diff --git a/octodns/provider/cloudflare.py b/octodns/provider/cloudflare.py
index 6a42668..b6df5c4 100644
--- a/octodns/provider/cloudflare.py
+++ b/octodns/provider/cloudflare.py
@@ -417,6 +417,24 @@ class CloudflareProvider(BaseProvider):
         # could be done atomically, but that's not available so we made the
         # best of it...
 
+        # However, there are record types like CNAME that can only have a
+        # single value. B/c of that our create and then delete approach isn't
+        # actually viable. To address this we'll convert as many creates &
+        # deletes as we can to updates. This will have a minor upside of
+        # resulting in fewer ops and in the case of things like CNAME where
+        # there's a single create and delete result in a single update instead.
+        create_keys = sorted(creates.keys())
+        delete_keys = sorted(deletes.keys())
+        for i in range(0, min(len(create_keys), len(delete_keys))):
+            create_key = create_keys[i]
+            create_data = creates.pop(create_key)
+            delete_info = deletes.pop(delete_keys[i])
+            updates[create_key] = {
+                'record_id': delete_info['record_id'],
+                'data': create_data,
+                'old_data': delete_info['data'],
+            }
+
         # The sorts ensure a consistent order of operations, they're not
         # otherwise required, just makes things deterministic
 
diff --git a/tests/test_octodns_provider_cloudflare.py b/tests/test_octodns_provider_cloudflare.py
index 71a7e92..f03f87c 100644
--- a/tests/test_octodns_provider_cloudflare.py
+++ b/tests/test_octodns_provider_cloudflare.py
@@ -289,14 +289,13 @@ class TestCloudflareProvider(TestCase):
         self.assertTrue(plan.exists)
         # creates a the new value and then deletes all the old
         provider._request.assert_has_calls([
-            call('POST', '/zones/42/dns_records', data={
-                'content': '3.2.3.4',
-                'type': 'A',
-                'name': 'ttl.unit.tests',
-                'ttl': 300
-            }),
-            call('DELETE',
-                 '/zones/42/dns_records/fc12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997655'),
+            call('PUT', '/zones/42/dns_records/'
+                 'fc12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997655', data={
+                     'content': '3.2.3.4',
+                     'type': 'A',
+                     'name': 'ttl.unit.tests',
+                     'ttl': 300
+                 }),
             call('DELETE', '/zones/ff12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997650/'
                  'dns_records/fc12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997653'),
             call('DELETE', '/zones/ff12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997650/'
@@ -383,12 +382,6 @@ class TestCloudflareProvider(TestCase):
                 'jump_start': False,
                 'name': 'unit.tests'
             }),
-            call('POST', '/zones/42/dns_records', data={
-                'content': '3.3.3.3',
-                'type': 'A',
-                'name': 'a.unit.tests',
-                'ttl': 300
-            }),
             call('POST', '/zones/42/dns_records', data={
                 'content': '4.4.4.4',
                 'type': 'A',
@@ -402,8 +395,13 @@ class TestCloudflareProvider(TestCase):
                      'name': 'a.unit.tests',
                      'ttl': 300
                  }),
-            call('DELETE', '/zones/42/dns_records/'
-                 'fc12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997653')
+            call('PUT', '/zones/42/dns_records/'
+                 'fc12ab34cd5611334422ab3322997653', data={
+                     'content': '3.3.3.3',
+                     'type': 'A',
+                     'name': 'a.unit.tests',
+                     'ttl': 300
+                 }),
         ])
 
     def test_update_delete(self):