A Fun Fall Birthday Cake: Snickerdoodle Cake
Spice cake always makes a cozy fall birthday cake, but if you want something a little lighter and more whimsical, try this snickerdoodle cake!
Why you’ll adore this cake:
Based on my well-loved yellow cake recipe, but made with the reverse creaming method for a melt-in-your mouth crumb. Pretty cinnamon sugar ripple adds snickerdoodle flavor without being overwhelming. The easy brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese frosting has that quintessential snickerdoodle tang, AND isn’t too sweet. Adorable mini snickerdoodle cookie decoration: these are totally optional but so much fun! To make them, simply prepare a half batch of my snickerdoodle recipe (I use a whole egg) and use ¾-1 teaspoon of dough per cookie.
While I do include instructions for making this recipe in a 9×13 pan, I encourage you to try your hand at snickerdoodle cake in layer cake form! My video below will walk you through all the steps, and you can always check out my post on how to decorate a cake if you need more pointers.
What You Need
This snickerdoodle cake recipe uses just 12 ingredients for both the cake and the frosting! Let’s go over a few of them before we start baking.
Cake flour. Cake flour is my preference, but you can substitute all-purpose if that’s all you have on hand. If you do, you will need 3 cups or 375g. Butter and oil. My recipe uses a blend of oil and butter to make a snickerdoodle cake that’s super soft and moist. The oil will also prevent the cake from drying out in the fridge. My preferred oil lately has been avocado oil, but you could also use vegetable or canola oil. Baking powder. Yes, you will need a full tablespoon of baking powder! This is not a typo. Buttermilk. This adds a subtle tang and some moisture as well. Make sure your buttermilk and your eggs are both at room temperature before adding them to the batter. Cream cheese. Make sure to use block style, full fat cream cheese. Low fat or spreadable cream cheese could make your frosting too runny.
SAM’S TIP: Use all room temperature ingredients for the cake batter. This will make combining the ingredients much easier and will yield a more smooth, velvety cake batter. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Snickerdoodle Cake
Reverse Creaming Method
I first introduced this method with my caramel cake, and since then, I’ve been just a little obsessed with it! Not only does it yield a gorgeous, plush cake texture, but it also safeguards against over-mixing. It’s nearly impossible to over-mix a cake when using the reverse creaming method!
Cinnamon Sugar Swirl + Frosting
SAM’S TIP: Don’t stress too much about your cinnamon sugar swirl; it doesn’t need to be perfect! Just do your best to work it into the cake batter (not too much though–we don’t want to lose the swirl!). Even if it doesn’t turn out exactly how you hoped, it will still taste amazing! If you are a fan of snickerdoodle cookies, please try this snickerdoodle cake and let me know what you think! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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