smile when they see these. I mean, just look at them—this is a birthday party in a breakfast pastry!

hand spreading icing on sprinkle cinnamon rolls.
birthday funfetti cinnamon roll cut in half on blue plate with pink background.

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