Snickerdoodle Cupcakes: When the glass is half full

To all the people at BIES and everyone else that came to help out!

Our book fair is a twice a year event, with the opportunity to raise cash funds for our library, so that our wonderful school librarian can purchase books. Our book fairs make a fair bit of money for our library and it's an opportunity that I have where I can talk to kids about books, ask them what they are reading, and essentially berate them into trying something new. You'd be surprised how many kids and parents come back to find the crazy book fair lady (that's ME) waving her hands wildly and encouraging kids to try something new. "Enough of Percy Jackson. How about some Newberry Award Winners?" Yep, that's me. Crazy book fair lady.

I do love the book fair, and each time it occurs, it's a week where Family is completely ignored. I don't believe I cooked a single meal during the week of the book fair. I relied on all my frozen soups, all the food I had frozen ahead of time, left Children to their own devices where homework, piano practice, and extra math was concerned and basically lived and breathed the book fair. I still had to teach my students so I worked around that schedule, but the book fair consumed JA's and my time completely for a week.

The number one problem I HATE dealing with during book fair is the stress over volunteers. We have a signup sheet, but invariably I end up running around school about a week prior, begging friends, acquaintances, strangers to volunteer an hour or two of their time. But even with cajoling, begging and threats I have never filled my 78 volunteer slots on the sheet. I think the closest I ever came was about 50 percent filled, and this time the book fair was no different. I ended up getting my neighbors, the fabulous C family to help out, and this included the father, the mother, daughter and son, who all came out to cashier, watch the door, and run around campus looking for an extra trashcan. I also had to ask people who were busy with the auction from the weekend before, and even though they had just come off of an intense month of planning their fundraiser, a number of them offered to come and help. My close friends who saw my stress and desperation willingly gave hours to me and new faces who just wanted to try something new and volunteer also showed up.

At some point I stopped focusing on the 50 percent of slots that weren't filled and became grateful for the 50 percent of slots that were, and the wonderful set up and breakdown crews, and different cashiers that dashed in from full time jobs to give time for an hour. The people that came to help at our book fair party just rocked it. Sure it wasn't as many as I wanted or needed, but there were new faces this time who were willing to just give their hour.

A huge thanks to people who just came out and helped. I'm grateful. To my co-chair JA - you're awesome and a huge reason I keep doing the book fair. I wanted to make something for people who went the extra mile to help out so I experimented with these snickerdoodle cupcakes. They are super yummy, taste like the cookie with the hints of vanilla and cinnamon, and just satisfy that simple cupcake/cookie craving.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Makes 24 regular size or 48 mini

Snickerdoodle Cake
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
2 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk

Method
Preheat oven to 350.

Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add vanilla bean seeds. Mix again.

Measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. (Minis might take 1 or 2 minutes less)

Snickerdoodle Frosting
Ingredients
1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3-4 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but make sure it's pipeable)

Method
Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add cinnamon and mix again. Add 2 cups of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. The key to really creamy frosting is to NOT beat too much air into the frosting but rather, on a medium speed, beat it until it is creamy.

When cupcakes are fully cool, spread frosting with a knife or using a piping bag and tip. (Wiltons 2D and 1M are both nice ones to make swirls.)
Printable recipe