Oreo Cupcakes

My daughter has a friend over tonight and I overheard them talking about Oreos. I decided it might be fun to make Oreo-inspired cupcakes.

The cupcake part is pretty easy, just take a standard chocolate cupcake recipe and replace the cocoa powder with black cocoa powder. Black cocoa powder is a little harder to find, but it transforms the flavor and will seriously remind you of Oreos.

My taste-testers gave it rave reviews.

Make the cupcakes and while they're cooling, make the frosting.

Here's a simple cupcake recipe if you don't have one you like:

Ingredients:
1.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 TBS black cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp Mexican vanilla (regular works too, but use this if you have both)
1 tsp vinegar (apple cider or white)
5 TBS canola oil
1 cup cold water

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with liners. In a large mixing bowl, mix all dry ingredients (flour through salt). Make three wells in the flour mixture. In one well, place the vanilla, in another, add the vinegar, and add the oil in the third. Pour the cold water over the whole thing, then stir until combined (no large lumps). Pour about 1/4 cup into each liner and bake for 20 minutes. It's done if you can insert a knife and it comes out dry.



Filling recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I like Spectrum)
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract (if you don't have it, regular will work)
1 TBS non-dairy milk (I used plain coconut beverage)
1/8 tsp salt

Instructions:

Beat the shortening until fluffy, about a minute. Then add 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and another 1/2 cup, and beat until incorporated. Finally, add the tablespoon of non-dairy milk, the salt, and the last 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and beat until thick and slightly fluffy. You may need to add a little more liquid to get the texture right, but it will remind you of Oreo filling.

Push a hole into each cupcake and place about 1/2 TBS of filling inside each hole. You could choose to scoop out a bit of each cupcake, but that's a total waste. Just push it aside and preserve the whole cupcake.  Serve with a side of extra filling.