Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
79 comments » 
When thinking about baking for Christmas I think most everyone (including myself) automatically thinks of cookies. They’re easy to arrange on trays, and hello! That’s what you need to leave for Santa. And everyone knows if you don’t leave milk and cookies for Santa then he might not stop at your house. Obviously, very important consideration needs to be given to cookies. However, the one thing I tend to overlook at the holidays is cupcakes. Such a shame, because once I started thinking about it, they provide a great opportunity to put festive flavors into portable little desserts. Perfect for office potluck parties or gatherings with friends. Since snickerdoodles are one of my all-time favorite Christmas cookies, I thought that transforming their flavor into a cupcake would be awesome. And it totally is.
These taste exactly.like.a.snickerdoodle. Exactly. Which sort of amazes and delights me all at the same time.
The cake part is soft, moist and infused with cinnamon. You know how snickerdoodles don’t just taste like cinnamon cookies, but have that can’t-put-your-finger-on-it unique flavor? Well, these cupcakes capture that flavor to a tee. As a result, I adore them! They are topped with a sweet little kiss of seven minute frosting and then are dusted with cinnamon-sugar.
Christmas cookie in a cupcake. Love it!
Four years ago: Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies
Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Yield: 28 cupcakes
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¾ cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1¼ cups whole milkFor the Seven-Minute Frosting:
1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 egg whites, at room temperatureFor the Garnish:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamonDirections:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide the 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 and frosting. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. Make the Frosting: Combine 1½ cups granulated sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees F.
5. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, beating to combine.
6. As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees F, remove from the heat. With the mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise the speed to medium-high; whisk until the mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.
7. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (Ateco #809 or Wilton #1A), pipe frosting on each cupcake: Hold the bag over the cupcake with tip just above the top, and squeeze to create a dome of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak.
8. Combine the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Using a small, fine sieve, dust the peaks with cinnamon-sugar. Frosted cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)
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I’m about to set a world record for The Person Who Most Quickly Saw A Recipe On The Internet And Then Made Magic Happen In Her Own Kitchen. Thanks!
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Michelle on December 22nd, 2011 at 12:36 am
Love this!
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I’ve never tasted a snickerdoodle (which is very, very odd since I’m crazy about cinnamon), so I suppose I’ll have to make them first before making these cupcakes. They look lovely, Michelle!
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They look simply delicious
And if the cookie is as great as it is, I can’t even imagine how crumby, soft and flavoursome your cupcake twist will be!
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daniel on October 12th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
ok ilove it too
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robbie on October 12th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
pretty good
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I would be very happy if these showed up at a holiday party! I agree, cupcakes aren’t getting enough love right now:-)
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Hi Michelle, I am wondering if you could eliminate the cake flour and just use all purpose flour? I’d like to whip these up but don’t have cake flour. Thanks!
I love your website – it has a special place in my heart since my boyfriend is from Pittsburgh 
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Michelle on December 22nd, 2011 at 12:37 am
Hi Paula, You could use flour + cornstarch to substitute for the cake flour. The substitution formula is included on the Baking FAQ page.
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Oh gosh, I can only imagine how amazing this tastes. Snickerdoodle cookies are already to die for but cupcakes?! These are right up my alley! So pretty too
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I adore this idea!
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Great idea for something a tiny bit different for Christmas.
Thanks for a month of wonderful posts, Michelle! I love, love, love how often you update your blog. It’s truly wonderful.
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Michelle on December 22nd, 2011 at 12:37 am
Thank you for the kind words, Holly! Have a wonderful Christmas!
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They sound great, I love snickerdoodles.
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How about a couple dozrn to go?
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This post just made me gain 10 lbs
I am so making these this weekend.
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These are absolutely beautiful!
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yum! I love snickerdoodles, so I can only imagine how awesome these must be too
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I love snickerdoodle cookies, too, and this recipe is going at the top of my list to make very soon.
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My mom makes your Snickerdoodle Blondies as cupcakes/muffins, and they are to die for. Super moist, a little bit dense (in an amazing way), and totally delicious. She and I never bake with butter, and we sub out the butter for equal parts unsweetened applesauce and canola oil, combined to equal the amount of butter in the recipe.
These cupcakes look really good, too.
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I just love Snickerdoodles! This weekend, I made snickerdoodle pancakes. These cupcakes look wonderful! I think I may make these tonight and bring to work tomorrow! Who doesn’t love a Snickerdoodle?
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These are just perfect for right now!
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snickerdoodle translates to “death of me” in some forgotten language
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Oh my… Michelle, can you do any wrong? I think not! These look absolutely splendid.
xo
http://allykayler.blogspot.com
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I use the same recipe for the cupcakes and pair them with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and they are sooo YUMMY! Try making a cream cheese frosting and just add 2 tsp of cinnamon next time and see which one you like better! Thanks for all the great tips this year. This is the first place I look when I’m looking for a recipe or comparing notes. Have a wonderful holiday!
