Snickerdoodle cupcake duo

I know I've said this before, but this really IS my new favourite recipe. And once again it comes from Bakerella. The Snickerdoodle Duo (link to Bakerella's post here) is a delicious combination of cupcake and cinnamon cookie with frosting and cinnamon sugar to hold them together and decorate.

Snickerdoodle cookies were made known to me by my friends Rachael and Tim, and all the people who kept talking about Rach and Tim's Snickerdoodles. Amazingly this was the first time that I made them myself. They puff up really nicely and the texture is great.

The cupcakes pulled away from their cases a little (anyone know what causes that?) and they seemed a bit soft, so I thought maybe I under-cooked them, but they went perfectly with the cookies and icing.

Speaking of icing, Bakerella made a meringue icing, but didn't highly recommend it, and I have an aversion to recipes that use only parts of eggs. Seems like such a waste. So, using my growing knowledge of Australian ingredient equivalents (aka. baking nerd status), I fashioned a nice firm buttercream icing instead, using a magical ingredient... Pavlova Magic. The main ingredients are sugar and egg whites, and it seems you don't need much to get fantastic results :) (much cheaper than ordering purpose-made meringue powder from the US!)

This is my new, Australian-ified buttercream recipe that holds its shape beautifully. It makes enough to ice about 3 dozen cupcakes (or 6 dozen mini cupcakes). If you have some left over you can keep it refrigerated in an air-tight container and re-whip to use it later, but I'm not sure exactly how long it's good for (I used the last of mine within 5 days).

Semi-firm Buttercream Icing

(based on Cupcake Gal's recipe and an eHow post by Shelby Winchell)

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g cooking margarine, softened

6-8 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/2 cup of milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon Pavlova Magic powder

1. Beat the butter and margarine in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy (roughly a few minutes).
2. Add 4 cups of icing sugar, the milk and vanilla. Mix on low speed until combined.
3. Add 2 more cups of icing sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Only add the last 2 cups of icing sugar if you need to.
4. Add the Pavlova powder and mix on low speed for a couple of minutes. You'll see it start to thicken.
5. Use without delay (or get it into an air-tight container to store).

My cupcakes didn't rise right to the top of the patty cases, but I like how the cookies looked kind of like muffin tops and they're kind of compact and neat like this. Also really delicious. Really.

See? So pretty.

Yum. Thanks Bakerella.