Today, I had brunch with a couple of friends from childhood and two of their own kids. It's so fun seeing little versions of your friends. I wanted to make a child-friendly dessert for brunch and felt inspired by the classic cookies and cream flavor. And they were a hit, with the adults and kids alike! For the cake, I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe from Paula Deen. For this version, I cut down the recipe by a third because I didn't need quite so many cupcakes. Even though the overall recipe is the same one I used for my Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes, I'm repeating it here with the reduced measurements. It's always safer to have the adjusted measurements written out before you start baking. That way, you won't forget to adjust an ingredient midway through and end up having to try to back track. (My new "Tips" post talks about this and other tips for adjusting recipes). The frosting is a classic buttercream with crushed up Oreos. It tastes pretty close to a scoop of cookies and cream ice cream! My favorite thing about that kind of ice cream is the big chunks of cookies mixed throughout. But the only downfall to those delicious bites in the frosting is that you can't pipe the frosting. The chunks of cookie will get stuck in the tip (even a larger round tip). The best method I found for making the frosting pretty was to use a cupcake/ice cream scoop to scoop on the frosting and then flatten it out slightly. And then top it with a mini Oreo. It makes for a lot of frosting, but I think this cupcake is all about the frosting anyway! Recipe |