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Michelle on December 22nd, 2011 at 12:39 am
Thanks for the suggestions, sounds delicious!
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daniel on October 12th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
thanks you for the suggestions.
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daniel on October 12th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
I ment thankyou.
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robbie on October 12th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am drooling over here…holy smokes. YUM!!!!
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A friend made these once and I never did get the recipe from her. These are yummy! I can’t wait to make them! Thank you! ♥
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After your Snickerdoodle blondie, I pretty much consider you my resource for all things snickerdoodle. I really wanted to make cupcakes for Christmas, but couldn’t find anything that I really liked. I think I may have found it
! Thanks!
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These look delish. I don’t know how you make the frosting so perfect looking but great job!! Thanks for sharing this.
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O.M.G. These look fabulous! Love!
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This may be my new favorite cupcake. Think I will be making these for my New Year’s Party.
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these look amazing and lucky me I have everything to make them already! wootwoo!
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funny you would mention festive cupcakes! i just did 200 cupcakes for a Christmas Party and my cupcakes were all festively flavored: gingerbread with cinnamon cream cheese icing, sugar cookie dough cupcakes, peppermint fudge cupcakes, and peanut butter truffle cupcakes
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Oh my.. these Snickerdoodle Cupcakes look absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to try out this recipe and make it for my family. Thanks for sharing this with us
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Yum!
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I love cinnamon so snickerdoodle anything and I’m in! Your cupcake looks divine!
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this will definitely be added to my must try recipes!
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Aaaah snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies! Making these ASAP!
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Oh wow! These wouldn’t last 2 minutes around me…I love cinnamon and the frosting looks so nice & fluffy & delicious. I absolutely have to try these!! Yummmm!!
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Oh my! These look delicious. I really enjoy it when people deconstruct flavors and whip them up into something new. Great looking cupcakes! I like the warm glow in the photos too!
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Lovely! I love the very subtle decoration on these scrumptious looking treats. I’ll bet these get gobbled up real quick!
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Oh my goodness, these look amazing! I definitely will add them to my list of things to try!
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Mmmn! Snicker doodles are so very yummy, what a great idea to make cupcake with these flavors!
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I made these last night…..YUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
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Made these today. I burnt the sugar/water part of the frosting and had to improvise w/ buttercream. They still were a hit, though. Should’ve bought a candy thermometer & been more patient with the heat of the stove. Live and learn
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Hi! I absolutely love you cupcakes! I want to cut this recipe down by half, would I have to cut the baking time down as well?
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Michelle on January 14th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Hi Angel, No, not unless you make miniature cupcakes. As long as you are making standard-sized cupcakes you should bake them the same amount of time. Enjoy!
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Help! my frosting went terribly wrong! it is taking forever for the sugar to cool down in the bowl and is not whisking properly.
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Michelle on February 6th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
Hi Sophie, Do you think the sugar mixture got too hot? Did you use a thermometer, and is it calibrated? It does take almost 10 minutes for the bowl to cool down, but if you say it’s not whisking properly the sugar mixture may have hardened up too much if too hot.
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snickerdoodles are among my favorite types of cookie, but for some reason they never turn out very well when i make them, but these cupcakes were probably the best i’ve ever had when i first tried the recipe. i tried it a second time, and i forgot what i changed, but they came out denser and chewier, unfortunately.
what exactly is cake flour, by the way? i used pastry flour, b/c i couldn’t figure out what cake flour was.
thanks for the recipe!
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Michelle on February 20th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Hi Nick, Cake flour is essentially a mixture of all-purpose flour sifted with a little bit of cornstarch. It is sold in pretty much all grocery stores, right near the all-purpose flour. The most common brand names are Swans Down and Softasilk.
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Cat on February 23rd, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Michelle, for those who don’t want to buy cake flour, or can’t find it, it’s easily made at home, provided you have flour and cornstarch in the pantry.
1) Measure out the total cake flour you will need, with and equal amount of all-purpose flour. In this case, that would be 1-1/2 cups.
2) For each cup, take out 2 Tb (or for 1-1/2 cups, 3 Tb total) and put it back into the flour bag.
3) Measure out that same amount (3 Tb) in cornstarch and add to the measured flour. In other words, the 3 Tb cornstarch replaces the 3 Tb flour you removed earlier.
4) Sift or put through a sieve 3 times.
There! You just saved money by making your own cake flour, and you have one less item to store! I’ve never bought cake flour, in my 40+ years of baking. My mom refused when I was a young kid, and told me to make it myself. She said buying it was “wasteful.” I looked it up in the Betty Crocker cookbook, and found the formula. Have done it that way ever since.
