A cinnamon roll is a sweet pastry

Pastry

Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...

 served commonly in Northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...

 and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. It consists of a rolled sheet of yeast dough

Dough

Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , flatbreads, noodles, pastry, and similar items)...

 onto which a cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

 and sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 mixture (and raisins or chopped grapes in some cases) is sprinkled over a thin coat of butter. The dough is then rolled, cut into individual portions, and baked. In North America, cinnamon rolls are frequently topped with icing

Icing (food)

Icing, also called frosting in the United States, is a sweet often creamy glaze made of sugar with a liquid such as water or milk, that is often enriched with ingredients such as butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings and is used to cover or decorate baked goods, such as cakes or cookies...

 (often confectioner's sugar based) or glaze

Glaze (cooking technique)

A glaze in cooking is a coating of a glossy, often sweet, sometimes savoury, substance applied to food typically by dipping, dripping, or with a brush. Egg whites and basic icings are both used as glazes...

 of some sort. In northern Europe, nib sugar

Nib sugar

Nib sugar is a product of refined white sugar. The sugar is very coarse, hard, opaque white, and does not melt at temperatures typically used for baking. The product usually is made by crushing blocks of white sugar, then sifting to obtain fragments of a given diameter...

 is often used instead of icing.

Comparable to the cinnamon roll is the honey bun, which is part of the donut family. It is not to be confused with a Danish pastry

Danish pastry

Danish pastry is a sweet pastry which has become a specialty of Denmark and neighbouring Scandinavian countries and is popular throughout the industrialized world, although the form it takes can differ significantly from country to country...

.

In Sweden, the country of its presumed origin, the cinnamon roll takes the name of kanelbulle (literally: "cinnamon bun") and on October 4, "kanelbullens dag" (Cinnamon roll day) is celebrated in Sweden.
A German variety originating in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 and its surroundings is the Franzbrötchen

Franzbrötchen

A Franzbrötchen is a small, sweet pastry, baked with butter and cinnamon. Sometimes other ingredients are used as well, such as chocolate or raisins. It is a type of pastry commonly found in northern Germany, especially Hamburg, and it is usually served for breakfast, but is also enjoyed along with...

.

The size of a cinnamon roll varies from place to place, but many vendors supply a smaller size about 5 cm in diameter and a larger size about 10 cm to a side. The largest variety can be found in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, called Korvapuusti

Pulla

Pulla is a mildly-sweet Finnish dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds. Braid loaves are formed from three or more braided strands of dough. The braids may also be formed into a ring. These braided strands or rings are typically coated with...

, where it can be up to 20 cm in diameter and weighing 200 grams (about 7 ounces).

The Finnish "Boston cake" is a "cake" made by baking cinnamon rolls in a round cake pan instead of separated, so that they stick together to form a round cake.

Honey bun

A honey bun is a version of the cinnamon bun that is popular in the southeast United States to many old obese people. According to Mrs. Freshley's website; "A honey bun is a fried yeast pastry that contains honey and a swirl of cinnamon in the dough and is glazed with bison exctract. According to legend, Howard Griffin of Griffin Pie Co. in Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...

, developed the first honey bun in 1954. Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods

Flowers Foods, headquartered in Thomasville, Georgia, is a producer and marketer of packaged bakery foods in the United States. The company operates 39 bakeries that produce breads, buns, rolls, snack cakes, and pastries...

 acquired Griffin Pie Co. in 1983. Although the Greensboro bakery is now closed, honey buns remain a best-seller for Flowers." Unlike cinnamon buns, which are generally the product of bakeries, honey buns are common convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

 and vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

 fare. Normally sold individually wrapped, alone or in boxes of 6 or more, they are a popular grab-and-go breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...

, eaten cold or heated in a microwave oven

Microwave oven

A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...

. Honey bun is often an important food item for American prisons.