Oreo Cupcakes

I've volunteered myself to take on 3 baking projects all within a 3 week time span. The first is this Neapolitan Layer Cake for my daughter's Easter/Birthday weekend next week. The next are 2 dozen cupcakes to serve at hubby's presentation at the hospital he's interning at, which is in about 2 weeks. And finally, about 200 mini cupcakes for hubby's pinning ceremony in about 3 weeks. Yeah, I think I've got my work cut out for me. So in order for me to tackle these projects, I plan on doing test runs beforehand.

I started with the Strawberry Cupcakes I made yesterday to test the strawberry cake portion of the Neapolitan Cake. For hubby's presentation at the hospital, he requested I make banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. So I'm planning on making my Bananas Foster Cupcake. But I also wanted to make another type of cupcake. Hubby said they always have Red Velvet Cupcakes at the hospital. So that idea is out. But I know that I wanted to do some type of a chocolate cupcake and found this Oreo Cupcake recipe from Beantown Baker. There were a lot of Cookies & Cream cupcake recipes that I came across but decided on this particular one because of the cream cheese frosting. Hubby's favorite. And the idea went well with hubby. So I decided to test this recipe out today. The cupcakes turned out delicious. The original recipe called for sprinkling crushed Oreos on top of the frosting, but I decided to mix it in the frosting. However, you have to be careful and crush all the cookies because large chunks will get stuck in the frosting tip. Overall, I think these cupcakes will do well at his presentation. Now as for the 200 mini cupcakes for the pinning ceremony? I'm still thinking about that one.

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour, plus 2 Tbsp. for Oreo chunks

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 package Oreo cookies

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line muffin tin with 24 cupcake liners. Twist apart 24 Oreo cookies. Place the side of the wafer the with filling on it in each cupcake liner (filling side up). Crush the other half of wafer and set aside.

Cut the remaining Oreo cookies into 1/8th pieces. Toss the cookie pieces in 2 tablespoon of flour. Set aside.

2) In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, cream butter until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add milk and vanilla and mix to combine.

3) Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until well combined. Add sugar. Continue mixing on low speed for about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add egg whites and beat for another 2 minutes. Fold in Oreo chunks.

4) Pour batter into prepared cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cookies & Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

3-4 cups confectioner's sugar (or more depending on consistency)

crushed Oreo cookies

1) Cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, slowly add confectioner's sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Fold in crushed Oreos. Frost completely cooked cupcake and garnish with more crushed Oreos on top (optional).