Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I'm really excited for it to be a 3 day weekend but it is so bittersweet since come Tuesday, I'm going to have my first middle schooler. It is so cliché but I don't even know where the time has gone. Looking at Zachary grow into such a wonderful young man has been a delight of my life. He is so tall that I am literally looking straight across to him because he is the same height as I am and I know soon he will be surpassing me.  But enough mushy stuff, let's talk about Cookies and Cream Cupcakes!

Look at these babies... Are you drooling?

These actually were really easy to make and I found this awesome recipe on Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Cake:
1 box Duncan Hines White Cake Mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup water
3 eggs
24 whole Oreos

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tins with liners.
Place an Oreo in the bottom of each liner.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, melted butter, and water. Mix on low speed for one minute. Increase speed to high and beat for a minute more. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for about 20 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.
While cupcakes are baking, make your filling.
Filling:
13 oz jar Marshmallow Creme
1 stick salted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
In a large bowl, beat Marshmallow Creme, butter, heavy cream and vanilla on medium low until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and increase speed to medium high and beat for about a minute. Refrigerate filling until cupcakes are done baking and cooled.
Once cupcakes are cooled completely, remove filling from the refrigerator and fill the cupcakes. Because I don't keep pastry bags on hand I used a ziplock bag and cut a hole in one of the corners then filled the bag, squirting the filling into the holes I cut in the tops of the cupcakes. (I use the same method for the frosting, cutting a bigger hole for the frosting the come out of)

Frosting:
4 sticks salted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 cups powdered sugar
15 Oreos, crushed VERY FINELY
In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter, cream, and vanilla on medium-low until smooth and well-combined. Slowly add powdered sugar. Once powdered sugar is barely mixed in, increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. Add crushed Oreos.

Frost tops of cupcakes using method above.

Store uneaten cupcakes in the refrigerator. - They will melt otherwise. (trust me!)

YUM! These cupcakes were so delicious however they were extremely rich! The day I made them I sent some home with my sister in law, my dad and sent a few to my friend next door to get them out of the house quicker because I didn't want to eat them all!

Also, I felt I was pretty generous with the frosting and filling but I only used about HALF of what this recipe made! Maybe I wasn't as generous as I thought, but I couldn't imagine adding more! So I actually took the rest and put the filling and frosting in their own freezer bags and froze the rest so I can make these again soon and use the leftovers, so I guess it all worked out!


Happy Friday everyone. I hope you have a wonderful three day weekend. What are your plans?