With a tender and flaky homemade biscuit base and a brown sugar-maple syrup-toasted pecan topping, this Cinnamon Roll Biscuit Cake will knock your socks off!
I am IN LOVE with this recipe. It's so much easier than making cinnamon rolls, but it's not made with canned biscuits. The biscuit base is an easy buttermilk biscuit dough. The cake is a cross between cinnamon rolls and monkey bread.
This little cake is perfect for breakfast, to take to a brunch potluck, to serve to houseguests. To eat by yourself with a steaming latte while catching up on the Great British Baking Show.
Let's make a cinnamon roll biscuit cake.
Look at these simple ingredients! It really is easy to make. Oops. I forgot the brown sugar in the photo. Hang on...
Here it is. Sorry, brown sugar!
There are a few more ingredients for the cream cheese icing (is there anything better?!?). I got so excited to make it that I forgot to snap a photo. One is vanilla bean paste. You can absolutely substitute 1:1 for vanilla extract. The vanilla bean paste just adds those lovely flecks of vanilla. We eat with our eyes first, remember! If your grocery store doesn't carry it, add a bottle to your next Amazon order.
(If you want to learn more about vanilla bean paste, I wrote this post about it for The Pioneer Woman a few years ago.)
We start with the topping: pecans, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup.
Toast the pecans in a pan until fragrant. Ah, toasted pecans are so yummy. Then add butter and melt.
The rest of the topping ingredients get added and set aside while you make the biscuit dough.
Cut shortening into flour. Use a pastry cutter or two knives. (A pastry cutter is faster.) You'll want the shortening dispersed throughout the dough, forming large crumbs.
Stir in the buttermilk and press into a pan.
Pour the pecan mixture over the top and bake. You'll know it's ready when the biscuit puffs a bit all the way across the pan. It'll sink a bit once it's out of the oven.
Once it cools for a bit, you'll drizzle (generously) with cream cheese icing. Hello, my love.
Serve warm. Have two pieces. I said so.
Cinnamon Roll Biscuit Cake
for the cake:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup salted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup shortening, chilled
2/3 cup buttermilk
for the icing:
3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
Preheat oven to 400. Grease an 8x8-inch pan.
Toast the pecans in a saucepan over medium heat until fragrant. Add butter and heat until melted. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Whisk the flour with baking powder and salt. With a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the chilled shortening until it is distributed throughout the flour in large crumbs. Pour in buttermilk and stir until well combined. Press into the prepared pan. (Flouring your hands first will help.)
Pour the pecan mixture evenly over the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the biscuit is cooked through. It will puff slightly across the cake when done. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the icing. Beat cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla bean paste. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl. On low speed, beat in the powdered sugar. It will look dry at this point. Mix in the milk until smooth. Add more sugar or milk to adjust consistency as needed.
Drizzle generously over the cake. Serve warm.
If you like this recipe, you might love these Cinnamon Roll Cookies!
