Vanilla cupcake surprise

By now I have the Reese’s-inspired chocolate peanut butter bars and the chocolate chip cookie dough balls patiently sitting in the freezer, still awaiting their purpose in life.

And so am I. So am I.

But lucky for them, I came across this recipe for cookies and cream cupcakes by Annie's Eats. I was blown away - what beauties!

And since B loves oreo cheesecake (unfortunately for my hips, I love it too), why not oreo cupcakes?

It occurred to me to bake vanilla cupcakes with surprises inside – either the Reese’s peanut butter bars, chocolate chip cookie dough balls or the Oreos!

For the vanilla cupcake itself I used the batter from Annie's Eats, for the buttercream frosting I followed the one by BrowneyedBaker.

Vanilla cupcake with Surprise and Buttercream frosting

2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
8 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. I did this by hand for 15 minutes or so and pretend I am building muscle mass.
2. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add in the vanilla extract.
4. Stir in the flour and milk alternatively, stirring each time after addition until the ingredients are just incorporated.
5. Divide the batter into three parts.
6. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius.

(a) For the chocolate chip cookie dough surprise (with a third of the batter)

1. Add batter until the muffin case is half-full (In my case at least. You may have to see how big the size of your cookie dough balls are. The objective is to have the muffin case 3/4 full).
2. I'm too lazy to create a well for the cookie dough, so I followed recipes that didn't. Drop the frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake. There is no need to submerge it, it will drop into the batter as it bakes.

(b) For the chocolate peanut butter chunk surprise (with the next third of the batter)

1. Add batter until the muffin case is half-full.
2. Drop in chocolate peanut butter chunk on the top center of each cupcake.

(c) For Oreo surprise (with the last third of the batter)

1. Twist each Oreo cookie and set aside of one the biscuits. Place the Oreo half with the cream at the bottom of each muffin case with the cream side up.
2. For the Oreo halves with no cream, place in a Ziploc bag with some intact Oreo cookies and seal.
3. Pound everything with a pestle to create Oreo chunks.
4. Add the Oreo chunks into the batter and stir, but do not overmix.
5. Add the Oreo-filled batter in the muffin case on top of the oreo half with cream.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (make sure the toothpick is testing the batter, not the 'surprise' component) and allow to cool.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Using the wire whisk attachment of the stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice.
2. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. When all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and add the vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
3. Whip at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.
4. If you are me, you follow none of the directions above and use a salad fork to combine the ingredients haplessly until you cry out for mercy.

Then along came B, who was mer-ci-less. When he saw me making the frosting, he laughed and said it looked nothing like frosting because it seemed too solid. Full of shame, I then went to the kitchen to give it a tablespoon of milk (because some frosting recipes incorporate them).

Big mistake.

The pseudo-frosting became too runny. I don't blame it either. I would run away too if I was beaten by hand using a salad fork for half an hour.

BrowneyedBaker says you can store any unused buttercream in the refrigerator in an airtight container. When you want to use it, let it come to room temperature and then give it a quick whip in the mixer before using. As we know, the second sentence is completely and absolutely irrelevant to me, being sans-mixer, but I'll send the delinquent frosting to the fridge while I figure out what to do about a runny frosting.

The vanilla cupcakes with surprise turned out great! Unlike the frosting, they were very well-behaved and turned out as cupcakes should (bad frosting! bad, bad frosting!).

I made the cupcakes to give some away and stored them in the freezer in a Ziploc bag in an airtight container. I just recently found out that putting cakes in the fridge to store them is dehydrating for them (oops!). Just remember to thaw them out several hours before serving.

What would The Failed Chef do next time?

• Use less milk, if at all
• Add icing sugar only until piping consistency
• Concede that without a mixer, I should just use storebought frosting