Cupcakes, How I love thee!

Its no secret that I love to bake, especially sweet things. Several weeks ago, Publix had Oreo Cakesters and Creme Fudge cookies on sale BOGO. I had $1 coupons for the Creme Fudge cookies and Free cakesters wyb the creme fudge cookies so I ended up getting boxes of each for around a quarter a box. Cade LOVES cakesters and would eat one for every snack if I let him (boy, would that score me some serious mommy points), but alas I dont let him.

I love the Fairhope Foodie blog and read it lots for new meal ideas. Well, fairhope foodie led me to another website called Annie's Eats. I must say that I could read cooking/food blogs all day. Both blogs are great but Annie's Eats has several pages of cupcakes recipes. Heaven!!

So....I found a recipe for cookies and cream cupcakes!! I adapted her recipe some and finally put to use all those oreo cakesters and fudge creme cookies.

Here is the recipe as I made it. You can find the original recipe here

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

24 Oreo creme fudge cookies

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

8 Oreo cakesters, crumbled

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/2 cup whipped creme (the original recipe calls for 2 tbsp. heavy cream, I'm sure this would be great but I didn't have it)

For garnish:

Oreo cookie crumbs

24 Oreo cookie halves


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners. Place an Oreo fudge creme cookie in the bottom of each liner. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the crumbled Oreo cakesters with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.
Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the whipped cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired. Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.



These were great!!

Enjoy!



Adapted from Annie's Eats