Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting with Eat.Drink.Love

Are you ready for day two?  I warned you that there were some very good treats coming up this week.  For today we have Stephanie at Eat.Drink.Love.  Stephanie not only comes up with some genius ideas in the kitchen, she recently received her Ph.D. in Psychology.  Smart pants right?  This is one talented woman and the recipe shares today is a true example of that, Cupcakes...chocolate....cookie dough. I couldn't ask for a more delightful birthday treat.

Hello Life on Food readers! My name is Stephanie and I blog over at Eat. Drink. Love.! I’m so excited to be posting for Emily today. When she emailed me to ask if I would want to do a cake post for her birthday week, of course I said yes! First, my birthday is also coming up next week and secondly, um, it’s an opportunity to make cake! 

On my blog, I typically like to make healthier recipes, but I fully believe that you have to indulge on special occasions and a birthday is most definitely a special occasion! Today I have made some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting. Yes, chocolate chip cookie dough frosting.  And what I love most about these cupcakes is how easy they are to make! I don’t consider myself to be the best baker, so for the cake, I made my favorite doctored up cake mix recipe.  And for the cookie dough frosting, I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe and just left out the eggs. Seriously, the frosting is the best thing that has ever happened. Ever.  I want every cupcake I ever eat again to have this frosting! 

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

1 box devil’s food cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

½ cup milk

1 box instant chocolate pudding mix

1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

¾ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Milk (if needed to thin out the frosting)

Instructions:

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together until everything is well-combined, but try to avoid over-mixing the batter.
3. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners; fill each liner a little more than ¾ of the way full with batter. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

1.       In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy with a hand or stand mixer.

2.       Mix in the vanilla extract, flour, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3.       Spoon some of the frosting on top of each cooled cupcake and spread with a knife.

*Note: I like for my cupcakes to be a little bigger, so I got about 18 cupcakes out of this recipe instead of the usual 24. You can certainly make them smaller if desired, but you may also want to mix up some extra of the cookie dough frosting.

Thanks Stephanie!  In case that wasn't enough be sure to check out this and this over at Eat.Drink.Love.