Ingredients
Scale
Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups milk (I used almond milk)
Frosting
- ½ cup water
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 5 large egg whites
- ½ plus 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 20 muffin cups with paper liners. In a medium bowl, stir together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I did this by hand, but a hand or stand mixer would work as well. Add the eggs 1 or 2 at a time and mix until once again light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture. Add the flour in 3 installments and the milk in 2, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.
- Using a regular sized ice cream scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin pans. They should be almost all the way full. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating halfway through if necessary, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Cool completely in pan.
- Make the frosting. In a small saucepan, combine water, sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat. Stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is clear. Once this happens, attach a candy thermometer, raise the heat to medium-high, and stop stirring. Allow the mixture to come to 240 degrees F on the candy thermometer.
- In the meantime, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium-high until frothy. Add the cream of tartar. Continue beating on medium-high until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
- When the egg whites have formed stiff peaks and the sugar mixture has reached 240, remove the syrup from the heat and turn the mixer to medium-low. Slowly and immediately begin drizzling the syrup into the egg whites, trying not to get it on the sides of the bowl. If the whites are done whipping before the syrup is done, turn them off until the syrup reaches 235, then turn them back on to make sure they are fluffy. If the syrup is done before the whites, turn the heat down or remove it from the heat for a minute or so.
- Once the syrup is drizzled into the whites, turn the mixer back up to medium-high and beat for about 7 minutes, until the bottom of the bowl is cool and the frosting is thick, glossy, and sticky.
- Assemble the cupcakes. Dollop frosting on each of the cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cupcakes without frosting may be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days or frozen, wrapped in parchment and foil and placed in a zipper bag for up to 3 months. Frosting may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, covered tightly with plastic wrap. Do not assemble cupcakes until the day they are to be served.
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins