Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting

This is by far the most labor intensive and decadent thing I have ever made. And it was incredibly delicious. My friend, Caroline, sent me a request for her birthday cake 2 months before her birthday. When I received the recipe from her, I knew I had my work cut out for me. But I’m not one to shy away from a challenge and it was her birthday after all, so a baking I went!

This cake was so so so good and definitely rich and creamy. Well worth the time if you have it.

For the cake, you’ll need:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 sticks of butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Pre heat oven to 325 degrees and butter or spray with non-stick spray 2 8’in round pans.

In a bowl, combine flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy.

It’ll look something like this.

Beat in eggs one at a time. Mixing should become much easier at this point.

Now it’s time to start adding the milk and dry mixture. Add a little milk and flour and mix. Repeat until its all combined and smooth.

Add vanilla and mix.

Divide into 2 well greased, round pans and bake for about 35 min at 325 degrees.

Don’t forget to lick the bowl!

Ok now it’s time to start on the brown sugar buttercream frosting.

For the homemade frosting, you’ll need:
4 1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
8 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup of half and half

Beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy.

This is what fluffy looks like.

Add 6 cups of powdered sugar and the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Omg… This takes forever! Seriously my arm was getting sore but keep at it!!

Don’t forget to add the last 2 cups of powdered sugar! I forgot and my frosting was soupy. Luckily, I later remembered and added the sugar and it was fine. Add in the half and half a little a time and that should help things beat more easily.

Ta-Da!! Buttercream perfection!

Now your cakes should be about ready…

Let your cakes cool completely before removing from pans or they will fall apart.

Nice, cooled cakes resting. Once the cakes are completely cooled, you can cut each in half to make a four layer cake. I had trouble with this because my cakes were already pretty thin, so I only sliced one in half and left the other whole. I used that cake in the bottom because it was thicker.

Now, almost time to frost. First, prep your cake platter by placing strips of wax paper on the bottom then place cake on top. Then when you are done frosting, you can gently pull the wax paper out from underneath and your plate will be nice and clean.

Be generous with the frosting, because there is lots of it!!

Layer and frost, layer and frost.

What a beauty! Place in the fridge for at least an hour before slicing or it will fall apart. You also must refrigerate any leftover cake because it has milk in it.