Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

These delicious snickerdoodle cupcakes are a combination of our favorite vanilla cupcakes and a delicious swirl of cinnamon and brown sugar.

We've topped them with a dreamy (yet very simple) cinnamon cream cheese frosting. These are a wonderful dessert choice year-round, and with fall just around the corner, the cinnamon cakes are really calling to us!

Why we Love Them

• Moist, tender crumb (thanks to the buttermilk and cake flour).
• It has all of the wonderful flavor of our Snickerdoodle Cake and Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake, in cupcake form!
• Wonderful pop of cinnamon and sugar in every bite
• Makes a perfect birthday cake recipe, picnic or potluck dessert, or just because!

How to Make Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

As we mentioned our cookie-inspired Snickerdoodle Cupcakes have swirls of cinnamon and sugar.

We started by combining our cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside for later. We will use this after we make the vanilla cake batter and begin filling the cupcake liners.

Now for the cupcake batter:

• First, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add cupcake liners to the cupcake pan(s).
• Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside.

• Buttermilk Mixture: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.

• Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended.

• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined. Be careful not to over-mix.

Filling the Cupcake Liners

Now for the fun part- turning our vanilla cupcakes into snickerdoodle cupcakes! Each liner will have about ¼ cup of batter total, and the cinnamon and sugar mixture will be roughly halfway up.

For each cupcake, we spooned two tablespoons of vanilla cupcake batter into the liner.

Then, we sprinkled with about a teaspoon of the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture. Then, we topped it with another tablespoon of cake batter.

Here they are, ready for the oven.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached.

Remove the cupcakes immediately from the pan to prevent over baking.

We like to cool our cupcakes on a cooling rack. Make sure to cool them completely before frosting. You can see here that they have a slight dome.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Today we went with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. It is a delicious recipe, and simple to make! It combines confectioners sugar, softened butter, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and ground cinnamon.

This is a frosting the needs refrigeration. So, cupcakes decorated with this frosting should be refrigerated until within 1-2 hours of serving.

As you prepare to decorate, you may also need to pop the bowl of frosting into the refrigerator to firm it up beforehand, as it is softer than regular buttercream. (Just about 10-15 minutes should do it!)

If you prefer a frosting that is less perishable at room temperature, our Classic Vanilla Buttercream frosting is a great option. Just add a small amount of cinnamon (1 teaspoon or so) to it for this recipe.

Decorating the Cupcakes

Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, it is time to decorate! Decorate them however you'd like.

We used a large star (1M) piping tip to create swirls, rose swirls, and rows of piped shells. Anything goes! Check out our tutorial on star tip piping basics for more details on this type of piping!

Here is a peek inside!

Recipe FAQs

More Cupcake Recipes

In addition to other cinnamon cake recipes, like our Cinnamon Roll Layer Cake, and Hummingbird Cake, we have many more cupcake recipes to share with you!

A few of our favorites are our light and moist Lemon Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes from Cake Mix, Banana Cupcakes, and scratch Chocolate Cupcakes!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy these Snickerdoodle Cupcakes.

Make sure to check out our hundreds of Cake Recipes, including cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

We also have hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials to share with you. You'll learn everything from How to Make a Cake to How to Frost a Cake, to fun and creative birthday cake designs!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

BY Melissa and Bebe

These moist Snickerdoodle Cupcakes are so delicious! Moist vanilla cupcakes are swirled with cinnamon and brown sugar, and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 30

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour (spooned into measuring cup and leveled off) If you do not have cake flour see substitution in Notes below.
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 1 ¼ cups (296g) buttermilk — if you do not have buttermilk, see substitution below
• ▢ ⅓ cup (68g) vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla extract

For the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Swirl

• ▢ ½ cup (108g) packed light brown sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (2g) ground cinnamon

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 16 oz Cream Cheese (We used two 8 oz packages, full fat. Reduced fat would be a bit too soft.)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 6 cups (690g) powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (3g) cinnamon

Instructions

Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Mixture

• Combine the cinnamon and brown sugar in a small bowl and set aside for later. We will use this when it is time to fill the cupcake liners with batter.

Vanilla Cupcake Batter

• First, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add cupcake liners to the cupcake pan(s).
• Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside.
• Buttermilk Mixture: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined. Be careful not to over-mix.

Filling the Liners (batter + swirl)

• For each cupcake, spoon approximately 2 Tablespoons vanilla batter into the cupcake liner, sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture, and then top with another tablespoon of vanilla batter. Repeat for all of the cupcakes. (Each cupcake has approximately ¼ cup batter total.)
• Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Remove the cupcakes immediately from the pan to prevent over baking.
• This recipe makes about 7 ½ cups of batter (enough for 30-32 cupcakes)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• Add the softened butter to the mixing bowl. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Next, add the softened cream cheese and mix on low until incorporated.
• Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar and cinnamon beating on low speed until blended.
• Increase mixing speed to medium and mix until well incorporated.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
• Decorate however you like! We frosted our cupcakes with a large star 1M piping tip.
• These cupcakes should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. If you would prefer a less perishable frosting, you can use our Classic Vanilla Buttercream instead (and add a bit of cinnamon).

  We recommend removing the chilled cupcakes from the refrigerator about an hour or so before serving, so that they have time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ¼ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use. The mixture will thicken.

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK).

This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

Recipe makes 7 ½ cups batter

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