Our intern, Sarah, returns to college in a few weeks. We adore her, and will sincerely miss her in the office. These cookies & cream cupcakes are for her farewell tomorrow; she’s an Oreo fan, so what better way to send her off than with an Oreo-inspired cupcake? 

A word about this frosting, other than the fact that it probably has about 8,239 calories in it; the more Oreo crumbs you add, the tougher it gets to pipe. The original recipe (there are tons of them online) called for about 6 crushed Oreos, but that didn’t seem like enough to me, so I doubled it. I’m glad I did, even though it meant having to frost these cupcakes by hand, which wasn’t the look I’d intended. They taste amazing though, and that’s really all that matters.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

For the frosting

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 18 Oreo Double Stuf cookies, divided
• 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; this recipe makes 13-15 cupcakes, depending on how much batter you place in each well. Take 12 Oreo cookies and crush them into crumbs; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-blended, then make three wells for the wet ingredients.

Place vinegar, vanilla, and vegetable oil into the wells; add water and mix until the batter is smooth. The mixture will bubble up slightly when you add the water, so just keep mixing until you get a smooth consistency in the batter, which will be fairly thin.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill cupcake wells about half full. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, beat butter and powdered sugar on low speed until the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter. Beat in vanilla, Oreo crumbs, and 2 tablespoons heavy cream; add more if needed to make a smooth consistency that’s not too stiff, or it’ll be difficult to spread.

Frost cupcakes by hand – I didn’t have any luck piping this because the Oreo crumbs can get stuck in frosting tips. Cut remaining Oreos in half and add one half to each cupcake if serving immediately; if not, add garnish just before you serve them so the cookies don’t get soggy from the buttercream. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.