Snickerdoodle Cake – tender cinnamon cake layers with a crunchy cinnamon sugar spread and white chocolate ganache filling and cinnamon sugar frosting.
Snickerdoodle Cookies
The kids and I made snickerdoodle cookies the other day and I was reminded how much I love a classic snickerdoodle! They’re so easy to make and the buttery cookie base with cinnamon sugar rolled on top is just simplicity at its finest. As I ate one, I couldn’t help but wonder how I could turn the classic cookie into a cake.
Snickerdoodle Cake
To get lots of flavor in this cake, I decided to do three buttery vanilla cake layers all split into two layers. Splitting each layer into two layers menas MORE FILLING!
Fillings
For the fillings, I used a cinnamon sugar spread made with sugar, cinnamon, and butter. I love the texture it adds to the cake, as well as the added punch of cinnamon sugar.
I also decided to add a little drizzle of white chocolate between each layer too, but you can leave that out if you want!
Tip: make sure to split your layers once they’ve cooled completely to room temperature.
HOW TO MAKE MOIST CAKES FROM SCRATCH
- Preheat oven 30 minutes before baking.
- Use room temperature ingredients.
- Spray your pan. Line with parchment paper.
- Beat butter and sugar on high for a few minutes.
- Turn mixer to LOW once you add dry ingredients.
- Don’t over bake your cake layer. When you insert a toothpick in the center of the cake it should come out with a few moist crumbs on it.
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
To get a light and fluffy homemade buttercream frosting, I have a detailed post: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM to give you in depth instruction for making your buttercream unreal! Here’s a quick overview.
- Sift your powdered sugar
- Use slightly cold butter and mix on its own for 2 to 3 minutes
- Use heavy whipping cream
- Beat for 5 minutes
- Stir by hand
Snickerdoodle Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 1 1/2 cups (339 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 3/4 (550 g) cups sugar
- 9 egg whites at room temperature
- 4 1/2 cups (517.5 g) cake flour
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 (8.4 g) teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) cinnamon
- 2 1/4 cups (540 g) buttermilk at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) pure vanilla extract
FOR THE FILLING
- 1 cup (200 g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (32 g) cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted
FOR THE GANACHE
- 1 1/4 cup (188 g) white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (115.5 g) heavy whipping cream
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- 3 cups (681 g) unsalted butter slightly cold
- 3/4 cup (165 g) brown sugar
- 6 cups (750 g) powdered sugar measured and then sifted
- 3 teaspoons (12.6 g) pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- *This buttercream recipe makes enough to fill and cover your cake. If you want to add additional piping you’ll want to make an extra ½ batch.
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare three 8 inch or four 6 inch round pans with nonstick spray, parchment paper and another layer of nonstick spray.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Stir vanilla into buttermilk. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed using the paddle attachment. Cream until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- With the mixer on low, add egg whites one at a time. Mixing well after each egg.
- Add one third of your dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
- Add one half of your buttermilk. Mix. Alternate ingredients again. Dry, wet, dry and mix gently. Do not over mix.
- Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cake is finished when a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Cool 10-20 minutes before inverting cakes from pans. Cool completely before assembling cake or wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate if not using until the next day.
FOR THE FILLING
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until incorporated.
FOR THE GANACHE
- In a small sauce pan, heat the cream to a simmer and then pour over the white chocolate chips in a separate bowl.
- Let the cream sit on top of the chips for 10 minutes, and then stir until glossy and shiny.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar together for 3-6 minutes until nice and fluffy.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar, and then the vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. You can add a tablespoon or two of cream if the frosting feels too dense. Beat the frosting again for another few minutes.
ASSEMBLY
- After cakes are cooled and chilled, divide each cake in two, horizontally. Place your first cake layer, face up, on a cake plate or foil wrapped cardboard. Spread the cake with about ½ cup of buttercream and then three tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar filling, followed by a drizzle of the white chocolate ganache.
- Place your next cake layer on top and repeat.
- Crumb coat the cake with the brown sugar frosting and chill for 15 minutes.
- Frost the cake with the remaining brown sugar buttercream. Can be stored in the refrigerator, covered, overnight but make sure to serve room temperature.
Hello, planning to make this cake for my fiance’s birthday. Can you please clarify if it is 1 tablespoon or 2 of baking powder? This will be the first one of your recipes I’m trying, so excited!
its 2
Hi! I’m planning on making this for my wedding! Would it be okay to freeze a completed cake for about 6 days before bringing it to room temperature for the day of the wedding?
Yes!!
I made this cake and it was amazing…everyone loved it. I do have a question though. I only have 9-inch round pans. I still did 3 and it seemed to be fine, would it be better to just do 2?
So glad you loved it! Totally depends if you want your layers to be on the thicker side. The three 9-inch pans just requires you bake it for a tad less time.
My son loves the brown butter snickerdoodles from your new cookbook and requested this cake for his upcoming baptism. Since he loved the cookies so much, I wondered if browning the butter for this cake to make it a brown butter snickerdoodle cake would be an option? It would take this cake to a whole news level of deliciousness. Would I need to change any elements to the cake at all or just brown the butter and make everything as usual? Thanks!
It would be delicious. I would add just a touch more fat in the recipe, so a little buttermilk or even a little oil would do the trick.
Perfect!! Would 1/4 cup extra buttermilk or oil be enough or would a TBSP or two be sufficient?
I’d do 1/4 cup buttermilk.
I’m making this cake now and loving it! I’m not sure what’s going on but the buttercream was super soft. I followed the instructions exactly, mixed it for 5 minutes, and then it was super soft. I added some powdered sugar and then it got super grainy and greasy looking. Would love some tips
How warm was your butter? I only let it stay out for 30 minutes before I use it.
So excited to try this!! Making my sil’s wedding cake and cannot wait. For the frosting – she does want a pretty white cake, so does the buttercream recipe turn out very light beige like in the picture? Do you recommend anything to keep the flavor but maybe make it whiter? Thank you!!
I would just do a vanilla buttercream for her cake so its white!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times and it usually turns out. Today I wanted to make it into a sheet cake, instead Of round cake pans. I followed your conversion for sheet pan, which stated using 9×13, but it spilled all over my oven. Way too much batter. I scooped out what didn’t cook and used a cookie sheet pan instead, we will see if it works!
Shoot!