Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake with Oreo cookie baked inside with Oreo buttercream frosting

I know my last posted cupcake was a birthday cupcake, but so is this one. We have a lot of summer birthdays in my family. This one is for my beautiful niece, who requested an Oreo cookie cupcake. What could I do? She asked so nicely, and I love her. 

Excuse the crappy cell phone picture (yes, again). I broke a camera, got a new camera and promptly lost said camera. You know what they say.... better a cell phone picture than no picture. Okay, so nobody says that but me. I know the picture is bad, but I bet it's making you drool anyway.

This cake is a super moist chocolate cake recipe that I have used before to make Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes. I baked an Oreo right in the bottom of the cupcake, which I was skeptical about at first, but let me tell you... that cookie gets soft and becomes one with the cupcake. I had planned to fill them with frosting, but I'm glad I didn't. The cookie inside and frosting on top was enough.

Speaking of frosting, this frosting seriously tastes just like the inside of an Oreo. Without the filling, an Oreo is just a chocolate cookie. I mean, chocolate cookies are good, but the filling is the pièce de résistance of the classic Oreo cookie. And really, let's not pretend like we haven't all at some point in our lives eaten only the frosting, leaving behind sad, lonely dark cookie halves with no frosting to keep them company.

Even if you haven't done that, let's pretend you did so I won't feel alone.

Anyway... before you start gathering ingredients and faint, the frosting has *gasp* shortening in it. I generally make my buttercream frosting with only butter, but I had to go the shortening route with this cupcake. I wanted it to really taste like Oreo frosting. Wanna know what the frosting in Oreo cookies is made from? I'll give you a hint... it's shortening. It probably also has a bunch of other stuff that I can't pronounce, but my recipe calls for pure, snow white shortening so it's okay. Anything pure white can't be bad for you, right? Except cocaine. Or shortening, but we're going to ignore that one.

Here's the cake recipe, courtesy of Hershey's Chocolate.

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 30 Oreo cookies, twisted open 

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill muffin trays with paper liners. Place the cookie halves with the frosting in each cup, frosting side up. I tried this with double stuff or regular... both worked fine.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Batter will be really, really thin. So thin you'll want to feed it a cheeseburger. Don't worry, it will be fine.

3.Pour the batter into prepared liners, right on top of the cookie halves, filling the cups 2/3 full. You can fill them a little more if you want big, overflowing cupcakes. I like mine to sit neatly within the liner, so I fill them 2/3 full.  

4. Bake approximately 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Set pans on wire racks. Cool in pans until completely cooled. This keeps them from falling completely apart when you pick them up. This is a super moist cake, and if it's still hot it will fall right apart, so really... resist the urge and let them cool.

 

While they cool, make frosting!

 

 

Oreo Frosting

 

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

milk if needed

crushed Oreo crumbs

 

You know the cookie halves you had left after you put the frosting sides in the cupcakes? You need those now. Throw a handful in the food processor and reduce them to crumbs. If you would rather put some elbow grease into it, toss them in a Ziplock and beat them to pieces.

 

Beat the shortening and butter until it gets light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with a tablespoon of milk at a time if needed until the frosting is light and fluffy. Beat in the cookie crumbs. I didn't put an amount for the cookie crumbs because I just eyeballed it until it looked right. It was between 1/4 and 1/2 cup.

 

That's it. Squeeze it on the cupcakes. It doesn't have to be perfect if you stick half a cookie on top!

 

 

I'll tell you, every single person that tried one of these LOVED them. I wasn't surprised. I mean, who doesn't love Oreos? Make them. Eat them. Share them. :)

 

 

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Brownie cupcake with peanut butter cup inside and PB frosting

This month was my daughter's 7th birthday. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she said, "Uhhhhhhh... CUPcakes, Mom!" I was prepared to make something pink and sparkly, but she shut that idea down in a hurry. She wanted these rich, chocolatey, peanutty morsels of goodness. The kid has good taste! This is no regular cake. It's chewy brownie with a peanut butter cup baked right inside it, topped with a fluffy peanut butter frosting. The very best thing about these cupcakes is the teeny little cupcake on top - a Reeses mini with a dollop of frosting looks exactly like a cupcake. Tastes like a bite of heaven, too.

