Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes "Tagalongs"

I made the homemade Tagalongs the other day and because this is a blog that's supposed to be mainly about cupcakes I just HAD to make a cupcake version of it.  A friend had come across a Samoa cupcake over on one of my favorite cupcake blogs Cupcakes Take the cake and said that it had my name all over it since I was making homemade girl scout cookies. Well since I had made the Tagalongs first I decided to go with this in cupcake form first. I may or may not get to all the homemade Girl Scout cookies and cupcake versions here soon but I will eventually. I have a GIANT ever growing list of cupcakes I want to make from new flavors to try to perfecting ones I have been making forever to new decorating techniques. So don't you all worry I will get to these cupcakes eventually because even I am DYING for some thin mints and thin min cupcakes!!

We started buying our eggs from a local farm recently instead of at the grocery store. I just LOVE the color of the eggs we have been getting from creams to tans to browns, speckled and even GREEN! They don't come in uniform sizes like at the store since well they aren't sorted so finding ones that are considered to be larges isn't always easy. 

The yolks are a deeper yellow than store bought. This was my first time baking with them. I have eaten them for breakfast now a few times and the taste is way better, richer almost. So I wondered if one can tell a difference in a cupcake.

Since Tagalongs aka Peanut Butter Patties come in the RED box I figured I could finally use these red liners I bought a while ago and for some reason had yet to use them

All my ingredients lined up. I tried a new recipe for this cupcake. I recently bought 3 new cupcake cookbooks and this one came from "Cupcakes" by Shelly Kaldunski

The batter was a nice creamy yellow. I was looking for a buttery cupcake with just a hint of vanilla since the cookie in the Tagalong is a buttery cookie

Ready for the oven

They smelled really good fresh out of the oven

I like the dome they got when baking. I love my recipes from Warren Brown's Cakelove but they tend to be a little flatter topped and this was what I was looking for this time. I was stoked!

Not totally sure what happened to this one. I think maybe some sugar and butter clumps that didn't get mixed all the way in and blew out during baking. I've never had this happen before but hey that's what LOTS of frosting is for. Cover up the oops!

For the filling I used my peanut butter frosting that I use for my chocolate peanut butter cupcakes instead of the same peanut butter mixture that I used in the tagalongs. It's a bit creamier and easier to pipe into cupcakes. I made a big batch because I am going to be making some cupcakes in the near future with them per request. So stay tuned you will see this frosting again in a few days.

Filled using my Wilton Bismark tip ( with a couple this time so I wouldn't have any mishaps like I did with my Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes)

I added a little round of the peanut butter on top because well one can't have too much peanut butter frosting

I have 3 chocolate frosting recipes in my file but I wanted more of a chocolate fudge taste to match the Tagalong chocolate coating so I took two of my recipes and combined but then tweaked again and came up with this one. Cocoa whisked together with powdered sugar and meringue powder

It doesn't look very dark but once it was mixed into the butter and vanilla it turned dark brown

Really tasty. I am happy with how this came out

My favorite tip for piping on those pretty swirls. This is a MUST have for any baker/decorator. I have probably 5 of them in my decorating kit. I have a few others that are giant open star tips or my 1M's on steroids ha ha

Pretty 1M swirl

I was really happy with how my swirls came out and almost didn't want to shove a cookie in them to squish it but since these are Tagalong cupcakes I just HAD to decorate with one of the homemade Tagalongs that I made

A cookie on a cupcake. Does it get much better than that??

My husband INSISTED on taste testing one...

He said it was "Damn good"  I'll take it. 

Yellow Cupcakes Recipe

From Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski

Makes 12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp

2 large eggs, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup whole milk

Directions:

Position rack in middle of oven, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard 12 cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In another bowl using an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and then add the vanilla and beat until just combined. Add the flour in three additions alternating with the milk. Don't wait for the flour mixture to be mixed in before adding the milk. You want the flour to be just barely combined. Scrape down the sides and then beat on medium -high speed just until no traces of flour remain about 30 seconds. Do not over beat.

Distribute evenly into the 12 cups, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or the top springs back when gently pressed. About 17-20 min. Let the cupcakes cool in pan for 5 minutes then take out of pan and transfer to wire rack to cool completely before filling and frosting, About an hour.

Peanut Butter Filling/Frosting Recipe

Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes and fill probably 100. ha ha

Ingredients:

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) unsalted butter softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter ( you can use crunchy for frosting but not for filling. Chunks of peanuts might get stuck in the piping tip) also use regular peanut butter like Skippy don't use natural peanut butter.

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup or so whipping cream

Directions:

Cream together the butter and peanut butter until well mixed together. You can use a deep bowl with a hand electric mixer or a stand mixer. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. So you don't have powder sugar flying all over the place. Add the vanilla and mix well. Then add the cream slowly a little bit at a time until you get the consistency that you want or think is good for piping. I think I use a little more than 1/4 cup

Chocolate Fudge ButterCream Frosting Recipe

Makes enough to frost 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter room temp ( 2 sticks)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 lb ( 4 cups) powdered sugar 

2 tsp meringue powder

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

4-5 tbsp whipping cream

4 ounces of semi sweet chocolate melted and cooled. Use Baker's chocolate squares or a baking bar NOT chocolate chips/morsels

Directions:

In a separate bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and meringue powder, set aside.

Cream the butter til light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while. Add the vanilla and beat on med-high until mixed in.  Mix in  one third of the powdered sugar cocoa mixture on low until mixed in then add 1-2 tbsp of the cream and beat on high until well incorporated. Repeat until all of the powdered sugar cocoa mixture has been added but no more than 5 tbps of cream has been added. Mix on high stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the melted and cooled chocolate and beat on medium until light and fluffy. This is a pretty thick frosting and holds up well when piped. You can add more whipping cream to thin out a little but not too much. If you want a ganache type glaze then well this isn't the recipe for you. I do have a ganache recipe but I'm not posting it here right now. 

Just in case you forgot what it looks like when all finished since this is such a long post!