Father's Day "Death by Oreo Cupcakes"

I wasn't planning on baking cupcakes this weekend considering I am due any day now with our second daughter, but I realized it was fathers day or as I like to call it "baby daddy day" and I just HAD to make something. I have an ever growing list of cupcakes to make and I have been wanting to make oreo cupcakes for a while now. I have seen oreo cakes and cupcakes recently in ads and blogs so maybe this is a popular recipe for fathers day. Either way I wanted to make them. I took my chocolate cupcake recipe, used dark cocoa powder instead of regular, put an oreo at the bottom of the cupcake and frosting with quite possibly the yummiest frosting ever, swiss meringue butter cream with oreo cookie crumbs mixed in. Topped off with a few mini oreos and Voila! "death by Oreos cupcakes" .  I was going to fill them with the frosting too but decided to just top each one with a GIANT swirl of the buttercream. I got a little carried away and had to scrape some off the ones that had a little too much and try to redo so they all got frosted equally. I still had 4 left over and not much frosting left so they got blobs instead of swirls. Still tasted JUST as good. I think next time I would put some batter down then the oreo because as we took the liners off the oreo wasn't stuck to the bottom of the cupcake it fell away. All in all though these were really really yummy and I will make again!!

I went with a two bowl method for these instead of using my stand mixer. I was being lazy and sometimes I really hate washing my mixer bowl and beater blades. 

Using the dark chocolate cocoa powder instead of regular gave these cupcakes a richer flavor and a darker chocolatey color. hmmm yummy

I couldn't get it in the picture very well but I LOVE the oreo package says how many POUNDS of cookies it contains not the actual number of cookies inside. Gotta love Nabisco 

 I carefully twisted the cookies so I placed one half down with the filling inside each liner and saved the other half for the frosting. Okay so maybe I wasn't that careful and a few broke and I ate them - but most made it in. ha ha

Mixing the eggs til they are slightly thickened and more pale in color

Adding in the dry ingredients

So yummy. LOVE this recipe!

Filling the tins. With the oreo at the bottom one scoop of batter seemed to be a little TOO much but I still filled them all the same any way. I ended up with 30 cupcakes this time instead of 27-28. I made 6 without oreos on the bottom to save for another time. Always great to have a few cupcakes stashed in the freezer for an impromptu dessert or practice a decorating style on.

You can see these are pretty full. The batter is super dark. Yes I spray my tins with cooking spray because I have had the cupcakes spill out during baking and stick to the pans and then when I tried to remove the  tops tore off. So better safe than sorry I guess

This time they just puffed up pretty high, didn't spill over.

Yummy chocolaty goodness

I pureed about 12 whole oreos and a few of the tops for the crumbs to be mixed into the frosting

I started with a basic vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and added in the oreo crumbs once it was all mixed together 

Love the little flecks of cookie crumbs

Giant swirls of frosting

I used my massive ateco tip that I call my wilton 1m on steroids piping tip

Yummy

Here is one with the blob of frosting since I didn't have enough left to swirl

And of COURSE one cut in half to see the oreo. These cupcakes are super moist so I was OK with not filling them. Normally I fill them to break up ALL that cake with just the blob of frosting on top and in case they are a little dry the filling helps. But these didn't really need the filling. 

Oreo Cupcake Recipe

MY chocolate cupcake recipe with a few changes

Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever

Makes 28 -30

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (dark chocolate cocoa powder like Hersheys)

2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate melted and cooled (cooled for about 15 min make sure its still melted though don’t want it to harden back up)
½ cup plus 1 tbsp water, heated to boiling ( have a kettle of water on the stove boiling ready to go)
3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs room temp
2 tablespoons vinegar (not wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon vanilla

1 package of regular sized Oreo cookies and one package of mini Oreo cookies

 Instructions

This can be done with a stand mixer or by hand with a hand mixer or whisk but it is more of a 2 bowl method than one if going the hand mixing route

1. Preheat oven to 350F with rack in the center.
2. Place paper baking cups in regular sized muffin tins, spray edges around 

cups lightly with cooking spray. If you have a small 6 cup muffin tin and you only

get 27 or 28 cupcakes fill the rest of the wells halfway with water and no baking

cup

3. Carefully twist off one side of the oreo and place the half with the cream filling down, filling side up in the bottom of each liner
4. Whisk together the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt)

in a large bowl.
5. In a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer whisk eggs till slightly thickened and a pale

color

6. Add in the milk, vanilla, oil and vinegar and whisk/beat well

7. Add in the melted and cooled chocolate and whisk/beat until combined well
8. Either add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients OR the wet into the flour and mix

just to combine. Add in the boiling water and mix again just to combine. Scrape

down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the dry ingredients are

incorporated
9. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way with batter. You will have more than 24 cupcakes this way so if you don't have another tin or even a 6 cup tin, keep the remaining batter set aside and bake  the rest after the first batch comes out of the oven

10. Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and free

 of crumbs or the cupcake tops bounce back when lightly pressed. Mine baked for

18 minutes.

11. Let cool for 5 min in pans and then remove carefully to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting

Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 5 cups

• 5 large egg whites
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
• 1 1/2  tsp teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• oreo cookie crumbs ( 12-14 whole oreos, pulse in food processor until you get very fine crumbs, no big pieces left)

Directions

1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don't worry if the butter cream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla, and beat just until combined.
4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the low speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. 
5. Add in the oreo cookie crumbs and beat to incorporate
6. If using buttercream within several hours, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature in a cool environment. Or transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator, up to 3 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature, and beat on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 minutes.
7. I personally DON'T switch to the paddle attachment, I keep it on the whisk. Never noticed any difference and then its less attachments to clean up. ha ha 
8.  This makes enough to GENEROUSLY pipe frosting on to 24 cupcakes or maybe a little more less on 30. It will probably spread onto 40 cupcakes if going the spatula route.