My Snickerdoodle Layer Cake is light, airy and not too sweet and is inspired by the classic Snickerdoodle cookie.
In this post I discuss:
- The baking and cake decorating tools used for this cake.
- Snickerdoodle Layer Cake reverse creaming method.
- Cinnamon cream cheese frosting tips.
- My filling and assembly process.
- Crumb coating.
- Frosting the cake.
- Tips for cinnamon ganache drips.
- Cake baking schedule.
- Make ahead options.
Special Tools List
- 3 8-inch round cake pans
- Nonstick baking spray
- Stand mixer
- Piping bags (2)
- Round piping tip or coupler
- 8-inch round cake board
- Cake turntable
- 8-inch round acrylic disc
- Parchment paper
- Cake scraper
- Offset cake spatula
- Ateco piping tip #828
- Pre-baked Snickerdoodle Cookies
Snickerdoodle Layer Cake Using Reverse Creaming Method
I used my most popular white cake recipe as the base for this Snickerdoodle Layer Cake and added some ground cinnamon to the batter.
This cake batter uses the reverse creaming method. Adding the butter to the dry ingredients coats the flour creating an ultra-tender crumb, instead of creaming the butter with the wet ingredients as you’ll see on most cake recipes.
Cake flour has less protein in it than all-purpose flour which produces less gluten, leaving you with a finer crumb with a light and soft texture.
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting Tips
- Make sure your butter is nicely softened and well beaten before continuing with the recipe.
- Cut the cream cheese into cubes. This will help the cream cheese come to room temperature quicker.
- Be sure your cream cheese is at room temperature before adding into the frosting to ensure there aren’t any chunks of cream cheese left in your frosting.
- The cream cheese should be the last ingredient that goes into the frosting.
- Don’t over-beat or the frosting will get soupy.
Cake Filling and Assembly
Fit a piping bag with a round piping tip or coupler and fill with frosting. Place a cake layer on an 8-inch round cake board and place on a cake turntable. Spread about 1/2 cup of cream cheese frosting on top in an even layer all the way to the edges of the cake. Using the piping bag, pipe a frosting dam around the top edge of the cake.
Sprinkle a few snickerdoodle cookie crumbles on top. Place the second cake layer on top and gently press the cake layer to adhere to the frosting. Spread another 1/2 cup of frosting on top of the cake in an even layer, spreading all the way to the edges of the cake.
Pipe another frosting dam around the top edge of the cake. Sprinkle with more snickerdoodle cookie crumbs and place the last cake layer on top (bottom side up).
Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, before applying the final layer of frosting.
Crumb Coat
Crumb coating is a thin layer of frosting that is applied to the cake once it’s filled and stacked. It helps keep any loose crumbs from getting into the final layer of frosting as well as giving you a good base to start cake decorating on.
How To Frost A Cake
There are many different ways to frost a cake. Here’s just one way I frost mine.
- Fit a piping bag with a round tip or coupler and fill piping bag with frosting.
- Pipe frosting on the top of the cake first. Use an offset cake spatula to smooth out the frosting on the top of the cake in an even layer.
- If using an acrylic disc, line it with parchment paper and apply it to the top of the cake, making sure to line it up with the bottom cake board.
- Pipe more frosting to the sides of the cake. (This doesn’t need to be neat, it’s just a way to get the frosting on the cake.)
- Using the back of an offset cake spatula, smooth out the frosting all around the sides of the cake.
- Use a cake scraper to smooth the sides of the cake. Apply more frosting to any gaps and continue to smooth the sides of the cake with the cake scraper until smooth.
Cinnamon Ganache Drip Tips
- Microwave the cinnamon chips and cream in 20 second intervals and stir until melted.
- Once melted be sure to let the ganache sit for about 5 minutes before applying to a well chilled cake.
- The ganache should be fluid but not hot before applying to the cake.
- There are several options when applying drip: the spoon method, piping bag method, squeeze bottle method or pour it all on top and spread the ganache and let it fall naturally. I used the pour-it-all-on-top method for this cake.
Snickerdoodle Layer Cake Baking Schedule
- Day 1: Bake Snickerdoodle cookies and bake cake layers.
- Day 2: Prepare frosting, ganache and assemble and serve
Make Ahead
Snickerdoodle cookies can be made up to three days in advance, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Cake layers can be made up to 3 days in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator.
Frosting and ganache are best made the day of assembly.
Snickerdoodle Cookie Garnish Tip
My original Snickerdoodle cookie recipe has these baked using 3 tablespoon balls of dough, which creates large cookies. Since I knew I wanted these cookies to go on top of this cake, I reduced the amount of dough to 2 tablespoons and reduced the bake time by a couple of minutes.
Let’s Connect
The Cake Chica is on the following social media platforms below. Click subscribe, like and follow! We would love to have you over!
Suggested Recipes
Snickerdoodle Layer Cake
My Snickerdoodle Layer Cake includes three layers of light, airy cinnamon cake filled with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and snickerdoodle cookie crumbles and topped with cinnamon ganache drip.
