Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake
From Julia of Dozen Flours by way of Ingrid of 3 B's

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup white sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

1. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix together really well and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 325F. Using a spray product like Pam with Flour , generously spray a 9 inch Bundt pan, being careful to cover all the nooks and crannies, as well as the center tube. (Note: If you don't want to use Pam with Flour, you can just grease the pan with shortening.) Gently dust the entire inside of the pan with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. You should only need about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, but you want to try and evenly coat the inside surface of the pan, including the tube. Save the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture and set everything aside.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. Beat just the butter on medium speed for one full minute. Add the white sugar and mix for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and blade and add the brown sugar.Mix for 2 minutes until the mixture looks light brown and uniform in color. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each for 1 full minute. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream; beat well.

5. Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture over top the cake. Spread the rest of the batter into the pan and sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over the top. (If you run out of cinnamon sugar, you can mix just 1/4 cup of sugar + 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon together for the top of the cake. It should be more than enough.)

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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I've been feeling a bit uninspired the past few days. It's that lull between planned baking that always gets me. Since the Cupcake Pops, I've wandered around trying to figure out what to bake next. I have a list of things on the fridge that I want to try out, but nothing seemed like anything that I want to make right now. Checking the Food Holiday site was a disappointment. Nothing I wanted to make there either. What could I possibly make between Something-On-A-Stick Day, and Easter? I turned to the internet for ideas. I tried looking at my "Cookie of the Day" emails from Martha, but Yahoo and my computer were at war with each other, so I started searching through Tastespotting instead. Looking through pages and pages of beautiful cookies, I happened past some snickerdoodles. As I'm famous for saying, it "almost-half reminded me" of something! (Yeah. I know it doesn't really make sense... but whatever.) I was looking the other day through the wonderful comments from the Cupcake Pops that you guys left (Thanks so much!!) and checking out your blogs (You guys are awesome!) and noticed that Ingrid had made an amazing looking Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake that I had made a mental note to try out someday. Hmm. My boyfriend (who will further be known as simply "Boyfriend") had suggested I make some sort of cookie with cinnamon and sugar when I asked him for ideas.. Snickerdoodles are totally cinnamon and sugar. I think today was the day to try out that Snickerdoodle Cake!

I had most of the ingredients already in the house, so I only needed to pick up sour cream. The only problem-- I didn't think I had a bundt pan. And with only a very small amount of money in my bank account for another few days, I really didn't want to go out and buy one. I was pretty sure I had a similar tube pan that I picked up at a garage sale once, so I set to the task of trying to find it. Sounds simple enough since I keep things fairly organized, but with my 26 square-foot kitchen with it's less than 12" wide cabinets, I'm forced to shove things where ever I can find a spot for it. (My new angel food cake pan still has no home because it's too big to fit anywhere.) After about 10 minutes of pulling everything I own out onto the kitchen floor, I think to look under the stove where I keep some of my cupcake pans and lids to pots. Ah-ha! Found it! And lo and behold.. What's sitting on top of it? A bundt pan. When the heck did I buy that?? I know I've never used it, so I just wonder how long it's been sitting there. Oh well. Problem solved! (And making a mental note to go through and inventory what I have in all these tiny cabinets..)

Mixing went well. No disasters. The only issue I had was seemingly having too much cinnamon/sugar mixture to sprinkle in and on my cake. I dumped handfuls in the middle of the cake and still ended up with a huge amount to sprinkle on top. The plus to this.. Halfway through baking my house smelled amazing. Total cinnamon smell wafting through the rooms. Yum! I did have to brush some of the excess cinnamon and sugar mixture off the top of the cake after it was baked and cooled, before I flipped it over to remove it from the pan though.. I guess I didn't put as much in the cake as I thought.. So note: Put more in the cake than on it. I was also slightly worried about the crispiness of the outside of the cake from the layer of cinnamon sugar. I wondered if the cake inside was going to be dry and crispy too. It wasn't. At all. Slicing into this cake is amazing. The knife just breaks through the crust and the inside slices like warm butter. The sour cream in the cake makes it so incredibly moist and it's got such a great taste! So great, in fact, that I sliced the first piece out of the cake last night to share with Boyfriend, and almost half the cake is gone already. (Boyfriend went back for seconds, so he had 2 pieces, albeit larger ones.. but I'm the culprit for the rest of it being eaten. Some for dessert, some for a midnight snack, some for breakfast...) This cake is fantastic. Go make it now. Go! What are you waiting for?? Thanks Ingrid and Julia for this great cake!

As a side note: After steering me in the right direction with the cinnamon and sugar idea, this is the 3rd great suggestion (although the Irish Cream Cupcakes were only great in theory--but the Mint Chocolate Cookies came out perfect!) that Boyfriend has come up with. He's also been the inspiration for the Peanut Butter Cup-Cakes and the Chocolate Sugar Cookie Bites, and half an inspiration for the Tres Leches Cake (I bought him the magazine it was featured in.) I believe this officially makes Boyfriend my muse.