Dessert Before Dinner: Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

One of my favorite desserts to bake is cupcakes. Who doesn’t like a cupcake, right?

These cupcakes were inspired by one of my favorite cupcake shops. They make a “cookies and cream” cupcake, which is an Oreo flavored cake with an Oreo baked in the center of the cupcake. It is then topped with a buttercream frosting.

Well, I decided to come up with my own version of this fabulous cupcake, and it goes a little something like this: It’s a chocolate cupcake with an Oreo baked in the center, topped with a cream cheese icing {love cream cheese icing} and Oreo crumbs for decoration. Oh yes! It is pretty amazing.

I brought these cupcakes to a Church event a few months ago, and they were a big hit. So, at the request of the lead pastor at my Church, Steve Phillips of Journey Christian Church in Irvine, click here for the Church website: http://www.journeyoc.com , Im going to share about these yummies and this pretty simple recipe!

I told him that I would blog about these cupcakes and share how to make them, as long as he promised to take the cupcakes off my hands when I was done. He said that would definitely not be a problem!

Here is what you will need for this recipe:

1 boxed chocolate cake mix, plus the ingredients needed to prepare the mix (or if you’d prefer, you can make homemade chocolate cupcakes, recipe below)

1 package of Oreos

1- 8oz. block of cream cheese

8 oz. of butter (both salted or unsalted will work, I always prefer salted)

4 cups of powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

So to start, for the chocolate cupcake you can either use a boxed chocolate cake mix, or if you have a little more time, you can make a homemade chocolate cake recipe. Both work just fine! Here is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes from the “Better Homes and Gardens” cookbook (my absolute favorite cookbook!):

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
¾ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups milk

Directions
1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into prepared, lined cupcake pans.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven, for about 20 minutes.

If you decide to use a boxed cake mix, prepare the mix as it states on the box.
Once you have your cake batter, pour it into your lined cupcake pan (this will make about 2 dozen cupcakes)

Place one Oreo cookie vertically into the center of the cake batter.

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Let them cool completely.

Now for my favorite part, the icing! I love all kinds of icing, but cream cheese is my favorite. I can eat this right off the spoon, it’s SO yummy. One of my little baking tricks that I always do, is I make my own icing. Im not a big fan of the packaged store bought canned icings. I think that this one extra little step makes all the difference in the dessert, even if you are using a boxed cake mix.

Here is my favorite cream cheese icing recipe:
Ingredients
8 ounces butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Directions
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Top the cupcake however you would like with the icing. I like to use my piping bag/tip to make it look fancy! For those of you wondering, I used a Wilton tip #2D.