Stealth Cinnamon Rolls

I'm calling these Stealth Cinnamon Rolls because I'll bet you don't realize you've got every single ingredient for these, in your pantry, most of the time. I saw the recipe and thought "You know, I could make those right now!" and I did. The concept is interesting, and I immediately thought of several variations on the theme, as shown below.

CAKE MIX CINNAMON ROLLS

• 1 box of yellow cake mix (no pudding in the mix)
• 2.5 cups of warm water
• 2 packages of yeast
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 5 cups AP flour

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Allow to rest and raise, doubling in size, for approximately 1 hour. Roll out, spread thickly with butter, and sprinkle thickly with cinnamon and sugar. Roll up on the long edge, cut into 1 inch spiral rolls, and set in pan, or in muffin pans. Allow to raise a second time, approximately 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Ice with glaze of your choice.

I halved this recipe, and found the dough so sticky, I kept adding more flour to get it to come together in a soft ball. As much as a cup more flour than I thought. I think may have lead to the rolls being more bread and less pastry like, but they were still soft and tasty. Next time, I'll trust the sticky dough and leave it alone. Still it was so simple. I added ground vanilla powder to the cinnamon sugar mixture, but not nearly enough butter -- they were cooked perfectly throughout, but I like a bit more moisture in the rolls, so next time I'd use more butter and maybe bake them 5 minutes less. Otherwise, they rose high and light. HALF of this recipe made a full 13x9 pan, so if you used the recipe as written, you'd get a bunch of rolls for sure.

VARIATIONS I'VE CONSIDERED:

Red Velvet Cake Mix + Cream Cheese Filling

Chocolate Cake Mix + Coconut Pecan Nutella Filling

Lemon Cake Mix + Citrus or Coconut Filling, or Blueberry or Poppyseed

Spice Cake Mix + Nut Filling

Carrot Cake Mix + Cream Cheese Filling

White Cake Mix + Almond Extract + Chopped Cherry Filling

Ooh, the possibilities of fast breakfast rolls!