Mummy Cinnamon Rolls
Mummy Cinnamon Rolls
These Mummy Cinnamon Rolls turn incredibly soft and fluffy homemade cinnamon rolls into the cutest Halloween breakfast! Each pillowy cinnamon roll is filled with buttery brown sugar and cinnamon, baked until golden and tender, then decorated with thick cream cheese frosting piped across the top like mummy bandages.
Add two candy eyes peeking through the frosting, and every cinnamon roll becomes its own little mummy.
The cinnamon roll itself uses the soft and fluffy tangzhong dough, which creates tender, feathery layers that practically pull apart. For these Halloween cinnamon rolls, we’re changing the usual soft cream cheese frosting to a thicker, pipeable cream cheese frosting that holds the mummy-bandage design instead of melting into the warm rolls.
They’re perfect for Halloween morning, a spooky brunch, Halloween parties, or a fun October baking project.
Why You’ll Love These Mummy Cinnamon Rolls
These aren’t just decorated canned cinnamon rolls. They’re made completely from scratch with an ultra-soft enriched dough, gooey cinnamon filling, and homemade cream cheese frosting.
The tangzhong is the secret to the incredible texture. Cooking a small portion of flour and milk before making the dough helps create cinnamon rolls that are exceptionally soft and pillowy.
And although these look impressive, decorating them couldn’t be easier. Pipe frosting back and forth across each cooled cinnamon roll, leaving a little opening for two candy eyes.
Mummy Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Servings: 12 cinnamon rolls
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Rise Time: About 1 1/2–2 hours
Bake Time: 22–27 minutes
Total Time: About 3 hours
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole milk
Cinnamon Roll Dough
- 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to 105–110°F
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Prepared tangzhong
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more only if needed
- 2 tablespoons King Arthur Bread & Cake Enhancer
- 1 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon Filling
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Before Baking
- 1/3 cup heavy cream, slightly warmed
Thick Mummy Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 1/2–4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1–2 tablespoons heavy cream, only if needed
- 24 candy eyes
Make the Tangzhong
Add 3 tablespoons flour and 1/2 cup whole milk to a small saucepan.
Whisk together over medium-low heat until the mixture becomes thick and smooth, similar to pudding or a thick paste.
Remove from the heat and allow it to cool until just warm.
Make the Cinnamon Roll Dough
Pour the warm milk into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle in the yeast along with about 1 teaspoon of the measured sugar.
Allow the mixture to stand for 5–10 minutes, until the yeast becomes foamy.
Add the remaining sugar, prepared tangzhong, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Add the flour, Bread & Cake Enhancer, and salt.
Mix until a shaggy dough begins to form.
With the mixer running on low, gradually add the softened butter a little at a time.
Continue kneading the dough with the dough hook for approximately 8–10 minutes.
The finished dough should be smooth, elastic, very soft, and slightly tacky. Don’t keep adding flour until the dough feels dry. A soft dough is one of the secrets to these incredibly pillowy cinnamon rolls.
If the dough is genuinely too wet to work with after it has been thoroughly kneaded, add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover, and allow it to rise in a warm place for 60–90 minutes, or until roughly doubled in size.
Make the Cinnamon Filling
In a medium bowl, combine the softened butter, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, vanilla, and salt.
Mix until you have a thick, spreadable cinnamon-sugar paste.
Shape the Cinnamon Rolls
Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
Roll it into approximately an 18 x 14-inch rectangle.
Spread the cinnamon filling evenly over the dough, leaving a small border along one long edge.
Starting at the opposite long edge, tightly but gently roll the dough into an 18-inch log.
Cut the log into 12 equal cinnamon rolls. Unflavored dental floss works especially well for cutting the soft dough without squishing the rolls.
Arrange the rolls in a buttered 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
Cover and allow them to rise for another 30–60 minutes, or until very puffy and touching or nearly touching.
Bake the Cinnamon Rolls
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Just before baking, slowly pour 1/3 cup slightly warmed heavy cream between and around the risen cinnamon rolls.
Bake for 22–27 minutes, or until the rolls are lightly golden and cooked through.
Don’t overbake them. That’s important for keeping the centers wonderfully soft and tender.
