Oreo Cupcakes

And so my cupcake obsession continues....

I stumbled across an awesome post for oreo cupcakes, and it had a picture of the cupcake from the bottom, and you could see the oreo cookie peeking through the wrapper and my mouth started to water, but alas, I did not bookmark the post (don't you just hate it when that happens?).

 So I had this idea for oreo cupcakes in my head, and had a packet of oreos in the cupboard (bought specially), but no recipe. So I googled it and wow! It seems like there are lots of oreo cupcakes floating around. Clearly I had been oblivious to what everyone else in the blogosphere already knew and loved.

But none of them was THE post. And all of them had eggs in it. And I didn't have eggs. Or, more to the point I didn't have enough eggs to make the cupcakes and make the lovely scrambled egg burritos I saw over at Chaos In The Kitchen.

I needed an egg-less chocolate cupcake recipe. And I knew just where to find one of those - Love & Olive Oil. I love that blog, really I do. And for the frosting, I based it on this recipe, also Love & Olive Oil. And no, I'm not a spokesperson for them. The almond essence seems to really bring out the chocolatey-ness in the cupcakes, which manages to be dark & delicious even without the eggs. Which is a bonus, since really, I don't often have eggs on hand. But I always have oil. Jackpot!

My husband proclaimed these as the 2nd best cupcakes I've made him so far (Chai Cupcakes still firmly in the lead), so I'm fairly sure you won't be disappointed if you try these.

Oreo Cupcakes
Loosely based on these cupcakes & this frosting from Love & Olive Oil
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
12 Oreos

For the icing:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup icing (confectioners’) sugar
2 tablespoons milk
4 Oreos, crushed (if you have more, add them, I only had 4 left in the pack, so that's what I added)

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Line muffin pan with paper liners and place an oreo cookie in the bottom of each liner.
2. Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
3. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract to the milk mixture and beat till foamy.
4. Add dry ingredients and beat until no lumps remain. Using a spring-loaded ice-cream scoop, divide batter equally between the liners (one scoop each).
5. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before icing.
6. For the icing - cream the butter, add the milk and mix until combined. Add the crushed Oreos, icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix well, until all the icing sugar is incorporated into the wet ingredients.
7. Spread/pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate with an extra dusting of icing sugar or some more Oreos (if you have).


Nutritional info (per cupcake): Calories 302.4 Total Fat 15.2 g Saturated Fat 4.3 g Polyunsaturated Fat 5.7 g Monounsaturated Fat 4.3 g Cholesterol 12.1 mg Sodium 187.1 mg Potassium 73.3 mg Total Carbohydrate 45.1 g Dietary Fiber 1.5 g Sugars 23.5 g Protein 2.8 g