Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (and My Blogiversary!)

Today marks 1 year since I started SugarCooking and what better way to celebrate than with cupcakes! Cupcakes seem to be my answer for everything. Birthday coming up? I'll make cupcakes! Barbeque this week? I'll make cupcakes! Going to a friends for dinner? I'll make cupcakes! Who had a heart attack? I'll make cupcakes!

These cupcakes were great. The batter was light and moist and it wasn't overly sweet. It tasted exactly like you would expect it to, like a snickerdoodle cookie in cupcake form. The recipe comes from Martha Stewart, and she recommended using her Seven Minute Frosting, but I thought a cinnamon cream cheese frosting would be better. And it was. I guess that's not really a fair statement since I've never tried the seven minute frosting, but I seriously cannot imagine anything tasting better than this frosting!

As part of my blogiversary celebration post, I'm posting my top 10 favorite posts from the last year. It was hard to narrow it down but here they are...


1. Oreo Cookie Cookies


2. Cappuccino Brownies


3. Smores Bars


4. Nutella Cookies


5. Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


6. Smores Cookies


7. Key Lime Pie Ice Cream


8. Black & Tans (Like Black & White Cookies, but with peanut butter!)


9. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes


10. Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Recipe: Adapted from Martha Stewart, makes 14 cupcakes
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
• 1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream 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. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar. Pipe frosting on each cupcake. Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 - 4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
   
2. Add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar (1 cup at a time). Beat until smooth and creamy.