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Michelle on February 23rd, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Hi Cat, Thanks for the feedback. I have also included this substitution on my Baking FAQ page. However, I don’t necessarily feel that it’s wasteful to buy something if you’re going to use it all of the time. Plus, someone that doesn’t ordinarily use cornstarch would then be buying that to create “homemade” cake flour. Six one, half dozen of the other I suppose!
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sam on May 11th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
cool. too bad I just bought cake flour for this recipe. LOL
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daniel on October 12th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
thanks.
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Oh. Yum. Wow. These are lovely, buttery, homey treats! Pretty as a picture and they really do taste exactly like Snickerdoodles. I found that the easiest way to fill the cupcake tins (because this is a relatively thick “batter”) was to use a cookie scoop. I have one that holds about 3 Tb when full, and I used 2 of them to fill each paper. Very fast and neat – no drips to clean up, and they’re all uniform size, which looks appealing on a cupcake bar. Mine made way more than the recipe said, however, 34 in all. I kept baking and baking. And they all come up to the top of the paper, so they look perfect. Very generous recipe. If you haven’t made these yet, you just HAVE to!
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Interesting, gotta try it. Cream of Tartar is the strongest taste in my snickerdoodles, wonder if it works here, or do the ingredients somehow simulate that flavor?
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Michelle on March 13th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Hi Zane, I was amazed, but the ingredients really do simulate the snickerdoodle flavor. It’s great!
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Suzy on May 11th, 2012 at 11:04 am
I was wondering about the cream of Tartar as well. i thought that was what made snickerdoodles unique.
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What can I use if corn syrup isn’t available? I live in a country where all available sugar is beet sugar, so I can’t even make it myself.
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Michelle on May 11th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Hi Irmak, Do you have access to Lyle’s Golden Syrup, or anything like that? I have never heard or worked with beet syrup, so I’m not sure where to start on that. You could try substituting an extra 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1-1/2 teaspoons water.
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I made these cupcakes exactly as the recipes calls, and they were absolutely amazing!! Extremely moist and delicious! If you like Snickerdoodle, you have to make these. Thanks Michelle for the great recipe!
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My son and I love to bake. The recipes you have on your site sound delicious. We can’t wait to try them. Thank you for sharing.
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Why must you use the frosting immediately? Will it not refrigerate?
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Michelle on July 28th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Hi Mimi, No, it’s a meringue-based frosting, so it can’t be refrigerated and used later, it “sets” very, very quickly.
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Hey, Michelle! I just made these for a baby shower and they were DELICIOUS! However, mine didn’t rise as much as I thought they would. Did I maybe do something wrong, or are they not super puffy rising cupcakes?
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Michelle on September 25th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Hi Rin, As you can see from the photos, my cupcakes aren’t tremendously high. They do rise above the wrapper a little bit, but not by much. I’m glad you enjoyed them!
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Loved this recipe! My only note is that I ended up with way too much frosting. Next time I will cut the frosting down to 2/3 the original recipe to avoid having to throw a bunch away. This is coming from someone who believes the only reason to eat cake is for the frosting
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Was wanting to do this as a cake. Any recommendations as to the temperature and cooking time?
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I just made these and as I was making the icing, my candy thermometer wouldnt work. I hope I got that temp of the corn syrup, water and sugar right. I’m probably worried for nothing, the icing tastes good and looks great. I’m hoping that it was so hot when I poured the mixture into the egg whites, it cooked them? I have sampled them and they taste really good.
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I just made these and they were absolutely amazing! Thanks, Michelle. I’ve never made a meringue-based frosting before, and these looked exquisite and tasted even better, just like snickerdoodles! I want to post a picture but I’m not sure how to do that/if I’m allowed to do that on here?
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Michelle on December 23rd, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Hi Emma, You are definitely allowed. You would need to upload it somewhere and then use HTML in the comment box here to share it. Or, you could share it on the BEB Facebook page if you’d like! (http://www.facebook.com/browneyedbaker)
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Oh, and I wish I had seen Andrea’s comment from September above, before I made the frosting. There was indeed a lot. I estimate that I could have halved the frosting and had plenty for a full batch of the cupcakes. And I, too, think that the only reason for cake in general is frosting! =) I was sad when I saw how much was left, because I was on my way out the door to a function, otherwise I would have whipped up another batch of the cupcakes and used the leftovers to frost those. As it was, I had to throw the remainders out
Sad face.
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http://azmaveth.com/pics/Emma/Snickerdoodle%20cupcake.jpg
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I baked these delicious cupcakes recently and had my friends try them before I would tell what they were called. Several guests said, “I know this flavor but I can’t put my finger on it.” When I said “Snickerdoodle,” they all smiled. YES! I, too, frosted mine with cream cheese (+ a little cinnamon) frosting due to a time constraint. This cupcake definitely satisfied my sweet tooth!
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