Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Can we be honest for a minute? I made these cupcakes for the first time weeks ago in my testing, thinking to myself, “These are great! I can’t wait to share these!!” With every intention of blogging them right away, I started testing for my chocolate cupcakes. And testing. And testing. And along the way, I kind of forgot to write about these Snickerdoodles. Then came time to bake them for the fair—another great opportunity to write about how yummy these were! And again, they got pushed aside. So now here I am, more than a week after the most recent baking, and I’ve again completely forgotten just about everything I wanted to say about them. I’m sorry little Snickerdoodles. You deserve better than this.

So here’s what I can remember. I’ve been eying these cupcakes in the Martha Stewart Cupcake book since I got it. They look absolutely adorable with their little kiss of 7 minute frosting on top. The only problem is 7 minute frosting kind of frightens me. Looking at reviews for the cupcakes online before I started making them, more than half said they had trouble with the frosting. I don’t deal well with baking drama, and I was attempting to make it through the baking process without any tears this year. So 7 minute frosting was out of the question. I stuck with something simple instead—vanilla bean buttercream.

What else I remember? People at work LOVED them. I can usually judge how good a cupcake is now from how many people stop me throughout the night. This one was a complete win. Even the 20-year diabetic complimented them! Which totally freaked me out—but at least he scraped off the frosting first. I don’t want to be held responsible for his blood sugar going sky-high! The only complaint about them was that they were a little dry, but that was totally my fault. I accidentally left them sitting out uncovered when I went to dinner with Boyfriend… And didn’t realize it until I got home 6 hours later.

While they didn’t win a ribbon (I think they were too simple compared to the rest of the competition), they’re definitely winners in my book. Slightly cinnamon, perfectly sweet, and totally adorable. These will definitely be made again. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll try out the 7 minute frosting next time.

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Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
Makes 28 cupcakes



1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
4. Divide the batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about three-quarters full (about 2 tablespoons batter). Bake, rotating halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool in tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, for dusting
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, for dusting

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract, vanilla beans, and salt, and beat until combined. Add confectioner’s sugar, a half cup at a time, beating until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip, pipe frosting onto cupcake: hold bag over cupcake with the tip just above the surface and squeeze to create a blob of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak.
3. In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar. Using a fine mesh sieve, dust mixture over top the peaks.