Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown-Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

Quite a title, no? Just wanted to make sure you know what we are dealing with here.

Snickerdoodles are my Husband's favorite cookies. I caught those cupcakes floating on the web and knew immediately  that I wanted to make them. For my Hubby. 🙂

The original recipe calls for the seven-minute frosting. That's when I wrinkled my nose. I made this type of frosting once and didn't really like it. Besides, the idea of adding a frosting to snickerdoodle, even if it's a cupcake, wasn't really in my plan. I wanted to keep the sugar-y cinnamon-y coating from the cookie.

I went ahead and baked the cupcakes. Oh, yum! They were good. Just like the cookies! I brushed them with melted butter and dipped in sugar and cinnamon sprinkles. Even better! After few more bites... Darn it! It needs some creaminess. Yeah, It's a cupcake after all...

But I still wasn't making the seven-minute fluff. I knew I had to find something else. Long story short, I came across the delicious brown-butter icing recipe and it is perfect for my Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. 🙂
I iced the cupcakes, sprinkled with the cinnamon-sugar mix and was finally happy with them.

Then came the moment of truth. What will the snickerdoodle fan say? I was walking back and forth in my kitchen waiting for the verdict. ( Ok, maybe I was just staring into his face awaiting the opinion ).

He loved it! My Hubby said they taste just like the cookies and the icing is great!

😀 That's me. Grinning.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart

makes 28 cupcakes

1 ½ c all-purpose flour
1 ½ c cake flour ( see tip if you don't have cake flour on hand )
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks ( 1 cup ) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ c sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ c milk

Note: The recipe calls for cake flour. You can imagine I didn't have any on New Year's Day, so I used a little trick: measure out as much flour as the recipe calls for and take out 1 tablespoon of flour per cup needed. Meaning, I needed 1 ½ cups of cake flour, so I measure out 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour and took out 1 and ½ tablespoons from it.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake pans with liners and set aside.
Whisk together dry ingredients ( flour/s, baking powder, salt and cinnamon ).
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla. Beat again.
Add the dry ingredients, alternating with milk. Make sure you start and finish with dry mix. ( 3 additions of dry, 2 of wet ). Beat after each addition. Make sure everything is combined.
Fill each liner ¾ full.
Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

Brown-Butter Icing

½ stick unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, 6 - 10 minutes, until it's brown and has nutty fragrance.
Pour it into a heat proof bowl, add sugar and vanilla. Stir until smooth. It should be quite thick, so add the milk and stir again, until it reaches icing consistency. It should not be too runny. Glaze cupcakes and use a spoon to scrape the bowl and fill your mouth with this creamy, buttery goodness.
The icing will set as it stands. Sprinkle the cupcakes ( see below ) right after glazing.

Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles
To maintain the coating of a real snickerdoodle cookie, I mixed 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in a small bowl. After you glaze the cupcakes, add a little magic with this sprinkle mix. 🙂