Oreo Cupcakes

 Welcome to my new cooking blog! I have been trying out a lot of new recipes lately and have decided I might as well blog about them. I am also working on getting better with my photography so bear with me on that!

My first recipe is for Oreo cupcakes. I made these cupcakes for a coworkers bridal shower. Everyone loved them! This was my first attempt at decorating cupcakes and all I have is an old cake decorating kit my mom gave me. I think it might be older than I am, I know she used it for my birthday cakes when I was very young. It gets the job done but I am hoping to purchase a new kit someday soon.

I have seen several recipes for Oreo cupcakes floating around the internet, but I decided to use this one from Lemons & Love with just a few changes. The main difference is that I decided not to fill them. I also adapted the frosting a little to fit my preferences more. I love that this recipe uses a cake mix and tweaks it to make it that much more yummy. I know homemade is supposed to be better, but I have yet to find a cake recipe that I actually like better than a mix

I will definitely be making these cupcakes again! I might change things up and use a white cake mix next time and I'd like to try a whipped cream frosting on these as well. Enjoy!

Cake Ingredients:
1 boxed chocolate cake mix, unprepared
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package Oreos, divided

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with paper liners (this recipe should make about 24 cupcakes). Carefully twist apart 24 Oreos and place one wafer filling-side up in each cupcake liner. Cut the remaining 24 wafers in half. Save 24 halves to top the cupcakes and crumble the remaining halves to use in the frosting. Crush the remaining Oreos to add to the cake batter. These can be as large or small as you want.

Mix together cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Add crushed Oreos. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. The batter is pretty thick, so I tapped the pan on the counter a few times to distribute the batter evenly. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes (mine actually needed to bake for 22 minutes, but it seems I always have to bake things longer in my oven). Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:
2 1/3 sticks butter, softened (next time I will use less, the frosting had a very strong butter taste)
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:
Beat butter with a mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix until sugar is moistened. Add vanilla and cream and mix until smooth. You can add more or less cream depending on how thick you want your frosting. Mix in crushed Oreos. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and top with an Oreo half.