Snickerdoodle cupcakes

Oh, yes.

I have a confession to make.

I used to not like cake. Seriously.

I know, right? It's crazy.

Then I brought my younger daughter home from the hospital on my older daughter's birthday, and there was cake at home. Having just escaped hospital food, I had to have some.

Then I couldn't stop. My habit transformed to cupcakes... and I tried a few gourmet cupcake shops. I don't have anything against them, in fact I love those. However, those suckers add up, and quickly. Another thing I discovered on Pinterest, was a crazy amount of different cupcake recipes. Plus, I like to bake, so here we are!

Today is America's birthday, happy birthday America!!! It is also my mom's birthday, so I let her pick which flavor off my "to try" list she wanted, and she wanted snickerdoodle.

With some additional help from google, I found a few different recipes, they all are pretty similar. The first was Martha's, and then I found an adaptation of that one by Bakerella. She took Martha's recipe and made it a little easier and smaller. I was all set to do one of these two recipes, but they both used a 7-minute frosting. Another thing that I am NOT, is a pastry chef. So, I have not ventured into the world of frosting that isn't just butter and sugar. My plan was to make a basic frosting and possibly add some cinnamon. *Then* I found this recipe that is the same cupcake as the previous two I mentioned, but with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Winner!

Ok, getting started, you will need:

CAKE:1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups whole milk

(and yes, I use my Kindle to read a lot of my recipes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 28 muffin tins with paper liners.

Here, I obviously went with 325 and only 24 liners - don't worry, I didn't have any batter left over.

Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Beat in vanilla.

Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with additions of milk, beating until combined after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about 3/4 full. About ¼ a cup.

Bake about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

ICING:

8-12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

TOPPING:
2 Tablespoons sugar + 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

FOR FROSTING: In a medium bowl, use electric mixer to blend cream cheese and butter.

Add sugars, vanilla and ground cinnamon. Spread onto cooled cupcakes, or scoop into piping bag and pipe on the frosting decoratively.

FOR TOPPING: Place sugar-cinnamon mixture in a fine sieve (or you can always just use your fingers) and tap it lightly over the cupcakes to give them a light sprinkle.

I only used 8 ounces of cream cheese, and was a bit generous with my frosting, so I didn't have enough for the last 4 cupcakes. I am going to try to whip up a quick plain buttercream without the cream cheese to see which option I like better.