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Battle of the butter….

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This Cherry Cinnamon Roll Cake has all the flavors of a cinnamon roll in cake form with tart cherries to cut the sweetness.

As some of you may know there has been recent war ragging among Paula Deen and Anthony Bourdain.

Let me be the first to tell you that I like them both equally.

I enjoy the show No Reservations, but will gladly say that I won’t be willingly (you just never know what you get at those taco trucks sometimes) eat fish balls or guinea pig intestines.

And I enjoy his enthusiasm of the countries he visits and his sincere interest in both the food and culture.

But I also like me some Paula Deen.

People often call me the Paula Deen of food blogging because I can take something bad for you and make it worse. 😛

I will agree with Anthony on the fact that the majority of Paula’s cooking isn’t all that healthy.

But then again neither is spending most of your 20’s and 30’s doing cocaine and still drinking heavily and smoking heavily.

I’ve made many a thing by Paula Deen, mostly desserts I will admit, because I appreciate her love of butter.

And they have all turned out well so to say that she is the worst cook I can’t really side with.

In a way this reminds me of where the food blogging world has gone.

We almost in some ways have gone divided.

Between those who do the organic, all in season, fair trade, $16 a pound chocolate and those of us who have to work with an extreme budget and feed 5 people (which yes, I sometimes do).

As much as I would love to make chocolate cupcakes with organic fair trade chocolate, 8 year olds don’t give a crap and can rarely tell the difference.

If your kid can, then yay for them.

And boo for them as well as they will be sadly disappointed when going over to a friend’s birthday party and get store bought cake.

I shop at Winco because I can get things for a $1 that cost $4.29 at Whole Foods.

And I shop at Costco and Trader Joes and every now and then when I get a bonus Whole Foods.

That’s just how life is.

Paula makes things with cream of crap soup because it’s cheap.

And as much as I prefer to make my own cream of mushroom soup to go with my tuna noodle casserole it can really add up in price.

I find that most of the people who live this lifestyle often either don’t have kids, or have a rather comfortable income to do so.

Neither side is wrong but I will say that it seems that some bloggers look down on those bloggers who throw in a boxed cake mix to their recipes.

Do I prefer mine from scratch?

You bet.

If I was making cupcakes for ten 5 year olds…mine would be coming from a box and I would save the scratch for the adults.

So no matter what side of the line you stand on this subject, just remember that you aren’t in that person’s shoes or living their life.

This Cherry Cinnamon Roll Cake is definitely more Paula than Anthony since three sticks of butter go into the recipe.

Yep, three.

I saw this on good old Pinterest (I swear people this is where it’s at…and gee how I wish they were paying me to say that but they are not).

My friend E went and picked a bunch of cherries from her parent’s tree but then decided she didn’t really want to pit them or make anything with them so she offered them up to me.

Which I of course don’t turn down free pie cherries.

I decided that this cake was probably pretty sweet so the cherries would help cut some of that and they do.

This cake is very moist and I found it best eaten the day I made it…or maybe that’s just because it only really lasted that long.

It’s a great day to order my cookbook.

Want More Cake Recipes?

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Vanilla Cheesecake Funfetti Pink Ombre Layer Cake

Cherry Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cherry Cinnamon Roll Cake

Ingredients

  • Cake:
  • 3 cups flour
  • For the Cake:
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 tsp. Baking powder (that is not a typo…4)
  • 1½ cups milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup tart pie cherries, pitted, and chopped (coated in 2 tsp. flour)
  • For the Topping:
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 TBSP flour
  • 1 TBSP cinnamon
  • For the Glaze:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 5 TBSP milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. In an electric or stand mixer mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla.
  3. Once combined well, slowly stir in the 1/2 cup melted butter.
  4. Fold in the cherries.
  5. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
  6. In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until well combined.
  7. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
  8. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center. You want to make sure it's done.
  9. Place powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.
  10. Whisk until smooth.
  11. Drizzle over warm cake.
  12. Serve warm or at room temperature.
© Peabody

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Comments

  4. It’s a travesty that I’ve never had a gooey butter cake. It’s even worse that I have less than a stick of butter in the house. Usually I have at least one box of backup butter in the freezer. *sob* I’ll have to honey-do the hubs into picking up a few boxes on the way home from work.

    Reply

  5. I too wish I could afford to buy all organic, fair trade stuff. But when you’re a stay-at-home mom and your family is living on one paycheck, well, that stuff is a luxury you don’t see very often, if at all. I shop at Costco. I buy Target and Walmart brand foods. And whatever my local supermarket has on sale for fruits and veggies that week is what I’m gonna buy. Oh – and I love Paula Deen too. Butter really does make everything better.

    Reply

  6. wow. thank a lot. you made me bang my nose. on the laptop screen. cos i reeeeaaaaally wanted to lick the pictures off of the screen. sheeshhhhh, now i gotta find a bib to catch my drool.
    but one thing’s for sure… i’ll be making this over the weekend. for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, supper. thanksies and curtsies 🙂

    Reply

  7. Is it wrong that my criteria for picking which sweet/dessert to make is generally based on how much butter is in the recipe? 3 sticks? Oh, yeah.

    Reply

  8. Hi! I completely agree with you about food bloggers. I really love reading the blogs that use these fresh all organic ingredients but guess what, I’m a student! I can barely afford to buy the value range ingredients. I look at these blogs mostly for entertainment value rather than with any real intention of making the recipes.

    Thanks! x

    Reply

  9. AGREED! some of us live in a world where we can’t afford the best of the best. i like to bake from scratch but sometimes my kids eat beans out of a can. it’s all about balance. and doing the best you can iwth what you have.

    PS. now i am going to go and Pin this and be on my way.

    Reply

  10. The recipe looks delicious- I just book marked it to try.

    I loved your intro! I love Anthony Bourdain, and I love Paula Deen. I totally agree with you. Life is a balance, and everyone needs to find theirs.

    I think I’m a little unusual here, because I cook both extremes: super healthy for myself (lost 80 pounds, trying to lose more!) and super delicious-not very healthy for my family and friends. I think both have a place in a person’s life.

    Thanks again- great post!

    -Miriam

    Reply

  13. OH what a nice receipe ! I am going to try it soon;

    Your photos are beautifull, congratulations !

    I just start also a blog for food. I hope to succeed it.

    Bye bye

    Reply

  14. Hi Peabody. Looks delicious as always. If you were going to sub apples for the cherries how would you do it?

    Reply

  15. cheap doesn’t have to mean unhealthy and vice-versa.

    I could make Paula’s recipes with sharffen berger and imported french butter, or hersheys and crisco.

    frugal eating doesn’t have to be unhealthy.

    Now I would like a piece of this cake.

    Reply

    • @Rodzilla- yes, you can make some healthy food cheap but it’s hard to do in bulk. How many do you feed each night? I luck out and live where produce is abundant and often cheaper because we can get it local, but many places can not do that.

      Reply

  16. I just pinned that recipe yesterday. What a coincidence! I like your addition of the cherries. Somehow that makes it seem more like a health food than the three sticks of butter would lead me to believe.

    Reply

  21. I’m really lucky to live in a place where local fresh food doesn’t cost a lot… Getting cake mix here is more expensive than going the from-scratch route. Local grass-fed meat is not overpriced because that’s the only kind you can find at stores, dried legumes from nearby farms are way cheaper than the canned stuff and so is buying Callebaut chocolate in bulk compared to the regular kind at the supermarket. Every time I see a picture of the price tags at a farmers’ market in a food blog it makes me shudder and feel grateful for what I have, and as someone whose budget is relatively tight I totally understand your position.

    Reply

  22. These look wonderful! Do you think peaches would work? I am going to make them later tonight! I am on long island waiting for Irene, we have the generator ready so I will still be able to bake and cook! Love your blog, enjoy your week-end!

    Reply

    • @Charlene- I think peaches would work…I would maybe pat them dry a little so that they weren’t sooo juicy. Might make the cake a tad soggy.

      Reply

  23. Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts sent me your way and I’m glad she did! I’m with you on the Deen v. Bourdain battle. Both are right, both are wrong. Let’s all just get along, because everyone has a different circumstance to deal with! The cake sounds divine too! And yes, Pinterest is wonderful and addictive!

    Reply

  25. Peabody, I think you took what I said the wrong way. I don’t think serving kraft Mac & Cheese is the worst thing ever, but does it really need to be deep fried?

    I’m well aware many lack the resources that many families face. That’s a bigger problem than Paula. And I’m certainly not against occasional indulgence – just excessive.

    but you got me on the amount of mouths I feed. We’re a rather small orphanage with only 12 children, and the older kids help out in the kitchen :p

    we’re on the same page.

    Reply

    • @Zoe…you might be surprised 🙂 Spain is my favorite country to visit! Of course I haven’t been in 12 years…but I’m sure it’s still wonderful!

      Reply

  29. Almost completely irrelevant, but fish balls are just… Ground up fish meat rolled into balls. More like fish [meat]balls than fish… “balls”. 🙂 Of course, I haven’t seen the show you’re referring to so I could be wrong. 😛

    Love your blog. Just subscribed recently, and looking forward to reading more! 🙂

    Reply

  30. I love your cherry cake!! It looks so yummy!!! I miss so much eat cherries since I moved away from my country long time ago and don´t have a posibility to eat cherries in my granny´s garden, directly from the tree, as I was used to.
    I find it soooo stressfull these talks about healthy food nowdays. It is a really good thing to learn eat and cook healthy. But, and except of obessity cases, it doesn´t hurt anyone to indulge yourself one-time a year with such a cake, even if it´s of 4 sticks of butter. We have to eat every day a couple of times and to become stressfull so many times a day besides of the stressfull moments life gives you. I am sorry but it´s too much stress for me. :))

    Reply

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