Snickerdoodle Cookie Cupcakes

Snickerdoodle Cookie Cupcakes.

November 8, 2011

I am fresh out of junk to say.

I’ve got nothing.

I’ve started to write seven different versions of this post.

I wanted to throw each and every one in a flaming fire and watch them torch.

I wrote an insane four sentence rhyme.

I wrote about how my husband shoved his head under the kitchen faucet last night after he ate an almond m&m… never mind that he ate a billion and two of them over the last 36 hours believing they were peanut. My… what a mature palate he has.

I wrote about a milkshake I drank on friday that wasn’t my idea, a chocolate chipwich I ate on Saturday that wasn’t my idea, the Godiva cheesecake that was forced down my throat on Sunday that wasn’t my idea, and the lobster mac and cheese I inhaled last night that really wasn’t my idea.

If you don’t mind, I’m just going to eat one slice of lettuce and crawl on the treadmill for the rest of my life.

You can only imagine what is going on in my head right now: nothing. Empty. Blank. Wiped clean.

Sometimes I have no words. Occasionally, I drink too many margaritas before writing a blog post and can’t hold my eyelids up. Sometimes I can’t write anything at all because my eyes are somehow glued to Maks shaking what he’s got on Dancing with the Stars. Someone please unsuperglue my eyes… but not really.

Except for when Nancy is on. Oh Nancy…

The only thing I really have to say is happy birthday to my dad! He got the best present ever 29 years ago… me. Which really just means that for the last 29 years, his birthday has been nothing about him, all about me, and he’s pretty much been served half of a hot pink princess cake or something, a la Mother Lovett style. And while I got to open up stacks of Caboodles and lip glosses and new peacoats and boots, many times he was given a 5 pound cylinder of cashews.

Yeah. Good stuff.

So… I should make him some of these cupcakes today? Probably. We ate them last week and I’m pretty sure he was a fan. Not that I have any idea what happened a week ago since at the moment I feel like I was abducted by aliens.

But the cupcakes. They are like a giant snickerdoodle. Obviously. I’m really fooling you with my titles, I know. The cookie comes from my fat snickerdoodle recipe, which is soft and fluffy and almost cake-like but not in the bad I-just-want-a-freaking-cookie-and-it-better-be-a-cookie-and-not-cake-in-cookie-form way. It meshes perfectly with an incredibly plain vanilla cupcake, spiked with a little cinnamon, then is just loaded up with cream cheese frosting. The best. Is there any other kind.

Just like the milkshake, the chipwich, the cheesecake and the lobster mac, this totally wasn’t my idea. After I made those chocolate chip cookie cupcakes, a few of you made the same cupcakes with these snickerdoodles on the bottom and shared them on Facebook. I love your minds.

And I figured it was high time I get on that gravy train. Mmmm… gravy…

Snickerdoodle Cookie Cupcakes

makes 12-14 cupcakes

cookie layer

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon milk, if needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combine, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in milk. If dough is crumbly, add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until it comes together.

Refrigerate dough while you make cupcake batter.

cake layer

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 whole eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients.

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons (or however much you’d like for thicker cookie bottoms) of cookie dough in the bottom of the liner. Even out the dough with the back of a non-stick sprayed spoon. Using an ice cream scoop, drop batter (about 2 heaping tablespoons worth) on top of cookie dough mixture. Bake cupcakes at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Add butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and combined. Gradually add in powdered sugar and vanilla, mixing on medium speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl for 4-5 minutes. Finish with adding cinnamon, then mixing until combined once more. Frost cupcakes as desired and sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar. Cupcakes should be refrigerated after about 1-2 hours of sitting out.