I have a serious problem.
How do you live with a fridge full of this and not eat every last one?? Seriously.
Well, I guess the fact that they were made for someone else is pretty good for the whole self control thing. I canNOT make cupcakes like this that are just for me. I will eat a dozen in about 2 days hours minutes.
Remember when I made these and said they part one of a special baking project?? Well, I made vanilla bean cupcake batter, swirled in some cookie butter, then pressed one into the center before baking.
I thought they would bake much faster than normal cupcakes, or that the cookie butter cup would just melt right into the cupcake, but they baked for a normal amount of time (18 minutes) and came out looking perfect!
Then I made a Cookie Butter Cream Cheese Frosting and things got REAL over here.
Because what good is a cupcake picture if you don’t cut it in half and show off all the gooey insides?!
Also can we check out all those vanilla bean specs?! In the cupcake and the frosting. Can’t. Get. Enough.
These weren’t completely cooled, so everything just came right out. I love that. If you don’t, just make sure you cool them in the fridge first. But seriously, if you don’t like warm, oozey chocolate, who are you and why are you even reading this blog?!
Just kidding, please keep reading. I can overlook your weird textural preferences. Maybe…
Drrrrooooool.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!!!! I couldn’t have picked a better occasion to make probably the best cupcake I have ever created. Obviously, you inspire me 🙂
Vanilla Bean Cookie Butter Cup Cupcakes
yield 15
- 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all purpose)
- 1/2 tbs baking powder
- dash salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or butter)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
- 1/2 tbs vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbs TJ’s Cookie Butter (or Biscoff spread), melted
- 15 Salted Chocolate Cookie Butter Cups, frozen
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Spray lightly with nonstick spray, then set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand one), add applesauce and sugar. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and beat on medium speed.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- In a glass measuring cup (or separate bowl) combine buttermilk and vanilla extract.
- With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour and buttermilk mixtures, starting and ending with dry ingredients.
- Beat until just incorporated, scraping down sides of the bowl when necessary.
- Fill 15 cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. I used a medium sized cookie scoop and it took 1 1/2 scoops per cupcake.
- Drizzle in a small amount of cookie butter into each cupcake, and swirl lightly with a toothpick.
- Press one Salted Chocolate Cookie Butter Cup into each cupcake.
- Bake for 17-19 minutes. (I always turn mine around halfway through to keep even cooking)
- Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Top with Vanilla Bean Cookie Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.
Vanilla Bean Cookie Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
yield enough for 20 cupcakes
- 16 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup TJ’s Cookie Butter
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
- Place cream cheese and cookie butter in a large bowl. Scrape in vanilla bean seeds and beat together for 1 minute.
- Slowly beat in powdered sugar, scraping down sides of bowl when necessary.
- Frost immediately, or chill in refrigerator.
OMG
Delicious cupcakes my dear!! Definitely a masterpiece 🙂
That butter cup in the middle is a delicious way to really amp up the flavor of a cupcake. In fact, the butter cups by themselves could be a new addiction also. Love the picture of the split cupcake-delicious. Great post!
Thanks! The cups are definitely super addicting. I already have a bunch of spin offs floating around in my head for different flavors 🙂
I’m seriously at a loss for words on this one. These look so amazing. Seriously. I’m hosting the LA Food Blogger Bake Sale in a couple of weeks and if I made this, we’d raise like a million dollars for the no kid hungry campaign!
Thank you so much!! If I lived in LA, I would totally contribute! Let me know if you decide to make them, and how they turn out!!
Uh-Mazing!! I want to lick my screen… the money shot of the cut open cupcake is haunting me!!! So – random question… as much as I love to make healthy substitutions for my baking… sometimes it is necessary to make an incredibly indulgent treat.. Do you have a suggestion as to how much of and what I would replace the applesauce with and also the sugar substitute?? I seriously cant get over the beautiful flecks of vanilla and how absolutely stunning the cupcake looks!! I can’t wait to make these.. healthy or not! :0)
Thank you!! Applesauce can be substituted with butter and sugar substitute with real sugar–measurements remain the same. Enjoy!! 🙂
Wonderful recipe – so creative and delicious! Thank you for sharing it on RecipeNewZ! These cupcakes were an instant success and as such we featured them on our Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/RecipeNewZ Congrats!
These cupcakes look super delicious
Woah! I’d love to dig into one of those. How creative! You should share them in the cupcake crown contest: http://www.celebrations.com/cupcakecrown/
Sooooo these look absolutely delicious… dare I ask the calorie count on one of em? I want to make them but I’m wondering if it’s worth the risk before spring break
These look so delicious and a friend of mine requested I make them…I see substituting regular sugar for the Splenda would work fine, but how many eggs are equivalent to the egg substitute amount used in this recipe? I can’t wait to try them! 🙂
I love the way these look when warm and cut…but once they come to room temperature….what are they like? Does the candy cup get cold and re-solidify? I’m not a fan of cookies that have Hershey Kisses in them for that very reason…but if the candy were to stay soft I would be totally interested because they look absolutely devine! If not, well then, I guess I’ll have to eat them all before they cool 🙂
Haha, well it depends. If you frost them, they need to be refrigerated in which case they will harden, but if you frost them just when ready to serve, I believe they will stay soft-ish, but not totally melty like in the photo. However, I made those 2 years ago so my memory may deceive me. I don’t think they’ll last ya very long anyway. 😉
Hi Ari,
While the cookie butter cups came out AMAZING, I must have done something wrong because the cupcakes themselves were pretty bad.
I noticed in your ingredient list that you have “Baking Powder” but in the directions, you have “Baking Soda” – could I have gone wrong here? The “cupcakes” has more of a chewy, muffin consistency (I’m guessing the applesauce played a role here)
Any ideas?
ARI!! I cannot look at these photos without wanting to eat my computer screen! HOLY MOLY!!!
GiGi Eats recently posted…Getting Stuffed With Brad Gouthro
Do you think the same theory would work using the chocolate cookie butter (also from TJ’s), maybe freeze it in “balls” then plop that into the middle of the cupcake? Any thoughts on whether that would work in lieu of the making the cookie first?
I don’t see why not! If you try it, please let me know how it works out!