You need a lot of peanut butter cups for this. I bought a bag of the miniature snack size cups (like you get in Halloween candy), a bag of minis, and a couple of regular sized ones to make crumbs with. It sounds like a lot of candy, but really, can you have too many peanut butter cups in your house? I think not.

Here's how you do it.

The Cake:

1 box brownie mix with directions for cake style brownies

whatever the directions on the box call for to prepare them

24 small peanut butter cups

Prepare the brownie batter according to the directions on the package. Fill cups 2/3 full. Get out the candy and unwrap those sweet babies. Do not enlist the help of your children for this step unless you bought two bags. Gently press a peanut butter cup into each cup-o-batter and bake. It took about 25 minutes to bake my brownie cupcakes. There will be a small indent where the candy is when you take them out, but don't worry... it's just more room for frosting. Cool completely.

The Frosting:

1 sticks softened butter

1 C peanut butter

3 - 4 C powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whip the butter. Add the peanut butter and whip some more. Add the vanilla, then start slowly adding powdered sugar. 3 cups will give you a fluffier frosting, 4 cups a thicker one. We went fluffy. If you need to thin it, add a little milk as you go.



The Decorating:

If you are piping the frosting, start by squeezing a dollop into the indent made by the candy in the cake, then pipe it on as you normally would. Line up a bunch of mini peanut butter cups and pipe a tiny dollop of frosting on top. If you want the candy crumb look, chop the regular sized candy cups into pieces.

Take this advice: Freeze the candy you want to chop before you try it or you will end up with a sticky blob of candy.

Sprinkle some candy on if you like, then press a teeny cupcake on top. Voila! Make sure you have a full gallon of milk when you make these, because you're going to want a glass. I will be making these again. And again. And again. You will too. :)



 

Nom nom nom

Week 7 - Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Mocha cake with peppermint buttercream and crushed candy canes.

Nothing says Christmas to me like the cool flavor of peppermint. Mix that with the warmth of mocha and you always have a winning winter flavor1 This cupcake is a simple variation of two recipes I've used before, a basic chocolate cake with coffee added to it and regular buttercream with peppermint added to it. Easy peasy! If you want to use a boxed cake mix, you certainly could, and I'll add instructions for modifying a box mix and frosting at the end.

 Chocolate Mocha Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 Tbsp instant coffee granules

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill muffin trays with paper liners (or grease and flour).

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir coffee granules into boiling water and stir into batter. Batter will be very thin. Don't worry, it will be fine. You could substitute 1 cup of very hot, very strong coffee for the instant granules and boiling water if you like.

3. Pour the batter into prepared liners, filling the cups 2/3 full. You can fill them a little more if you want big, overflowing cupcakes. I like mine to sit neatly within the liner, so I fill them 2/3 full.  

4. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Set pans on wire racks. Cool in pans until completely cooled. This keeps them from falling completely apart when you pick them up. 

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Peppermint Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened

3-5 drops peppermint oil or 1/4 tsp extract (or more to taste)

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons milk

red food coloring or gel colors

 

Beat butter until light and fluffy, then add in the sugar. Beat until well mixed, adding the milk as needed to thin. Whip in oil or extract - use a light hand with this until you get the flavor you want. When the frosting is light and spreadable, separate about 1/4 of it into a smaller bowl and stir in red coloring.

Frost your cupcakes after they are completely cool. To achieve the swirly colored frosting, use a pastry bag or ziploc with the corner snipped off to frost. Smear some of the red frosting against one side of the bag, then fill with white. As you squeeze out the frosting, the white will drag a little red with it giving you a pretty swirl.

Sprinkle with some crushed candy cane and you're good to go!

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If you crave this cupcake but are a box-mix kind of baker, you can make simple subtitutions and get similar results. Use a chocolate cake mix, and whatever water is called for, substitute coffee. Make it strong. If you want to use canned frosting, go for it... just add a little peppermint flavor. It's that easy.

Whether you make them from scratch or use a mix, make these cupcakes. They taste like the holidays, and will make you happy. Promise. :)

Week 4 - Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake

Chocolate pumpkin cake with chocolate chips, topped with cream cheese frosting.

This is the easiest cake you will ever make. I've shared this recipe more times than I can count. It's delicious and adaptable and cheap and easy, and I love it.

