Snickerdoodle cupcakes

A friend asked me to make something happy for an event, so I thought, what better to make than something out of my amazing cupcake book?

I opted for snickerdoodle cupcakes, which have a nice cinnamon bread with a meringue icing. The cake was really thick and almost like a spice cake. I figured it'd be nice for fall. Other than the massive quantity of cinnamon, it was a regular cake.

As for the icing, that was a bit tougher. Martha calls it a "seven-minute icing," which I thought meant it took seven minutes to make. This is not the case. First, you separate the egg yolks out, then let the whites get to room temperature. (I find that the eggs are more difficult to separate at room temperature, so I separate them while they're still cold.)

Then you whip them into a meringue, which only takes a few minutes. Meanwhile you boil some sugar, corn syrup, and water to 230 degrees (thread stage, if I'm not mistaken). Once the syrup is hot, pour it into the meringue slowly and begin to whip again. This creates a nice, thick, fluffy meringue that tastes like marshmallow.

Dust with a cinnamon sugar mixture and you're done! I have to say, the frostings in Martha's book are usually more complicated than the cakes, but the finished product is always nice. And these really did taste like snickerdoodles.