The Simple Way to Make Canned Cinnamon Rolls Taste Better Than Cinnabon

Angel Albring

Sat, November 15, 2025 at 2:47 PM UTC

5 min read

Content creator Lora McLaughlin Peterson shares a budget-friendly hack for making Cinnabon-style cinnamon rolls at home using simple ingredients like coffee creamer and canned cinnamon rolls.
Peterson's recipe involves rerolling the cinnamon rolls, pouring coffee creamer over them, adding a brown sugar mixture, and baking them covered with parchment paper and foil to create a gooey, bakery-style treat.
The homemade cinnamon rolls are praised for their soft, sticky texture and rich flavor, with many finding them even better than store-bought options like Cinnabon, making them a cost-effective and delicious addition to weekend baking.

If you're like me, you enjoy a "little treat" now and then, especially when you're out shopping for holiday gifts for other people. But like most things, even those "little treats" have gone up in price. For example, have you seen the price of a Cinnabon lately? Depending on where you live, one can set you back as much as $9 a roll, and while they are absolutely delicious, that's a lot to spend on a single pastry , especially when you're trying to save money.

For most families, making cinnamon rolls at home is far more budget-friendly, even if they don't always have that same bakery-style texture or flavor. But thanks to a clever hack from content creator Lora McLaughlin Peterson , you can recreate that iconic Cinnabon gooeyness and rich flavor using just a few simple ingredients. You don't need experience, yeast, a mixer or fancy techniques to bring these to your kitchen—and it all starts with a can of cinnamon rolls.

Peterson, who is releasing her first cookbook, The LORAfied Cookbook: Easy Recipes and Budget-Friendly Hacks for Feeding the Whole Family! in May 2026, knows a thing or two about copycat recipes. To get some tips on getting this one right, I reached out to her before trying the trick at home.

Thanks to her recipe and advice, I ended up with amazing, soft, melt-in-your-mouth rolls that my husband (who usually doesn't even like cinnamon rolls) declared better than Cinnabon. Here's how to do the same at your house.

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A Viral Shortcut for At-Home Cinnabon Bliss

Peterson's viral cinnamon roll hack is so simple, it feels almost too good to be true. All you need are two cans of large cinnamon rolls (I only used one), coffee creamer, butter, dark brown sugar, cinnamon and a can of whipped cream cheese frosting.

To make them, reroll the cinnamon rolls to make them tighter, then place them in your baking dish and pour your coffee creamer over them. Some people use heavy cream, but Lora generally uses a sweet cream flavor coffee creamer over the rolls before baking. The rolls soak up the creamer, creating a soft, custard-like center that's rich and flavorful.

"The heavy cream cinnamon roll hack has been around for years," Peterson tells Parade . "But I don't usually have heavy cream in my fridge. I always have creamer! It has that thick, creamy body, so I thought it might work—and it turns out, it's a home run combination!"

After the cinnamon rolls are swimming in a little lake of creamer, you mix up some melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Peterson makes her brown sugar mixture thick, but I left mine on the thinner side because I didn't want them to be too sweet. Put the mixture on top of the cinnamon rolls, like buttering a biscuit.

A Smarter Way To Bake

Once you have your cinnamon rolls covered in the brown sugar mixture, place both parchment paper and foil on top before baking. This is another detail that sets Peterson's recipe apart. It might sound fussy, but there's a reason for it.

"Covering the rolls helps trap heat and moisture without the tops browning too fast," Lora said. "It also helps the rolls bake evenly and keeps that brown sugar and butter mixture from burning." Layering parchment and then foil ensures that the brown sugar topping won't stick to the foil.

The result is a perfectly baked batch of cinnamon rolls every time. They're soft on the inside, golden on top and coated with a caramelized brown sugar layer that rivals any mall bakery. Top that with canned frosting (not the frosting that comes with the rolls) and you have a cinnamon roll that rivals Cinnabon.

Endless Flavor Possibilities

Peterson has experimented with all kinds of flavor combinations and encourages others to do the same.

"I'm a pumpkin spice fan," she says. "The combo of pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls with pumpkin spice creamer is a winner! The limited-edition Cinnamon Toast Crunch rolls with brown sugar or vanilla creamer would be amazing, too. And for the holidays, hot cocoa cinnamon rolls with peppermint mocha creamer would be a chocolate lover's dream."

When I made them, I used Brown Butter creamer, and the flavor added a warm, nutty richness that made the rolls taste like a gourmet bakery creation. You could easily mix and match whatever's in your fridge to make this recipe your own.

Cinnamon Rolls Anytime, Anywhere

For Peterson, cinnamon rolls are more than a breakfast food.

"I'm originally from Kansas, where there are no rules for cinnamon rolls," she explains. "We even eat them with chili! The sweet-and-savory combo can't be beat."

These cinnamon rolls are delicious any time of day, but they're especially perfect for brunch, dessert or weekend breakfasts. They also freeze beautifully, and because they're so rich, even half a roll is satisfying (though good luck stopping there).

Better Than the Mall and Cheaper, Too

After making them myself, I can say this hack completely changed my mind about store-bought cinnamon rolls. They came out soft, sticky and incredibly indulgent without being dry or doughy. My husband said they are better than Cinnabon, which he says are "always too dry."

Considering the cost (just over a dollar per roll), this hack is an easy win for your weekend baking lineup! My kids loved them and asked me to make a second batch, and at that price, that's an easy yes.

Up Next:

Source:

• Lora McLaughlin Peterson , the creator behind LORAfied and the author of the upcoming The LORAfied Cookbook: Easy Recipes and Budget-Friendly Hacks for Feeding the Whole Family!

This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the Food & Drink section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.