High Altitude Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (Oreo Vanilla Cupcakes)
Cookies and cream cupcakes made with a soft, buttery vanilla cake speckled with crushed Oreos and a whole Oreo on the bottom, frosted with Oreo cookie buttercream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment
- Cupcake Pan + Paper Liners
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 18-24 whole Oreos or chocolate sandwich cookies
- 3 Oreos, frosting removed, finely crushed
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp cake flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg white only
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp meringue powder
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp milk, only if needed for desired consistency
- 4 Oreos, frosting removed, finely crushed
- extra Oreos for garnish
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and line two standard muffin/cupcake pans with paper liners.Place the whole Oreos in the bottom of the liners and set aside.
- Scrape the frosting out of 3 Oreos, and use a food processor to finely crush just the cookies. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, buttermilk, melted butter, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk for 10-15 seconds until well combined.
- Briefly fold in the crushed cookies, being careful not to over-mix. You should have streaks of crumbs, but if you mix them in too much, your cake batter will turn gray.
- Scoop the batter on top of the cookies in the pan, being careful not to over fill the cups. Usually, you'd use about 1/4 cup of cake batter per cup when making cupcakes, but the whole Oreos take up some of the room, so you may only need about 1/8 cup or a little more batter per cup. Fill them no more than 2/3-3/4 full.
- Bake on the center oven rack for about 17-20 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for several minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt and mix until combined.
- Add the vanilla and beat on medium speed for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Add the milk only if needed for desired consistency.
- Gently fold in the crushed Oreos, taking care not to over-mix, or the frosting will turn gray.
- Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes, and decorate with whole or crushed Oreos.
Notes
Leftover cupcakes should be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
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