Remove the cinnamon rolls from the oven and allow them to cool.
For regular cinnamon rolls, frosting them while they’re still warm is delicious. For mummy cinnamon rolls, however, let them cool completely so your mummy frosting stays thick and holds its shape.
Make the Mummy Frosting
Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until completely smooth and creamy.
Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.
Beat until thick and fluffy.
Start with 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar. If the frosting isn’t quite firm enough for piping, gradually add the remaining powdered sugar.
Only add heavy cream if necessary, and add it a tiny amount at a time.
For these cinnamon rolls, you want the frosting considerably thicker than traditional cinnamon roll icing. It should hold a piped line without spreading or melting into the roll.
Turn the Cinnamon Rolls Into Mummies
Transfer the thick cream cheese frosting to a piping bag fitted with a flat decorating tip or simply snip a small opening in the end of the piping bag.
Pipe strips of white frosting back and forth across each cinnamon roll at slightly different angles to resemble overlapping mummy bandages.
Don’t worry about making the lines perfectly straight. Slightly uneven strips actually make the mummies look better.
Leave a small opening near the upper third of each cinnamon roll.
Place two candy eyes in the opening so they look like they’re peeking out from underneath the mummy bandages.
Repeat with all 12 cinnamon rolls.
The Secret to Soft and Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls
The extra step of making tangzhong makes a huge difference in this dough.
Tangzhong is simply flour and milk cooked together until thick. Adding it to the cinnamon roll dough helps the dough retain moisture, giving you exceptionally soft rolls with those beautiful feathery layers when you pull them apart.
The Bread & Cake Enhancer adds another boost to the texture, but the recipe can still be made without it.
Another important rule is to resist adding too much flour. The dough is supposed to be very soft and slightly tacky.
A stiff dough usually means a heavier cinnamon roll.
Why Use Heavy Cream Before Baking?
Pouring a small amount of warm heavy cream around the risen cinnamon rolls immediately before baking helps make the bottoms and centers especially rich and tender.
Pour it primarily between and around the rolls rather than directly over their tops.
As the cinnamon rolls bake, the cream combines with some of the buttery cinnamon-sugar filling to create wonderfully gooey bottoms.
How to Make Frosting That Looks Like Mummy Bandages
The frosting is where this Halloween version differs from regular cinnamon rolls.
Traditional cinnamon roll frosting is usually soft enough to melt slightly over a warm roll. That’s exactly what we don’t want here.
Using additional powdered sugar creates a thicker cream cheese frosting that can be piped into defined white strips.
Also make sure your cinnamon rolls are completely cool before decorating them. Even the perfect frosting will soften if it’s piped onto a hot cinnamon roll.
Decorating Mummy Cinnamon Rolls
You don’t need every mummy to look identical.
Pipe some frosting lines diagonally from left to right and others in the opposite direction. Layering them creates the wrapped-bandage appearance.
Nestle the candy eyes between two frosting strips rather than simply placing them on top. This makes it look like the little mummy is actually peeking through its wrappings.
You can give each one a slightly different expression just by changing the placement of the eyes.
Can I Make Mummy Cinnamon Rolls Ahead of Time?
Yes. You can assemble the cinnamon rolls the night before, cover the baking dish tightly, and refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, remove the pan from the refrigerator and allow the rolls to sit at room temperature until they’re noticeably puffy before adding the warm heavy cream and baking.
For a Halloween party, you can also bake the rolls earlier in the day and decorate them once completely cool.
How to Store Mummy Cinnamon Rolls
Because the mummy bandages are made with cream cheese frosting, keep leftover cinnamon rolls covered in the refrigerator.
For the best texture, allow a refrigerated roll to sit at room temperature for a little while before serving.
Perfect for Halloween Morning
These Mummy Cinnamon Rolls are such a fun way to make Halloween breakfast special without sacrificing the thing that matters most—the cinnamon rolls are genuinely delicious.
Underneath those silly candy eyes and mummy bandages are incredibly soft, pillowy cinnamon rolls with gooey brown sugar cinnamon centers.
Set a platter of little cinnamon roll mummies on the breakfast table with coffee, hot chocolate, or apple cider, and you’ve got an adorable Halloween breakfast that looks like you spent hours making it.
