Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Reactions
CH: "I can't believe it! They taste exactly like the cookies!"
MF: "I've never heard of a snickerdoo...OH MY GOSH! These taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch!:

Ingredients

Makes 28

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
* 4 large eggs, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/4 cups milk
* Seven-Minute Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (Ateco No. 809 or Wilton No. 1A), pipe frosting on each cupcake: Hold bag over cupcake with tip just above top, and squeeze to create a dome of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak. Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

FROSTING
Watch out - this stuff is a little like napalm right before you pour it into the eggs. Seriously, you could kill a man with it.

You may also want to have an extra cake or some cookies on hand - this made a ton of frosting, even after we ate giant spoonfuls of it, plain, to "make sure it was okay."


Ingredients

Makes about 8 cups

* 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 6 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions

1. Bring 1 1/2 cups sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Continue to cook, without stirring, but washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming, until mixture reaches 230 degrees, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Reduce speed to medium-low, and pour syrup in a slow, steady stream down side of bowl. Raise speed to high, and beat until thick, shiny, and cooled, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.