This fun holiday brunch easily serves a crowd, using just a couple of tubes of refrigerated cinnamon rolls. After baking the dough, everyone can join in on decorating the giant snowman with store-bought frosting and colored icing gel. What better way to start the day than with this warm, friendly cinnamon-scented treat!
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr |
| Active: | 15 min |
| Yield: | 4 to 6 servings |
Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Two 17.5-ounce tubes refrigerated large cinnamon rolls, such as Pillsbury Grands!
- Two 16-ounce containers cream cheese or vanilla frosting
- Black icing gel, such as Wilton Sparkle Gel
- Green or red icing gel, such as Wilton Sparkle Gel
- 1 orange candy, such as a gum drop or an M&M
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 2 rimmed baking sheets with nonstick spray.
- Remove the cinnamon rolls from the tubes and place on a large cutting board or a clean work surface; reserve the icing from the tubes for serving. Unravel 3 rolls and coil them around 1 intact roll to create a very large cinnamon roll. This will be the base of the snowman. Place on the bottom half of one of the prepared baking sheets, with a short side of the sheet facing you.
- Unravel 2 more cinnamon rolls and coil them around 1 intact roll. This will be the body. Place it on the baking sheet, adjoining the base of the snowman. Gently squeeze so they just adhere.
- Unravel 1 more cinnamon roll and coil it around 1 intact roll. This will be the head of the snowman. Place it on the baking sheet, adjoining the top of the body. Bake until golden brown, puffed up and cooked through, 24 to 28 minutes.
- Meanwhile, unravel the remaining cinnamon roll into a strip of dough. Cut crosswise into 5 equal pieces. Coil 3 of the pieces each to create 3 mini cinnamon rolls. These will be the buttons. Roll out each of the remaining 2 pieces to about 3 inches long. These will be the snowman arms. Transfer the buttons and snowman arms to the second prepared baking sheet.
- When the snowman finishes baking, let it cool slightly on the baking sheet on a wire rack. Bake the second baking sheet until the buttons are cooked through and puffed up, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool completely.
- Once the snowman is cool enough to touch, transfer to a large cutting board or platter. Using a butter knife of small offset spatula, evenly spread 1 container of frosting all over the snowman, frosting the crevices and even the sides of the rolls, if you like. This will act as the crumb coat. Reserve 1/4 cup of the second container of frosting and spread the remaining all over the snowman, creating large swirls. Decorate the base and body of the snowman with the cooled cinnamon roll buttons. Spread 2 tablespoons of the reserved frosting all over each snowman arm and adhere the arms to the snowman body.
- Use the black gel icing to pipe eyes and a smiling mouth. Use the green gel icing to pipe a scarf. Add the orange candy for the nose. Transfer the reserved icing to a small bowl and serve it on the side for dipping.