Elevate Your Favorite Cinnamon Baked Goods With One Warm Spice Mix

While there are tons of tips for making irresistible cinnamon rolls and other cinnamony baked goods, there's one easy upgrade that you can try on your next bake for a whole new world of flavor: swapping out the cinnamon for some apple spice mix. Of course, cinnamon always brings warmth to recipes, but using apple spice instead elevates the flavors even more thanks to the variety of spices included in the mix. While different brands will have slightly different ingredients and amounts, you can typically expect a mix to include cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and ground ginger — all of which taste great in baked goods.

When swapping apple spice mix into your recipe, try a 1:1 ratio for however much cinnamon the original recipe calls for, and adjust to taste. This swap can work for a variety of baked goods where cinnamon is included, but some that may really shine could be apple-centric recipes, like apple crisp, apple crumb pie, or apple fritters. You can even consider using this trick if you're making cinnamon-spiced lemonade.

While apple spice is one mix that can help elevate cinnamon-flavored baked goods, it doesn't end there. Another option you can use in the same way is none other than pumpkin pie spice. While the two might seem similar on the surface, apple spice and pumpkin spice are different thanks to the latter's addition of ground cloves and allspice. 

Those additions give pumpkin pie spice an even more intense aroma and a deeper flavor. Because of this, when using pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon in a recipe, you may want to use about 1/4-teaspoon less than the original recipe calls for to start, although some people just leap right to a 1:1 ratio and love the results, too.

Other simple ways to upgrade your bakes include swapping simple ingredients for their more gourmet substitutes. For example, using vanilla bean paste in place of vanilla extract in a 1:1 ratio can give your dessert a deeper flavor while also getting those adorable vanilla bean specks. Just keep in mind that since vanilla bean paste is a little thicker than extract, you may get a very minor change to your dessert's texture — although it's likely to not even be detectable.