Why keep cookies and cupcakes separate when you can combine them into these delicious Cookies and Cream Cupcakes! A soft, airy chocolate cupcake topped with cloud-like cookies and cream whipped frosting creates the ultimate cookies and cream dream!
What are Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
If I’m being honest, cookies and cream is not my go-to flavor. One time, I was in charge of bringing dessert and I didn’t have enough time to make my own, so I grabbed some from the grocery store. When I say, these were some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever had, it’s no exaggeration!
These cupcakes were so soft, like velvet on the inside with the lightest, airy whipped frosting. They were life-changing basically!
This is my take on that delicious heavenly cupcake! I wanted to keep some of my favorite key components of these cupcakes: soft cupcake, airy frosting, and the perfect balance of cookies and cream flavor!
Which brings me to my next topic: creating the perfect chocolate cupcake!
Chocolate Cupcake Conundrum
I have a few different chocolate cake recipes on my website already (Hello, Mini Chocolate Cake)! But for this recipe I wanted to create a whole new recipe to make these cupcakes a soft, chocolatey cupcake that just melts in your mouth. I wanted it to be like biting into a cloud with no resistance, just soft deliciousness.
There’s a few crucial things I changed to create this recipe:
- I added mayonnaise. Before you shut that down, give me a chance to explain myself! If you look at what the ingredients of mayo is, it’s basically eggs and oil. Adding that to the cake just increases the moisture level and creates a softer cake.
- Next I added half brown sugar and half sugar instead of all granulated sugar. Brown sugar is a mixture of sugar and molasses, which again, adds to the moisture of the cake!
- Then, I bumped up the amount of cocoa powder I added to the cake! I really wanted that rich chocolate flavor to come through!
- Finally, I added some cornstarch to create enhance the crumb texture of the cake.
All in all, I love the new texture of this cake! It’s so moist (sorry if you hate that word!), with a delicate texture that I’m absolutely obsessed with!
Frosting Tips
Whipped cream frosting is one of my favorite types of frosting! I used to ask for it on all of my birthday cakes growing up!
Whipped cream frosting has a light, airy texture that melts in your mouth! The one downside to this frosting is that it doesn’t hold it’s shape for long. If you pipe swirls with buttercream, they’ll stay forever (provided it’s kept in a temperature regulated area!). However, whipped frosting will slowly deflate the longer it sits.
In order to create a more stiff whipped cream frosting, I like to add a package of instant pudding! Not only does the pudding add delicious flavor, but it helps the whipped frosting keep it’s structure a little bit more! For this recipe, I used white chocolate instant pudding because I love white chocolate and also to keep the color of the frosting bright white! However, you could also use vanilla pudding or even chocolate pudding if you wanted!
Ingredient List
- Flour
- Cornstarch
- Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Cocoa Powder
- Oil
- Eggs
- Mayo
- Milk
- Vinegar
- Water
- Vanilla Extract
Frosting:
- Heavy Cream
- Powdered Sugar
- White Chocolate Instant Pudding
- Vanilla Extract
- Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
This is definitely one of my longer ingredient list! Insert nervous emoji here! But I promise you it’s worth it for the softest chocolate cupcakes ever!
When you get one bite of the light and airy chocolate cupcake with the whipped cookies and cream frosting, you’ll be a believer!
Cheers!
-Holly Michelle
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
- 1/4 cup Oil
- 2 Eggs
- 1/4 cup Mayo
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1/2 cup Water warm
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Frosting:
- 2 cups Heavy Cream
- 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 package White Chocolate Instant Pudding
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Chocolate Sandwich Cookies crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Pour milk and vinegar together and let set.
- In a bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, cornstarch, and both sugars. Stir everything together.
- In a separate bowl, combine milk mixture with eggs, oil, mayo, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
- When the mixture is halfway mixed, add in the warm water.
- Once everything is fully mixed, use a medium sized cookie scoop to scoop the batter into cupcake liners, about 2/3's of the way full.
- Bake for about 18-22 minutes, then let cool.
- While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting.
Making the Frosting.
- Crush up chocolate sandwich cookies until you get about a cup of cookie crumbs.
- Add heavy cream to a bowl, and mix on medium speed until you get soft peaks.
- Add in vanilla, powdered sugar, and pudding mix.
- Whip for another minute.
- Add in cookie crumbs and use a spatula to fold in gently.
- Add frosting to a large piping bag and pipe a large dollop on top of the cupcakes.
- Add a few more cookie crumbs and enjoy!