Sunday, May 2, 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes: Happy Birthday Laura!

Want to know the best thing ever? Baking for fellow chocoholics. My best friend's (Melanie)  best friend (Laura) (aka my best friend by default) is turning the big 23 this week and I was told by Mel that if you were to give Laura a Funfetti cake with Funfetti icing she would ask you why you were wasting your time. I love that. I mean, I love Funfetti but I love my chocolate more. So, Mel and I were on the lookout for something truly worthy, and this is what we found.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes....(yeah, for real)

It is actually a really simple recipe. You could make it much more difficult but we took the semi-homemade (hay Sandra Lee HAYYY) way and made it much easier. So, c'mon in and take a looksie.

What ya need :
(I'll put what we did and in parenthesis will be variations to the recipe.. ours worked great though!)
Pre made chocolate chip cookie dough (option #1: make your own favorite cookie dough)
1 (18.25 oz) box of yellow cake mix (option #2: make your own favorite yellow cake batter)
1/3 cup applesauce (option #3: 1/3 cup of canola oil...we went the healthy route)
3 eggs (nope, just use eggs.)
Chocolate Chips 

For the frosting:
1 cup butter, softened (that's two sticks--don't use margarine, c'mon!)
4.5 cups confectioner's sugar
1.25 cups cocoa powder (we used Hershey's Dark)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

What ya do:
First and MOST importantly. Form the cookie dough into 24 balls (pretty small, less than an inch) and FREEZE IT UNTIL SOLID. Don't miss this step. It is vital. It takes a long time, so do it before you actually make the recipe and you'll save yourself a major headache.


Combine the cake mix, apple sauce and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Mix until well blended and smooth.

Add in chocolate chips (don't go too crazy; just enough to be evenly distributed)

Fill each cupcake tin about 2/3 full with the batter. Place one piece of frozen cookie dough in each of the tins.

There may be a little left over batter, but not much. Try to use most of it in the tins. The four on the left have the cookie dough in them. The four on the right are awaiting the goodness.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 16-20 minutes (check at 16), or until a toothpick comes out of the cake part clean. For this, don't stick it through the center of the cupcake because the cookie dough will ruin the perception of doneness. It's important not to overcook these because the cookie dough will bake and then dry it up. Let them cool!

Meanwhile, make your frosting.

In a large bowl, cream the butter.

Gradually beat in confectioners sugar, cocoa powder and enough milk until it reaches spreading consistency. We may have added too much milk-- but it tasted damn good!

Once frosting is made and cupcakes are cooled, dip each cupcake in the frosting. This made them so uniform and glazey. It looked so pretty! If so desired, let frosting set on cupcake and double dip...Yeah... wow.

Then, eat!

Kathryn enjoying her cupcake. At least she and Laura had just done a mud-run to "earn" these bad boys. Mel and I were just homemakers.

Laura. The birthday girl at her finest.

So good. Look at the center of that. It's cookie dough heaven. Yum.

Add some birthday flare, duh.

Yum. I keep finding better and better recipes. This one was so simple, but it seems like you put a lot of effort into it. Who needs effort when you have really great taste? Happy Eats!

6 comments:

Rick said...

I made those once! They are the best cupcakes ever! Almost better than funfetti.

The Chocolate Priestess said...

Looks great to me and the birthday girl looks pleased so that's all that matter.

Plus the chocolate, never forget the importance of the chocolate.

Laura Villarreal said...

These were SO awesome, thanks Jessie! Chocolate icing + cookie dough + chocolate chips + intense hunger = awesomeinmymouth

Unknown said...

Yummmmmm...
as you know im not much of a desert man, but these last too recipes look soooo good. you just may convert me!

Unknown said...

and by desert i mean dessert haha

The Duo Dishes said...

Good to know the cookie dough doesn't just melt and slide to the bottom. These look GOOD!