Oreo cupcakes with Oreo buttercream

Full disclosure: I am not a big cupcake person. I am realllly not a big chocolate person. Give me vanilla any day, but chocolate is usually not something I crave/request/desire.

This being said, I have no idea how I arrived at wanting so desperately to make the Oreo cupcakes I've seen on Heather's blog.

Tim went to a Guitar Hero party this weekend, so I volunteered (OK, demanded that I be allowed) to make something. A girl has got to blog, after all.

So I used the recipe that Heather found/adapted and had great success. I even purchased a teeny-tiny food chopper for the Oreos. (This was the highlight of my week.) The only issue I had was that I made 24 cupcakes, like Heather did, but I had a little bit of batter left over and put it in a pie pan. But the cupcakes still overflowed. I think I could easily have made 30 cupcakes and still had batter left over. Next time I make these I will not fill the cupcake tins so full, and I will make more of them. I think I also need a new decorating tip for the frosting, but that was a minor detail for this time around. Half of the cupcakes were delivered to Tim's party and half went to my coworkers.

I'm not going to kid you. The Oreo buttercream? DE-LIC-IOUS. I didn't have any vanilla, though (I ran out the day before, I swear!), so I used 1/2 teaspoon of Wilton butter flavoring and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.

A good tip from Heather that I didn't see until after I made my cupcakes: Cut your Oreos in half to garnish the cupcakes FIRST. Some will crack or break and not split in to perfect halves, so you can use the cracked/broken ones to grind up for your cake batter and buttercream instead of wasting them. (I found it handy to pop 'em in my mouth if they were broken, but I think Heather's approach is better for my waistline.)

I'm also going to use the cake recipe for a baby shower I'm co-hosting early next month. (I'm doing a chocolate cake and a vanilla cake, and I have some leads on some mighty promising vanilla cakes.) And I'm making another recipe from Heather's blog for the craft party I'm hosting next weekend. Get. Excited. And that's just what I have PLANNED, not including spontaneous baking that might appear in the blog!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

(Source: Hersheys.com)

Ingredients:
- 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
- 8-10 Oreo cookies, crushed or put through food processor (optional) - Heather's addition

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans (For cupcakes or other pan sizes, see variations listed below.)


2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, Oreo crumbs 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 thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes. (Note from Heather: I filled my muffin cups about 3/4 full to get bigger cupcakes, so I only got 24 out of the recipe.)

Oreo Buttercream

Ingredients:
- 1 cup shortening or butter (I use shortening so it doesn't have to be refrigerated)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp. water
- 1 lb. confectioner's sugar (if you don't have a scale, it's approximately 4 cups)
- 1 tbsp. meringue powder
- 12-14 Oreos, finely crushed in food processor

Directions:
1. In bowl of stand mixer, cream shortening, vanilla, and water.

2. Add confectioner's sugar, meringue powder, and crushed Oreos. Mix until well combined.


3. At this point, your frosting will be very thick. To top cupcakes, it's better to have medium to thin consistency icing, so you'll have to add more water. I probably added another 2-3 tbsp. to get the desired consistency, but you'll want to add the water little by little to make sure you don't add too much. When it's the right consistency, it should be pretty easy to stir by hand (think about whether you'd be able to easily squeeze it out of a piping bag). If you accidentally make it too thin (runny), add more confectioner's sugar.

Once cupcakes were completely cool, use a piping bag to add a decorative swirl on top of each one. Then push one half of an Oreo cookie into the frosting for garnish.