This cupcake is not a light and fluffy cake. It is dense and moist and substantial. It's also a great way to sneak a veggie into your kids.  I usually make these without frosting and call them muffins, but cream cheese frosting gives it that little extra that takes it from muffin to cupcake. Really, what is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? It's frosting.

You need three ingredients. Seriously. I would not kid about this. You can even leave out the chocolate chips and have a two ingredient recipe.  I know, right?  It's also a very versatile recipe. You can use spice cake instead of chocolate and have pumpkin spice cake. You can use yellow cake and really bring out the taste of the pumpkin. You can add nuts instead of chocolate chips, or white chocolate instead of semi-sweet. You can do anything with this recipe. Make it yours.

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes/Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix, chocolate (or spice... or yellow... make what you like)
• 1 can pureed pumpkin (not pie filling)
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Dump the can of pumpkin into a medium bowl. Open the cake mix and take a tablespoon of the mix out, stirring it into your chocolate chips (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cakes). Dump the rest of the mix on top of the pumpkin and stir until well mixed.

At this point, the batter is THICK. It's like brownie batter, only thicker. If you have trouble stirring, you can add a little water. I usually add about 1/4 cup of water to make it easier to mix.

Stir in the chocolate chips and fill your cupcake papers. This batter doesn't rise a lot, so I fill mine a little over 3/4 of the way full to get a nice, rounded top.  If you do not use papers, you must grease and flour your tins.  

Bake the cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes, or until the tops spring back when you gently touch them. The toothpick method doesn't work well with this cake because it is so moist, so just give the top a little nudge and see if it sinks. If it does, pop it back in for a few more minutes.  Cool completely in the tins before frosting.  This makes about 16 cupcakes. You can fill them less and squeeze a few more out of the recipe if you like.

At this point you can either eat them as they are, or you can frost them. If you're feeling plucky, you can do both. They have pumpkin in them... it's okay if you eat two at once. Or three.  I went with a cream cheese frosting, and it works with the pumpkin. You could also do chocolate frosting for a triple chocolate pumpkin cake!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 8 oz block cream cheese, cold
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar

Cut cold cream cheese into chunks and beat with softened butter until well mixed and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix. Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing after each addition just until mixed. Be careful not to over mix the frosting or it will break down and be too soft. When a good spreading/piping consistency is reached, stop mixing. If you want to add color, stir it in carefully by hand just until mixed. I used Wilton gel colors blue and rose to make this purple.

I dumped the entire bowl of frosting in a large ziploc bag and cut the corner off to pipe the frosting on these cupcakes. Stick on a spider ring and call it a Halloween cupcake. Easy peasy.

Make these, then eat them. Look at the rich, chocolate goodness. It's calling you.

There are more Halloween cupcakes coming this week, including Candy Corn. I'm making a couple hundred cupcakes for a Halloween party next weekend, so cupcakes will be taking over around here. Keep checking in for more decorating ideas, including how to make white chocolate spiderwebs!

Week 2 - Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

My husband looked at me one night last week, mouth stuffed with ganache, and said, "Could you... I mean... would you... what if... mint chocolate chip."  This one's for you, babe.

The cupcake:  moist chocolate cake with mint chips, topped with mint buttercream and a chocolate mint.

I already had a chocolate cake recipe, but I impulsively tried the one from the back of the can of Hershey's cocoa powder. The recipe says, "batter will be thin," but I panicked when I was done mixing it. It was the consistency of a mostly melted milkshake (say that five times fast).  So much for scooping neat little scoops of batter into my cups. I had to pour it, and I was worried.

I worried needlessly. The cake is moist and chocolately and wonderful! Because of how thin the batter was, I did not fold in the mint chips. After the batter was safely nestled inside its paper liners, I sprinkled the chips on top of each cup. The cake baked right up around them.

Here's the recipe:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• mint chips (or mini chocolate chips)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill muffin trays with paper liners (or grease and flour).

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Batter will be really, really thin. So thin you'll want to feed it a cheeseburger. Don't worry, it will be fine. 

 

3.Pour the batter into prepared liners, filling the cups 2/3 full. You can fill them a little more if you want big, overflowing cupcakes. I like mine to sit neatly within the liner, so I fill them 2/3 full.  Right before you put the pans in the oven, sprinkle each cup with about a few mint chips. I used Andes mint chips, available in the baking section, but if these are not available to you, mini chocolate chips would be fine.

