Hey all, Alexis again, I know I am behind on posts but I have not been slacking on baking…just need to get the recipes up and figure out how to format my posts. Turns out (actually I think I always knew this) I am technologically deficient. When I was trying to set up the website to begin with, I tried to do the 5 minute installation of the website software…I think it was about an hour later that me and Diane, another graduate student in my group, got it up and running. Then another hour later we gave up trying to change the font on the webpage design.
Anyways, about a month ago Diane completed her first topic exam. The topic exams are one of the hurdles of getting a PhD in the physical chemistry division and basically it is a 3 hours test on a paper that you had ten days to learn everything about. These tend to be kind of stressful so in celebration of her getting through the first exam I thought I would make the one dessert Diane always requests, snickerdoodle cupcakes. These cupcakes are pretty awesome. The recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe and can be served with or without frosting because they are pretty sweet. This time around I served them with cream cheese frosting and dusted with cinnamon and sugar. YUM.
Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, plus 1 tsp for dusting
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¾ cups sugar, plus 4 tbsp for dusting
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups milk
Makes 28 cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the muffin tins with no-stick baking spray or line with paper liners. Stir together 1 tsp of cinnamon and 4 tbsp of sugar and set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and 1tbsp of cinnamon.
- With an electric mixer beat butter for a minute before adding the sugar. Cream until the butter and sugar is pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
- Add a third of the flour mixture, followed by ½ of the milk. Repeat finishing with the flour mixture.
- Spoon into the prepared muffin tin, filling to about 3/4’s full and dust the top with cinnamon and sugar mixture. This will create a crispy top to the cupcake.
- Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks and according to Martha Stewart the cupcakes will keep for a few days at room temperature or a few months after freezing.
- Frost with the cream cheese frosting, I used a small circular tip and a pastry bag to pipe on squiggles so that the crispy top of the cupcake could still be seen. Dust with more cinnamon and sugar.
These are really tasty and simple cupcakes. Unfortunately, I only made 12 cupcakes so they disappeared pretty quickly. Hmmm…I guess I will have to find another reason to make these again…maybe celebration for topic exam number two?