Cupcakes happen to be my favorite

So for my first posting I will share a recipe from howtoeatacupcake.
She seems to be a fairly nice young lady so I'm sure she wouldn't mind me sharing the recipe here as well.
I used a friend's birthday as an excuse to bake a massive number of Oreo cookies & cream cupcakes.
See, my husband doesn't exactly share my love for all things tooth achingly sweet so I don't really have a guinea pig to try recipes out on. I especially can't give them to my kids seeing as how they automatically turn into tiny tornadoes of terror at the slightest hint of sugar.
Therefore my friends have become subject to my baking.

Okay...I didn't think ahead enough to take pictures of all my ingredients & the whole process of putting these little wonders together, but on the original recipe I stole from she does all that for you.

and the recipe is as follows...

30 Oreo cookies
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream-she states in her blog that she lets her sour cream sit til it reaches room temperature so I did the same.
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract-I'm a lucky girl who has managed to obtain pure vanilla from Mexico. I like to open the bottle and smell it at random times throughout the day.

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.
2. Count out 12 Oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. Make sure each has some of the icing on it. Place one wafer, icing side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Set them aside. Place the remaining 18 Oreos between sheets of waxed paper or in a large, closed zipper-lock bag and crush them by rolling over them with a rolling pin. Set these crumbs aside.
(Okay...I got confused here because..and follow my train of thought here...this recipe was supposed to make 24 cupcakes, but she's only saying to use 12 oreos for the bottom of the cupcakes. Then the light went on and I realized that if you separate the 12 Oreos you will, in fact, have 24 cookies to place in the liners. Hello. My name is Vanessa and I'm a college dropout. )
3. Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 1/2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the crushed Oreos and fold these into the batter until well incorporated. Set aside the remaining crushed Oreos for the frosting. Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cup­cake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.
4. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cup­cakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your finger­tips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.
(I left mine in the liners. I have this obsession with cupcake liners, even if they're just the boring green and pink paper ones. I find them adorable and have considered stitching a dress together made of cupcake liners just for the hell of it.)

I also used her icing recipe, who she apparently got from Natalie of Bake and Destroy-who I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with. I mean..could she BE any cuter?


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
remaining crushed Oreos

Mix together butter, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt until it’s creamy. Increase your mixer speed to high and beat until its light and fluffy. Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat until its smooth. Fold in crushed Oreos. Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes.

(I thought the butter, sugar, and salt was going to turn into this creamy like substance, but no...I realized that light & fluffy meant a light & fluffy texture. It isn't going to look anything like icing yet, not until you put in the whipping cream. I told you, I'm a beginner, and I'd never made ice cream without the use of crisco before. Not only am I a college dropout, but I barely passed high school, okay)

Okay. Pictures of the finished product...







Now, you'll notice that they're a bit too brown.
This is due to the fact that my oven is a cantankerous bitch run off propane. I love cooking propane but I've found that baking with propane is a serious pain in the ass. I checked them at one point & they didn't seem quite done yet so I set my internal timer for a minute. ONE minute. Then I take the out to discover they've attained an ever so silghtly browned outer layer.

No one seemed to mind seeing as how the wonderful cavity inducing inside & frosting over powered the taste of the outside.

They were a hit and I am now a goddess. I believe the word "amazing" was mentioned once or twice.

So there you have it.

Oreo cookies & cream cupcakes=deliciousness.