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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!
wooo, I wanna eat those. hahahaha, the cookie looks so good. Im gonna ask my mon to bake this. :D
Kimi-
Thanks for visiting!
-Jamie
does the expresso beans give the cupcake flavor? because i do not like the taste of coffee and was wondering if you could tell if it was present in the cupcakes and if so, is there a substitute?
Hi Madeline,
You can’t taste the espresso. It simply enhances the chocolate flavor.
– Jamie
I just made these and they’ve been cooking for 30- minutes and the cookie dough inside is still not cooked. Did anyone else have that problem?
I used a small spoon to pull batter over the cookie dough before putting them into oven. It seemed to slove the dent in the cupcake problem! Good luck all! Yum!!
I was thinking of making this in my food tech lesson, but i don’t know how long this will take and i only have 1h to make and prep them.
I would love to make these but the recipe is gone from your site. Can you re-post or send it to me please? Thanks
never mind I found it. It’s been a LONG day! :)
so the dough doesnt need to be frozen into balls prior to baking ?
Nope! They’re just fine as fresh dough. If your kitchen is exceptionally warm, you might want to chill them first.
– Jamie
Hi there, I must try these, they look delicious. I hope you don’t mind but I have put a link to this recipe on our blog – http://www.smileyculture.com/massive-chocolate-chip-smiley-cookie/
Thanks again – these look amazing!!
Oh gosh, its my kinda heaven! I love cookies…. and I love cupcakes , so this little delight is the one for me! They look absolutely amazing and you have done a fantastic job at making my mouth water!! I can’t wait to try theses ones myself!!!
Sarah-
You must try them…then come back and let us know what you think :). Have a fantastic day and thank you so much for following MBA!
-Jamie