These delicious cinnamon sugar muffins taste like a cinnamon sugar donut or cinnamon roll! The egg-free muffin itself is made with cake flour and buttermilk for a tender and delicious crumb that’s laced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Then, you get to choose whether to top them with a homemade glaze or brush them with butter and dip them in cinnamon sugar!
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Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins
Supremely soft, ultra moist, and beautifully spiced, these cinnamon sugar muffins are one of my favorite muffins to make all year long!
They taste like a combination of a moist cinnamon sugar donut and a muffin – you really get the best of both worlds!
These donut muffins start with a homemade muffin recipe that’s made with simple ingredients, very little effort, and that can be eaten any time of the day.
Cinnamon muffins are made with cake flour for extra softness and spiced with both cinnamon and nutmeg. For the topping, I’m including the option of a simple vanilla glaze or the option dip it in melted butter then coating it in cinnamon and sugar.
I walk you through instructions for both ways, so my suggestion go ahead and do half and half. Either way, they taste just like a classic cinnamon sugar donut, so you’ll love them no matter what!
Make them along with this cinnamon swirl bread and monkey bread muffins for the perfect sweet brunch!
Why you’ll love These Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
- Extra soft – the buttermilk and cake flour are a power couple in this cinnamon sugar muffin recipe. Delivering tender and moist crumbs for the perfect texture.
- Tastes like autumn – cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar give the muffin batter all the fall flavors, but when they’re added on top as well, that’s just an extra special treat.
- One bowl recipe – this cinnamon muffin recipe is so easy to make with simple ingredients and just one bowl. I suggest making two batches and putting one in the freezer!
Ingredients in cinnamon muffins
As I mentioned before, there aren’t too many ingredients in these cinnamon sugar muffins and they’re all simple ones!
- Granulated sugar – this cinnamon muffin recipe needs sweetness to balance the warm earthy spices and the sugar does just that! You can use brown sugar instead of white sugar for the cinnamon sugar topping if you prefer!
- Unsalted butter, melted – gives the muffins a buttery flavor and the needed fat for moisture.
- Ground nutmeg – ff using freshly grated nutmeg, reduce the amount to 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
- Buttermilk, room temperature – bring it out about 30 minutes before mixing up your batter.
- Vanilla extract – a warm flavor enhancer that brings the flavors up a notch.
- Cake flour – has a lower protein content, which helps keep the muffins super soft, but you can also use all-purpose flour for these muffins as well if you don’t have cake flour!
- Baking soda – not to be confused with baking powder! Make sure your baking soda is fresh and hasn’t expired or your muffins will fall flat.
- Salt – maximizes the taste by rounding out all the flavors.
- Cinnamon – these are cinnamon sugar muffins so of course you’ll need cinnamon!
- Powered sugar – you’ll use this if you’re going to make a glazed top for the cinnamon muffins!
- Half and half – I’ve found that half and half is the best option for creating a simple glaze for these muffins! If you’re doing just the cinnamon sugar topping, you can omit this.
Where are the eggs?
This is an eggless cinnamon sugar muffin recipe so you won’t find any eggs in the recipe – that’s on purpose, they’re not just accidentally forgotten!
How to make Donut Muffins
These cinnamon sugar donut muffins are so simple to make – it’s just making the batter, baking the muffins, then topping them once they’re cooled! I’ve included step by step instructions and images below but you can find the full recipe at the bottom of this post in the recipe card!
1 – Make the donut muffin batter
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by lining it with muffin liners (paper liners or silicone ones work). Set the pan aside for later.
- Mix together the sugar, melted butter, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl until evenly combined. If you don’t have a large bowl, a small bowl that its all of the ingredients will work too!
- Gently stir in the buttermilk and vanilla until just mixed in. Be careful not to over mix.
- Add the dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix again until the wet and dry ingredients are just mixed together.
- Once all the ingredients are mixed together, let the batter sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes. Don’t skip this step – this is what gives you fluffy cinnamon muffins!
2 – bake the cinnamon muffins
- After the batter has had time to rest, add about three to four tablespoons of batter into each muffin tin. The batter should be evenly distributed into the muffin pans.
- Put the muffins into the preheated oven and bake for seven minutes. Then reduce the temperature down to 375 degrees and finish baking the muffins for 12 to 15 minutes. Test to see if the muffins are done by sticking a toothpick into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean it’s done.
