We had a birthday over the weekend! And did we ever celebrate. My K1 is another year older, I just cannot believe it. We had a cowgirl party for her, complete with horses galore. We made wanted posters and played pin the tail on the horse. But the part that I am excited to share with you is the cupcakes. A tradition that I've started in our family is that they birthday person gets to pick their flavor of cupcake. This year, K1 has a love for cookies 'n' creme chocolate bars, and wanted me to make those for her.
Hm. Okay, something I never attempted. Sweet! So I went to the grocery store to check out the cake mixes and other ingredients. And guess what - they don't make a white chocolate cake mix! Yes, I was just as shocked as you are now. So I knew I had to improvise. Luckily, I found a Ghiradelli White Chocolate baking bar. And I wanted nice chunks of Oreos in the cupcakes themselves, so I tossed them into the food processor and just pulsed a couple of times to make sure they weren't too small.
I used my Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, processed the Oreos until they were crumbs, and simply folded them into the frosting. The cupcake turned out so nice and light, while the frosting was thick and rich. They key with the cream cheese frosting is that if you want a stiffer frosting, you simply add more powdered sugar. For every cup of powdered sugar you add, make sure you add 1 Tbs. milk.
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 box white cake mix
1 small box white chocolate instant pudding mix
1 bar Ghiradelli white baking chocolate, chopped into tiny pieces
12 Oreo cookies, broken up into small chunks
1 cup sour cream
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
Frosting:
1 package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
4 Tbs. whole milk
6 Oreo cookies, processed into crumbs
Oreo crumbs for topping
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, pudding, sour cream, oil, water, vanilla, and eggs. Fold in white chocolate pieces and Oreos chunks.
3. Fill each liner 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Once cooled completely, place in refrigerator to chill.
4. Make frosting. In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix on low speed. Add vanilla and 1 Tbs. milk. Mix on medium speed. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar. Mix on medium speed. Add another Tbs. of milk. Mix on medium speed. Add remaining cup of powdered sugar. Mix on high speed. Add milk, 1 Tbs. at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Fold in Oreo crumbs. Pipe onto cupcakes. Sprinkle with remaining Oreo crumbs and keep refrigerated.
Makes 24 cupcakes