Ingredients
SPECIAL TOOLS
- 3 8-inch round cake pans
- Nonstick baking spray
- Stand mixer
- Piping bags
- Round piping tip or coupler
- 8-inch round cake board
- Cake turntable
- Nonslip mat
- 8-inch acrylic disc
- Parchment paper
- Cake scraper
- Offset cake spatula
- Ateco piping tip #828
- Snickerdoodle cookies
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups (9 ounces) cake flour
- 1 ¾ cups (12 ¼ ounces) granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces, at room temperature
CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 1/2 cups (18 ounces) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon roll LorAnn flavoring (optional)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 24 ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes and softened
CINNAMON GANACHE
- 1 cup cinnamon chips
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
SNICKERDOODLE CAKE
- Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 3 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites and vanilla extract. In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment attached, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt on low speed until combined. Add butter one tablespoon at a time until the mixture forms pea-sized pieces, about 1 minute. Reserve ½ cup of the milk mixture and pour the remaining to the flour mixture and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the reserved ½ cup milk mixture to the batter and mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Do not over mix. The batter may look curdled. Give the batter a final stir by hand with a rubber spatula.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Gently tap cake pans on the counter to settle the batter and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 17 minutes, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking.
- Let cakes cool in their pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Invert cakes on to wire racks to cool completely.
CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, flavoring, salt and cinnamon. Reduce the speed to low and beat for 1 minute.
- Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the cream cheese in one piece at a time and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Do not over beat or the frosting will become soupy.
ASSEMBLE
- Place a few Snickerdoodle cookies in a zip top bag and roughly break up the cookies with your fingers. Fit a piping bag with a round piping tip or coupler and fill with frosting. Center a cake layer on an 8-inch round cake board and place on a cake turntable with a nonslip mat underneath.
- Spread about 1/2 cup of cream cheese frosting on top in an even layer all the way to the edges of the cake. Using the piping bag, pipe a frosting dam around the top edge of the cake. Sprinkle a few snickerdoodle cookie crumbles on top. Place the second cake layer on top and gently press the cake layer to adhere to the frosting. Spread another 1/2 cup of frosting on top of the cake in an even layer, spreading all the way to the edges of the cake. Pipe another frosting dam around the top edge of the cake. Sprinkle with more snickerdoodle cookie crumbles and place the last cake layer on top (bottom side up).
CRUMB COAT
- Apply a thin coat of frosting over the entire cake, creating a crumb coat. Wipe off any excess frosting from your crumb coat in a separate bowl. Be sure not to get any crumbs into your bowl of clean frosting. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, before applying the final layer of frosting.
ICING THE CAKE
- Apply a second and final coat of frosting on the cake by lining an 8-inch acrylic disc with parchment paper. Apply a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake and spread out in an even layer. You should have excess frosting hanging off the sides of the cake. Place the lined acrylic disc on top of the cake, parchment paper side down and gently press down on to adhere to the cake, making sure the disc is level and lines up with the bottom cake board.
- Apply more frosting to the sides of the cake. Gently press a cake scraper against the top disc and bottom cake board and smooth out the sides of the cake by rotating the cake turntable. Fill in any gaps in the frosting and rotate the cake turntable with the cake scraper again. Once the sides of the cake are smooth, chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Gently remove the acrylic disc from the top of the cake with your offset cake spatula, by inserting the spatula under the disc and gently turning the cake turntable until the disc releases. Peel off the parchment paper from the cake and fill in any holes in the frosting. Chill the cake in the refrigerator or freezer while you prepare the cinnamon drip.
CINNAMON GANACHE DRIP
- In a small glass bowl, add the cinnamon chips and heavy cream and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir chips until completely melted.
- Let ganache cool about 5 to 10 minutes before using. The ganache should still be fluid but not hot.
- Pour cinnamon ganache over the top of the cake and using an offset spatula, spread out the ganache to the edges allowing the cinnamon ganache to fall where it wants.
- Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 1 hour so the cinnamon ganache drips can set before adding additional decoration.
GARNISH AND DECORATING
- Fit a piping bag with Ateco piping tip #828. Fill the piping bag with remaining frosting. Pipe a frosting swirl along the edge of the cake and place a Snickerdoodle cookie half next to it. Pipe another swirl of frosting next to the cookie half and place another cookie half next to the swirl. swirls around the top edge of the cake. Continue this process all around the edge of the cake until you come back to where you started. Carefully transfer the cake to a cake pedestal and serve.
Notes
Snickerdoodle cookies can be made up to three days in advance, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Cake layers can be made up to 3 days in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator.
Frosting and ganache are best made the day of assembly.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 890Total Fat: 69gSaturated Fat: 38gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 26gCholesterol: 185mgSodium: 684mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 1gSugar: 34gProtein: 10g
*Nutrition information is an estimate and will vary.*