The Cake Mix Doctor - Snickerdoodle Cake

Snickerdoodle Cake
adapted from Anne Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor

1 box plain white cake mix (I used yellow and it was delish)
1 cup milk
8 T (1 stick) butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
2 t ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Buttercream frosting (recipe follows)

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Generously grease 2 round 9 inch cake pans with solid shortening and then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour and set pans aside.
Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger 27-29 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, them invert them again so that the cakes are right side up. Allow them to cool completely, 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting.

Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes. I kept the layers separate and gave one frosted cake to a family from church and my family enjoyed the other one. JUST RIGHT!

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
8 T (1 stick) butter; at room temperature
3-3/4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
3-4 T milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 t ground cinnamon

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioner's sugar, 3 T milk, and vanilla. Then add cinnamon. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. blend in up to 1 T milk if the frosting seems too stiff.