cinnamon toast crusts and dyslexia

i was reading about someone's love for cinnamon toast crunch and mistakenly read it as cinnamon toast crusts. in my mind, i was imagining what i thought this cinnamon toast crusts thing should look like and taste like. i imagined thick buttery white bread crusts heavily dredged in cinnamon and sugar, toasted to golden perfection. you can imagine my disappointment when i reread what was written and googled cinnamon toast crunch.
boy, was i disappointed. cinnamon toast crunch was a breakfast cereal. imagine, i was thinking crunchy with a moistish interior, slightly chewy, warm out of the oven, fresh.....not some dry, packaged breakfast cereal (i'm sure it's delicious, but it wasn't how i imagined it to be). at that point, i decided that i would stay dyslexic just for this one thing. think about it, buttery toasted crusts of bread with loads of cinnamon and sugar......
after some experimentation, this is how i achieved what i imagined.

preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
butter thick strips of white bread - 2 centimetre batons if possible, on all surfaces.
roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar - 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to every half cup of sugar; pressing it on firmly doesn't hurt.
place the strips on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

they shouldn't be at all dry, but crunchy outside and light and fluffy within. they should also be buttery, but not dripping in it. the sugar should also be slightly caramelised......yummm..... i don't know if this was a freudian slip of the junk food kind, food dyslexia or just wishful thinking, but i'm glad of it because cinnamon toast crusts ain't half bad....to eat, that is.....i'm sure that on another level, they'd be classified as something totally lacking in nutritional value, but hey, it isn't everyday i'm dyslexic.

cinnamon rolls by whisks

remember the basic bread roll recipe? you use the dough from that recipe to make these. to start with, i think it would be good to make one pan of cinnamon rolls, rather than use all the dough to make cinnamon rolls .

for one pan of cinnamon rolls, cut out about one fifth or a quarter of the dough. that looks like about a third of the depth of a 28 centimetre round cake tin that is about 5 centimetres high. just an appoximation will do.

sprinkle some flour on your work surface and roll this dough into a long rectangle shape. spread some very soft butter over it.

get a small bowl and put in about 2/3 cup of brown sugar in it with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. mix this together and sprinkle this over the butter.

roll up the dough, swiss roll style, starting from the long side.

cut this roll into 8-10 pieces and place them in a 28 centimetre round cake tin lined with baking paper with the spiral facing upwards.

place a cloth over the tin and leave the rolls to rise in a warm place for at least an hour.

when you think the rolls have nearly risen sufficiently, heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

once the oven has reached 180 degrees celcius, pop the rolls in the oven to bake for 45-60 minutes or until golden brown.

cinnamon streusel cake by whisks

this smells so good whilst baking in the oven and tastes so good when it comes out, warm or at room temperature. what more could a person want?
i made this in little loaf tins and miss k took slices of this to school and shared it with her friends and all they could think about was cinnamon loaf....don't you love it?

cake ingredients:

125 grams butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt

cinnamon mix:

3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 dash allspice

streusel mix:

60 grams butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain flour

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

put all the cake ingredients in a medium sized bowl and beat all cake ingredients together with a electric mixer (i like to use a hand held mixer) and spread half of the mixture in a deep 28 centimetre round pan lined with baking paper. i like using a springform tin to bake this cake because it makes the cake easier to remove from the tin. just make sure your springform tin holds the base of the tin securely - you don't want the bottom of the cake tin to fall out when you're transfering the tin to and from the oven. something like that would make me want to cry. i know this happened to my friend janet and she said that's how she felt.

mix together the cinnamon mixture in a small bowl and sprinkle over first layer.

dollop on remaining cake batter as evenly as you can (it doesn't have to be perfect) and use a knife to swirl the cinnamon through the batter. as fun as this is, try not to overdo it - just a quick zig zag through the batter is all that's needed - it's nice having the distinct cinnamony lines going throught the cake when it's finished baking.

roughly mix the struesel mixture together (it's fine if it's lumpy) and sprinkle it over the cake mixture.

bake the cake at for 45-50 minutes or until done. to check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake and when you take it out, if there's a wet batter on it, leave the cake in the oven for another 15 minutes, then check again. if there's a moist batter on it, leave it in the oven another 5 minutes, then check again. if the toothpick comes out without any batter stuck to it, the cake's ready.

if the cake's ready, take it out of the oven and put it on a cake rack to cool a little. if you try to take it out of the tin when it comes straight out of the oven, it might just fall apart because it hasn't had a chance to stabilise. this cake is quite moist, that's why it needs a bit of time. just be patient and leave the cake to settle down for a little bit - give it at least 15 minutes - it will still be warm even after 30 minutes or longer. i know...and it smells so good. if you don't mind what your cake looks like, then go for it.