Dessert for breakfast? HECK YES! Then you need these 15-minute cinnamon swirl pancakes in your life! Fluffy pancakes swirled with cinnamon and brown sugar, topped with a gooey cream cheese frosting. They are the perfect mix of cinnamon roll and pancake. I am drooling just typing this!
I got the idea to make these when I was craving cinnamon rolls but was too lazy to make them. If you didn’t already know, cinnamon rolls from scratch can be pretty time consuming. It can take up to 3 hours! I definitely wasn’t ready to put in that kind of work. Thus, I opted for some box pancake mix and a few pantry staples that made these simple 15-minute cinnamon swirl pancakes.
First of all, these pancakes may look like a lot of work but they are actually very easy to make. Let’s go over the “layers” to these pancakes.
- So, the base layer is box pancake mix. You can use any brand you’d like, I used Bisquick.
- Then melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar is the cinnamon swirl layer.
- Lastly, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract is the cream cheese frosting layer.
TIP: Make sure to let the cinnamon mixture firm up. When you first mix the melted butter with the cinnamon and brown sugar, you will have a runny mixture. So after you place in the Ziploc bag, set it aside and let it firm up. If you don’t, once you flip your pancakes over, you will be left with a burnt mess. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.
If you like this recipe, be sure to check out a few of my other simple breakfast recipes:
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15-Minute Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 tbsp butter, unsalted room temp
- 1 oz cream cheese room temp
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar sifted
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Cinnamon Swirl
- ⅓ cup brown sugar packed
- 2½ tbsp butter, unsalted melted
- ½ tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan.
- Remove from the heat and mix in the cream cheese. Whisk until almost smooth.
- Mix in the powdered sugar and then add the vanilla. Stir until well combined. Set aside.
Cinnamon Swirl
- In a separate bowl, add butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix.
- Transfer the mixture to a Ziploc bag. Let that set firm while you get your pancakes going.
- When you are ready to use, cut a tiny bit off the corner to allow the mixture to come out slow and steady.
Assembling the pancakes
- Scoop the batter into a small pancake.
- When the batter starts to form bubbles, use the cinnamon swirl mix to make a swirl on top of the batter. Start from the center outward.
- Cook until the bubbles begin to pop, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook another 2-3 minutes (until the underside of the pancake is golden brown.)
- Top the pancakes with the cream cheese frosting.