- After the muffins are done baking keep them in the muffin pan to cool for 20 to 30 minutes. If you want to transfer them to a cooling rack after they cool in the pan, that’s fine but also not necessary!
how to Make mini cinnamon sugar muffins
If you want to make mini cinnamon sugar donut muffins, spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with mini cupcake liners. Then fill mini muffin tins completely then bake 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mini muffins are a great little snack for kids – they’ll be a new family favorite!
3 – make the glaze for the donut muffins
While the muffins are cooling, prepare the glaze if using. Or if not using, you can skip this step!
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and half and half until they are fully mixed and smooth.
- Dip the top of each muffin into the glaze. Let the glaze harden on the muffins, it should take about 30 minutes.
Skip the Glaze!
If you don’t want to use glaze, brush the muffin tops with butter and immediately sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. I personally prefer them glazed, but they’re also great with just the cinnamon sugar mixture on top.
How to Store Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container for up to five days. These do not need to be stored in the refrigerator unless you put the glaze on top – then I recommend storing in the fridge because of the use of half and half in the glaze recipe!
How to freeze cinnamon muffins
Wrap the whole batch of muffins individually in plastic wrap then place all of the wrapped muffins in an airtight freezer bag. Place the bag in the freezer and store for up to three months.
When you’re ready to eat, allow the muffins to thaw to room temperature before eating. You can also pop one in the microwave or the oven to heat up if you want to enjoy them warm!
Tips for making perfect donut muffins
Make the right amount of topping. The glaze and cinnamon sugar amounts written in the recipe are enough to drizzle 12 muffins each, reduce them by half if doing both on one batch. Or use leftover cinnamon sugar for cinnamon nuts!
Be sure your ingredients start at room temperature. If you forgot to let your buttermilk get to room temperature, you can warm it up in the microwave for 15 seconds before adding to the recipe.
Make a buttermilk substitute. If you forgot to go out and buy buttermilk, you can substitute it with lemon juice and whatever milk you have on hand.
Let the batter sit. The muffins need to rest at room temperature before baking to keep the moist texture of the muffin crumb after baking!
Recipe FAQs
What is the secret to moist muffins?
First and foremost, it’s making sure you’re using the right amount of flour! Using too much flour is a surefire way to find yourself wondering where you went wrong. Always measure your flour correctly.
Also, use buttermilk, or some sort of fat, in the mixture, especially when we’re not using any oil. Butter is great, but since it solidifies at room temperature, it’s not as beneficial to the consistency as vegetable oil would be, so finding something like buttermilk (or Yogurt, or even large eggs) is crucial to maintaining moisture.
Do I use the glaze with the cinnamon sugar topping?
You can glaze the muffins or brush the muffins with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar topping. Or you can do both if you really want (add glaze on top of the cinnamon sugar topping) but they will be a little sweeter because of the double topping.
More Easy muffin Recipes
If you love homemade muffins like I do and want more recipes similar to this cinnamon muffins recipe try these next!
- Easy chocolate chip muffins – these simple chocolate chip muffins have the perfect amount of chocolate chips without being overly sweet!
- Egg muffins – a savory muffin made with eggs and hash browns, these are a great complement to these donut muffins!
- Blueberry yogurt muffins – the brightest blueberry muffins kept moist with the addition of plain Greek yogurt!
- Nutella muffins – chocolate muffins loaded with a Nutella center!
- Monkey bread muffins – mini monkey bread bites that are the perfect alternative to a traditional muffin!
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Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp half and half
Cinnamon sugar topping
- 2 tbsp salted butter melted
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by lining it with muffin liners.
- Mix together the sugar, melted butter, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl.1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla until just mixed in.1 cup buttermilk, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix again until the wet and dry ingredients are just mixed together.2 cups cake flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt
- Let the batter sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Add about 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter into each muffin tin.
- Put the muffins into the preheated oven and bake for 7 minutes. Then reduce the temperature down to 375 degrees and finish baking the muffins for 12 to 15 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool muffins in the muffin pan for 20 to 30 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and half and half until they are fully mixed and smooth.2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp half and half
- Dip the top of each muffin into the glaze. Let the glaze harden on the muffins, it should take about 30 minutes.
- The muffins can also be brushed with butter on top then sprinkle each one with cinnamon sugar.2 tbsp salted butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- Serve!
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