Twice a year, Latter-day Saint families, wards and individuals huddle around televisions, radios, computer screens (and a lucky few even are ushered into the Conference Center) and listen to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For many Latter-day Saints, this weekend is their favorite of the year.
From this biannual weekend experience, a tradition has arisen and it’s delicious: cinnamon rolls.
In fact, some Latter-day Saints only make cinnamon rolls during general conference weekend. One Latter-day Saint creator at Tweelte Dee Design posted her recipe and wrote, “I only make them twice a year when we gather together to listen to our church leaders speak at the LDS General Conference. Hence the name Conference Cinnamon Rolls.”
Lara from Overstuffed Life also posted her recipe for cinnamon rolls by reminiscing on how her mother used to make cinnamon rolls every conference weekend.
As Latter-day Saints gather together for general conference, it’s only natural that traditions like these would become popular. Some of those who participate in this tradition make orange rolls instead of cinnamon rolls.
Lydia, the blogger behind Carnet de bord, published her recipe for orange rolls on her blog and commented how she loves making these as a tradition for her family, “This is hardly unique ha, pretty much all of mormondom is making cinnamon rolls twice a year for conference!”
Some even go crazier on the cinnamon roll tradition and make raspberry rolls or something equally unique. Merrick’s Art posted its weekly menu and included that it made general conference cinnamon rolls as well, but also whipped up half a batch of raspberry rolls for this sweet tradition.
One woman who has made cinnamon rolls for her family each general conference weekend for more than 30 years told the Deseret News, “It’s so special for me to feed my family while we get together to be fed spiritually.” She said that these weekends are one of the only times that all her family can spend time together and that the cinnamon rolls are “the icing on the conference.”
One sweet anecdotes about cinnamon rolls comes from a 2015 Deseret News article.
In the article, the author described how much effort she put in to make the best brunch that she possibly could. Since she was busy making breakfast, she had to listen to conference as opposed to watching it with her family.
Later she felt like she missed out on a special opportunity and she wrote, “Cinnamon rolls are good — boy, are they good! — but not the good part, nor the purpose of the weekend.”
Not everyone can watch general conference in real time. Some viewers may have to miss part of it or all of it and catch up later, but if possible, it might be worth it to make the cinnamon rolls on Friday night and enjoy the weekend.