Oreo Cupcakes – Third time is a charm!
First things first. Cupcake Camp Boston is tomorrow night. If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to stop by. We’re expecting about 2000 cupcakes and who knows how many people…
Now on to the cupcakes. This is by far Hubby’s favorite cupcake and my #1 requested cupcake to make. They’re pretty freaking amazing.
You might remember that I’ve actually made Cookies N Cream cupcakes twice before. Both recipes were a bit different but still delicious. I took my favorite parts of each on and combined them into an awesome Oreo Cupcake recipe.
Since developing this recipe last summer, I’ve probably made these five times. I never repeat recipes, so that’s definitely saying something. I just never got around to photographing the cupcakes to post on here. Until this spring. I’m going to be an aunt in a couple weeks and my sister-in-law requested these cupcakes. I happily obliged and made a point to take the pictures.
As I mentioned, this recipe combines our favorite aspects of the two recipes tried previously. You start with half of an Oreo at the bottom of the cupcake. I always twist the Oreo gently so that all the cream filling sticks to one cookie so you get that layer of cream in the bottom of your cupcake.
I take the tops of the Oreos that have no cream on them and cut some in half for garnishing. The rest get crushed, also for garnishing.
The part I love about the first recipe that I’ve tried is the made from scratch batter. This batter is amazing even before you pour in the Oreo pieces. And while we’re on the topic of those Oreo pieces… I cut mine fairly large. Actually, Hubby likes to do the cutting for me. He stacks them really tall and uses a super sharp knife to cut through the whole stack at once. He cuts them into quarters for me. I toss the quarters Oreos in a bit of flour so they don’t all sink to the bottom. I like having the big chunks as opposed to crushing them. It really enhances the Oreo flavor and adds some texture to the cupcakes.
For the frosting, I have tried out a variety of flavors. The one that I like best is just a simple cream cheese frosting. With the garnish of the crushed Oreo and the half Oreo, you still have plenty of Oreo flavor in every bite
Oreo Cupcakes
These Oreo cupcakes will knock your socks off!
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour, plus 2 Tbsp for the Oreo chunks
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 pkg Oreo Cookies (~45 cookies)
double batch of cream cheese frosting
Directions:
For the Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
Twist apart 24 Oreos. Place the wafer with filling on it, filling side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Cut other wafers in half. Save 24 halves to place in the frosting. Crush the other wafer halves, also for garnishing.
Cut the remaining Oreo cookies into quarters with a sharp knife. Toss with 2 Tbsp flour and set aside.
In a large bowl cream the butter until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla and mix to combine.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until integrated. Stir in sugar. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat for 30 seconds. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites. Beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in the quartered cookies.
Fill the cupcake lines three-quarters full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.
Assemble the cupcakes
Once cupcakes have cooled completely, frost with cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle with crushed Oreos and place 1/2 of an Oreo on the frosting of each cupcake.
Recipe from Beantown Baker
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Instant kill for salmonella is 160 degrees so please be safe and heat your egg whites to that temp. It only takes a couple more minutes to be safe. I am shocked that epicurious printed this recipe at only 140.
Almost all swiss meringue buttercream call for it to be heated to 140. Unlike the yolks, the whites have a Ph level that is too high to sustain salmonella. I am certified for food safety/handling.
Dear Terry-
Educate yourself before giving advice. Eggs whites beaten with sugar are denatured by the sugar, making them perfectly safe to eat. There is no need to heat them except where the recipe calls for it. Stop being an online fear monger.
Source: Any high school chemistry class
Hi,
I’m very curious about SMBC and would like to try it. Do you think it will work with a hand mixer? Kindly advise. Thank you. 🙂
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:04 pm
I have never used a hand mixer to make it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how it turns out if you do try it.
Jen – have you ever tried a cream cheese Swiss meringue frosting? Other recipes seem similar to this, although the best looking ones I saw in a quick search were in metric units (grams), which seemed confusing. They seem to follow a similar procedure, but adding chunks of cream cheese after the butter is fully incorporated. Considering giving this recipe a whirl (so to speak!) by substituting Hal the butter w/ cream cheese, but was curious whether you thought that nigh work. Thanks.
beantownbaker — June 16th, 2013 @ 1:01 pm
I have never heard of cream cheese SMBC. But I love both frostings, so a combination of the two sounds devine. I think your approach could work. Definitely let me know how it turns out!
I tried your Swiss meringue buttercream today. It was amazing! I had no problem with it at all, except that I didn’t have a candy thermometer. (Oops!) However, I did use a meat thermometer, to get an estimate. I heated the egg-sugar mixture until it was hot to the touch, and there was no sugar crystals when I rubbed my two fingers together. It turned out fine. I beat the egg whites until it was ribbon-like. So yummy! I’m about to frost some vanilla cupcakes with it.
beantownbaker — June 25th, 2013 @ 5:38 pm
So glad you didn’t have any problems with this recipe!
I want to frost the cake well before the party. Should I store the frosted cake in the fridge? Will it hold up overnight? Thanks in advance for your insight!
beantownbaker — August 22nd, 2013 @ 2:38 pm
I would store it in the fridge overnight, then let it come to room temperature for about an hour before serving. This frosting gets a little too firm in the fridge for me, so I always let it come to room temp before eating.
I tried your SMBC with a hand mixer.. and it turned out great. However I only put half of the butter as to what the recipe calls due to lack of butter at home.. It still tasted buttery though and still yummy. anyways thanks for this. Will make this for sure next time!
beantownbaker — November 24th, 2013 @ 5:54 pm
Glad to hear this worked out for you.
I just found this post and gave it a try. I wondered, do you use this only as a frosting to cup cakes or would you also use it as a substitute for ganache and does it set up under fondant. TIA
beantownbaker — February 23rd, 2014 @ 8:45 pm
I haven’t used it under fondant. If you do try it, let me know how it goes.
Hi:
Wondering if it work if I don’t use the paddle, (which I don’t have one) my mixer only comes with wire whip? Do you have any idea or suggestion on how can I give a grey/silver colour to the buttercream?
Thanks.
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:52 pm
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work… For the coloring, I’d get some gel food coloring for the frosting. Hope it goes well for you!
Tried this recipe for the first time a few days ago, I was so sick of gloppy oversweet and gritty “American” style buttercream and needed a change. This recipe was very easy to follow, I also did not have a candy thermometer, but the first time I made it just using the sight and touch method, worked flawlessly, the second time I made it, just yesterday I used an IR non-contact thermometer and it worked out just as well. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe, it tastes delicious and is extremely user friendly. I have received so many compliments on it. Thank you so much for sharing!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:02 pm
So glad you enjoyed this recipe. I agree, American buttercream can just be too sweet. I love making this Swiss meringue buttercream.
Hi! I started using SMBC recently so have made it only 5 times. The first two times it worked like a charm. The other 3 times it was a flop. I live at 5500′ feet so in order to get the egg whites and sugar to 170 degrees F, I cooked it for about 15 mins until the egg whites were sticking to the side of the bowl. Could this be the reason the egg whites didn’t double?
Would really appreciate some help in ‘conquering’ this problem!!
Thanks!
This really looks lovely!
Can i color or add tint to this? Which should I use, oil based food color, gel, or will any food color do? I’d love to try this! Thank ahead 😀
can you double this if you were doing a bigger cake or more cupcakes??