Earlier this month, I asked the Sally’s Baking Addiction Facebook group community if they wanted a snickerdoodle cake recipe this fall season. The response was an overwhelming yes. In fact, the general response was HECK YES HECK YES HEEEEEEEECK YES. Your wish is my cake command.
This Snickerdoodle Cake Is:
for cinnamon lovers special occasion worthy equal parts vanilla cake and snickerdoodles totally reminding me of brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts basically impossible not to love
3 Parts to Snickerdoodle Cake
Buttery Vanilla Cake Pockets of Cinnamon Swirls Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream
Snickerdoodle Cake Power Ingredients
The ingredient list below looks long. Thankfully, the ingredients are mostly repeated in each section. If you’ve made or read about my best vanilla cake recipe before, you know that I use a few “power ingredients” that promise the perfect cake texture:
How to Make Snickerdoodle Cake
This cake batter is moderately thick and fits perfectly in 3 9-inch cake pans. Always line your round pans with parchment paper rounds before adding the batter.
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream
Simply put, this frosting is nothing short of a dream. Brown sugar isn’t a common ingredient in snickerdoodle cookies, but I really wanted to impart its flavor into the cake. Brown sugar weighed down the cake crumb, so I added some to the frosting. Thus, brown sugar cinnamon buttercream was born. (There’s no need for any other frosting flavor again, ever.) You know what I love about snickerdoodle cookies? Their creamy texture and slightly tangy flavor—both make snickerdoodles uniquely delicious! Cream of tartar supplies those favorable components, but it didn’t really fit into this cake. So I compromised and added cream cheese to the buttercream frosting. Now we have a wonderfully tangy/sweet flavor, plus an ultra creamy texture. To avoid a gritty texture from the brown sugar, cream it with the butter and cream cheese until relatively smooth. (Once you add the remaining ingredients, you won’t be able to detect its texture anyway.) If you find the buttercream too sweet, add extra salt. If you crave more flavor, add more cinnamon and/or vanilla extract. This brown sugar cinnamon buttercream would be outstanding with banana layer cake or carrot cake, too. Look at all those cinnamon swirl specks on the bottom of a cake layer! ↑ ↑
Semi-Naked Cake Style
Remember when I taught you how to make a vanilla naked cake? I recreated the look for this snickerdoodle cake. Perfect as a rustic chic autumn cake, no? If you need a visual for this semi-naked look (pretty much a crumb coat), see my naked cake video tutorial. If you skip the piping detail, there’s enough frosting to cover the whole cake with a generous layer of frosting. 🙂 Need to freeze the cake layers? See how to freeze cakes for detailed instructions.
Love Cinnamon? More Recipes for You:
Spice Cake Chai Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake Cinnamon Roll Cookies Snickerdoodle Cupcakes Banana Cupcakes (with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting!) Giant Cinnamon Roll Cake
And if you need more inspiration, here is a list of 30+ fall cake recipes.
