I've been in a baking mood, and now I finally have an excuse to bake something! Tonight I'm going to a friend's house for dinner which is the perfect excuse to bake a dessert. Then, we're having a tornado safety party since I live on the upper floor of my apartment and no one lives below me - my wonderful friend is giving me shelter so I am repaying her kindness in the form of cupcakes.
Snickerdoodle cookies are my absolute favorites, so when I found a snickerdoodle cupcake recipe I couldn't resist trying them out. I used two different recipes for inspiration, one for the cupcakes and a different one for the frosting, and made very minor alterations to each. They tasted fantastic - I highly recommend this recipe!
So for the cupcakes, I used the following ingredients:
Yes, the milk I used is coconut milk rather than normal milk. I'm not a milk drinker, so I don't like to buy milk for baking only to throw away the leftovers. However I make curry a lot, so I usually have coconut milk around the house. You could barely taste the coconut in the cupcakes - it simply made them a tiny bit sweeter. However, you could definitely substitute the coconut milk for regular milk, soy milk, almond milk...whatever you prefer.
I mixed all of the ingredients into the batter, then started pouring them into the cupcake liners.
While the cupcakes were baking, I started making the frosting. I used:
The granulated sugar made it a little harder to get the fluffy frosting texture, so I added almost double the amount of half and half to make it less grainy. If I had remembered to buy powdered sugar, it probably would've gotten a better texture with less half and half, so I recommend using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. Also, milk works well as a substitute for half and half. The half and half only makes the icing a little richer.
I mixed all of the ingredients until I had the following texture...
...then piped the cupcakes using a super high-tech piping technique of a Ziplock baggie with the corner cut off.
And voila! Finished cupcakes :)
My decorating skills are sub-par at best, but I see it only as a sign that I need to make more cupcakes to practice on :) They tasted absolutely delicious, so that's all that really matters in my opinion!
Snickerdoodle Cupcakes:
(makes a
bout 28 cupcakes)
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups cake flour, sifted
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups coconut milk
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
- Whisk the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- Add in the dry ingredients and the milk and mix well. Alternating adding some dry ingredients with some milk helps it mix better.
- Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full of batter and bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3¾ cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tbsp half and half
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
- Blend butter until fluffy with hand mixer.
- Add sugar, 3 tbsp half and half, and vanilla extract. Blend lightly. Add cinnamon and continue mixing until sugar is well incorporated.
- Keep adding half and half until frosting is fluffy and the desired texture.
- Pipe frost the cupcakes once they are cooled.
- Garnish with sprinkled cinnamon, if desired.
