Cookies and Cream Cupcakes.....

There are a lot of things that are great about being a kid. Someone tucking you into bed each night, for example. Someone else doing all the cooking and shopping. Hanging out with your friends all day at school. And having absolutely no qualms about healthy eating. Hell, if left to their own devices, most kids would subsist exclusively on ice cream, chocolate and whizzfizz. So, with four kids in tow last weekend, I let my daughter pick which cupcakes we would make. (What do you expect me to do? It was four against one). She of course picked the wickedest looking cupcakes in the book to make while the cousins were here.

I am not going to pretend that they had any redeeming qualities beyond being delicious, and looking very pretty in my cupcake wrappers. However, if you look at it from a kids point of view, these cupcakes contain two of the major food groups: biscuits and cake. So why not?

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

adapted from "500 Cupcakes" by Fergal Connolly

250 g unsalted butter, softened

250g caster sugar

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

10 crushed oreos or similar biscuits

for the icing:

375g icing sugar, sieved

225 g unsalted butter, softened

salt

10 crushed oreos or similar biscuits

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line cupcake tins with 18 paper cases. Combine all ingredients except the crushed biscuits in a mixer bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale (2-3 mins). Stir in biscuits. Spoon the batter into cases. Bake for 20 mins. When cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 mins, then remove to a baking sheet and cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the icing sugar, butter, and salt with an electric whisk. Spread icing onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle biscuits on top.