:: Chocolate Chip Oreo Cupcakes!

I had spotted these on tastespotting.com a few months ago and have been craving them ever since.  My brother and I were a little bit obsessed with Oreo cookies when we were kids.  They only arrived on Ireland’s green shores in the late 90’s commercially, so they quickly became the coolest thing to have in your school lunchbox at the time!  We were banned from eating them when my mother realised we were addicted after catching us devouring a whole box in one go.  When she couldn’t see our teeth because of the black biscuit she never bought them again!

Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip Oreo Cupcakes

This is my aunt Erica’s cupcake recipe and it could not be easier to make.  You can easily adapt this recipe to make a regular plain cupcake mixture also, simply remove the cocao powder and chocolate chips from the ingredient list.

Makes approximately 8 cupcakes.
175g of self raising flour.
110g of soft margarine or butter.
110g of caster sugar.
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
1 teaspoon of baking powder.
2 large eggs.
50g of good quality chocolate chips.
50ml of water/milk.

For the Oreo Cream frosting:
250ml of fresh cream.
25g of icing sugar.
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
8 oreo cookies, crushed.

Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a cupcake tray with paper cases.
In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips.  Make a well in the center of the bowl and break in the 2 eggs.  Using an electric hand mixer beat all the ingedients together until combined.  Add in half the milk/water and beat again until combined.  You are looking for the batter to be light and creamy.  Add the rest of the liquid if you need it you may not.
Divide the batter evenly into the paper cases and place in an oven for 15-20 minutes or until firm and light brown on top.
Allow to cool on a wire rack before applying the oreo cream.

For the Oreo frosting, simply beat the cream, vanilla extract, and icing sugar until it becomes thick.  Gently fold in the oreo cookie crumbles and spoon the mixture into an icing bag with a large round nozzle.  Squeeze the oreo cream onto the cupcakes and top with broken cookies.