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Semi-homemade meets a good cause-I’m so rocking Sandra Lee style today with a tub of school fund-raising cookie dough.
Some of you may be ready to click away, but do me a favor…keep reading because the end result it worth your time. I’m typically not a big fan of using premade cookie dough, but I am a fan of taking action when it comes to raising money for schools. Whether it’s stale popcorn, hideous wrapping paper or double chocolate chunk cookie dough, if it’s for a school, I’m writing a check!
So with a giant tub of cookie dough in one hand and my mixer primed for some action, the pre-made dough ends up being the surprise star in these adorable Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.
These glorious gems of chocolate goodness are topped with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting recipe, mini chocolate chips, and a cute little cookie. Not only did I top these Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes with a miniature cookie, I also baked a little ball of dough into their centers! As you can see from the photo, the cookie bakes up beautifully inside the cupcake and it almost takes on the fluffy texture of the cake that surrounds it. Genius, right? Well I certainly thought so, although I’m betting I’m not the first to have this cookie dough cupcake epiphany!
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso granules
1/2 cup warm water
For the Frosting
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
pinch of fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
Directions:
For the Cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine instant espresso granules and warm water, stirring until dissolved. Add espresso mixture to the cake batter and stir until fully incorporated.
3. Using a large cookie scoop, distribute the batter between 24 muffin wells; about 3 tablespoons of batter per well.
4. Measure .4 ounce balls of cookie dough (about 1 teaspoon) and drop a ball of dough into each cupcake. Be sure to use a spoon to completely cover the dough ball with batter.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Remove cupcakes from muffin tins and allow to fully cool on a wire rack. Once cupcakes are cool, prepare your frosting.
For the Frosting
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk. Blend on low speed until moistened. Add an additional 1 to 3 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
For the Garnish
1. Garnish your cupcakes with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and a mini chocolate chip cookie.
2. To make the mini cookies, I simply measured out 24 .4 ounce (about 1 teaspoon) balls of dough and baked them according to package directions (about 8-10 minutes). Allow mini cookies to cool completely before adding them to the cupcakes.
Notes:
- If you are choosing to garnish your cupcakes, make sure you do this immediately after you frost your cupcakes. Once the top layer of the buttercream hardens, nothing will stick to the frosting.
- If you do not have instant espresso powder, you can simply omit it from the recipe. You can typically find this product in the coffee aisle of most supermarkets.
Follow Jamie on Instagram. We love to see what you're baking from MBA! Be sure to tag @jamiemba and use the hashtag #mbarecipes!
made these today and they were wonderful! my favourite semihomemade cupcake recipe by far!
Hannah,
That’s wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for stopping back to let us know that you enjoy the recipe! Have a great day and thank you for following MBA!
Jamie
what brand of cupcake pan do you use?
Hi there,
I have a bunch of different pans, so couldn’t say specifically which was used for this recipe. Some of the ones I own are Chicago Metallics, Anolon, Baker’s Secret and Wilton.
– Jamie
Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe. I made it a few weeks ago and many people told me they were the best cupcakes they had ever had!!! I will definitely make these again and again.
Margaret-
Woo-Hoo! Thanks so much for reporting back, I am so happy to hear they were such a hit! Have a great weekend!
-Jamie
Hi!!! First of all, my name is Maite and I am from Spain. Congratulations for your web and for the cupcakes they look awesome!!I also love baking but the fact is that here in Spain we don’t measure things using cups, teaspoons or ounces and I don’t know their equalization to grams, could you please tell it to me??Thank you very much!!!
They look amaaaaazing! Just perfect. Im sure they taste as good as they look! Big compliment :)
I have made this recipe twice and it turned out great both times! It is so simple and everyone is always so amazed, thank you for sharing!
These look really good and you do a really good job explaining how to make them!!
Just made the cupcakes today…turned out great. I was a little worried at the thickness of the batter but have no fear…they turn out delicious. I used instant coffee because I couldn’t find espresso and still worked and tasted great. Super easy. I am making them for my husband to take to work… Huge it for sure!!
do you know how many cups 2 pounds of powdered sugar is? thanks and this recipe looks amazing! im going to make them tonight :)
Zaynub-
It’s about 7 1/2 cups. I’d start with about 5 1/2 cups and gradually work your way to the desired taste and texture.
-Jamie
This sure looks yummy. Thanks for sharing.