 

4. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Set pans on wire racks. Cool in pans until completely cooled. This keeps them from falling completely apart when you pick them up. 

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For the frosting, I added mint extract and green coloring to a basic buttercream recipe. Go easy with the mint flavoring at first... you can add more, but you can't take it away.  You can use your favorite buttercream recipe, or even canned frosting if your conscience attacks when you get out the butter. Use whatever works for you.

 

Mint Buttercream

 

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon mint extract (or more to taste)

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons milk

green food coloring or gel colors

Beat butter until light and fluffy, then add in the sugar. Beat until well mixed, then add the milk and extract. When the frosting is light and spreadable, start adding food coloring until you reach your desired color. I was out of green gel, so I used regular food coloring, about 6 drops.

Frost your cupcakes after they are completely cool. If they're even a tiny bit warm, the frosting will melt and slide right off. This angers the cupcake gods. Cool your cakes. Pipe on your frosting, and garnish with an Andes Candy or a sprinkle of chips. Eat and enjoy.

Potential changes to the recipe (or, how to make this recipe easier if the thought of making all this from scratch makes you tremble and cry):

• You can absolutely use a boxed cake mix for these. I'd suggest a fudge flavor. If you use a thicker cake mix, fold in the chips rather than sprinkling them on top.
• Use canned frosting and add color and flavor to it. I don't love canned frosting, but it would certainly work.
• Spread the frosting instead of piping it. If you want to pipe it but don't own a pastry bag, dump the frosting in a large Ziploc bag, cut off the corner, and pipe it with that.

 

Now go, and make your family, friends and coworkers happy!

 

 

 

Week 1 - Malted Milk Ball Cupcake

Let me preface this post by confessing that this picture was not taken in my kitchen. It did not occur to me to take a picture of these cupcakes before they were gone, so I had to search for one. I will say, the cupcakes I made looked very, very similar to this. I solemnly swear to take pictures of every cupcake produced in my home from this point on.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the recipe. These cupcakes were good. Very good. The cake is a basic vanilla cake jazzed up with a hint of malt and pieces of malted milk ball, topped with whipped chocolate ganache and a whole malted milk ball. About the time you swallow the first bite, the malt flavor jumps up and says, "Hello!" They're a cake version of the Whoppers candy I loved as a kid!

Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 1/4 C cake flour*

1 1/2 C sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 C malted milk powder
3 large eggs
1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 C chopped malted milk ball candies (tossed in 1 teaspoon of flour)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, malted milk powder and salt. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Add the vanilla and stir. Adding eggs one at a time, beat on low until combined. Slowly add milk, then mix on medium speed for two minutes.

Stir 1 tsp of flour into the candy crumbles, then stir into batter. The flour helps the candy to not sink to the bottom of the cake. I chopped the candy by pulsing it in the food processor a few times.

Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full. Be careful not to overfill them... I overfilled a few of them, and they overflowed the cups.  Bake 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then remove and move to cooling racks.

*If you do not have cake flour, you can use regular all-purpose flour. The texture is lighter and fluffier with cake flour, but all-purpose would work. You can make flour with this conversion:  For 3 cups of cake flour, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and sift together.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
1 pint heavy cream
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (the better the quality, the better the ganache!)

You can start the ganache before you start the cupcake batter, because it needs to cool quite a bit before you whip it. Pour the chocolate pieces in a glass bowl. Heat the cream until it starts to simmer, then pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the ganache is well mixed and glossy. Cool completely.

When you are ready to frost your cooled cupcakes, whip the ganache. I like to put my mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for about 10 minutes before I whip the frosting. If it's cold, it will set and whip faster. Pour the cooled and slightly thickened ganache into the bowl and beat at high speed until the frosting lightens in color and takes on a more fluffy consistency. 

Spread or pipe the frosting on cupcakes that are completely cool, then top with a malted milk ball. If the cupcake is warm, it will melt the frosting and create a very, very big mess.

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If this recipe seems like way too much work, you have a couple of options. You could stir the malt powder  and candies into a prepared cake mix. You can smear on a can of chocolate frosting. You'll still have a delicious cupcake, but the effort to make the homemade cake and frosting is worth it. I promise.

Anyone who has ever loved Whopper candies will adore these cakes!