Considering that I’m writing this post on a Monday, it may seem that we “forgot” to keep up with our new tradition already of finding a new recipe to try for dinner each Sunday. While it may appear we’ve already veered off course, it’s not because we forgot; yesterday Lucas and I were so busy cleaning the house to get ready for our lovely house guests this week that we just didn’t have time. In fact, on Saturday when we were at the grocery, we commented on how we’d probably have to skip our new recipe tradition this week. As sad as that is, especially since I was so excited about trying something new & sharing with you guys, never fear… instead I’m sharing a recipe we found this weekend that I am trying today in anticipation for our guests’ arrival. And it’s something sweet!
Firstly, the wonderful @KyleeLane and her husband, Rory, are going to be our house guests. They’ll be here shortly, and then we’ll be setting up for Gen Con Indy, which officially kicks off later this week. We’ve joined forces and created G33Kmade, which is all about sharing the love of geeky crafting and supporting handmade in all mediums. Our goal is to help spread the love and find out what inspires others who craft geekery like we do and promote them. So we’ll be selling our geeky wares as well as some of our featured artists’ wares at the G33Kmade Gen Con booth 2732, so be sure to stop by! Kylee loves frosting and any baked sweets, so I thought it would be appropriate to bake her a batch of fresh cupcakes to celebrate her arrival and our joint venture into G33Kmade… and selling at our first con together! So much love to celebrate. :)
No ordinary cupcake would do for a sweets aficionado, so I did some searching for unique cupcake recipes and stumbled upon Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes, which boast being the BEST cupcakes ever! I decided Kylee would approve and baked a batch. I will also be baking some red velvet cupcakes later in the week for @katiedoyle, my weekly Cupcake Wars date on Twitter, but that is a story for another time. (Really, do the new guests each week not watch previous episodes and realize that everyone does red velvet, and that baking a red velvet cupcake is usually your ticket off the show? Katie and I will giggle and enjoy the sweet Cupcake Wars cliché.)
Today I baked Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes and the best part is that they look like an ordinary cupcake on the outside… but they have a secret. The excitement is hidden in the middle of each one: a ball of chocolate chip cookie dough is there to surprise you when you take a bite! There is a recipe of course, but the basic idea is that you roll up small balls of cookie dough ahead of time and put them in the freezer to freeze for at least 2 hours before bake time. Then you prepare your favorite cupcake batter, pop liners into your cupcake baking sheet, and fill the cupcake cavities 2/3 full with batter. Before you toss them into the oven, you plop a frozen ball of cookie dough in the middle. When the cupcakes bake, the batter rises up and over the cookie dough center, so when your cupcakes are finished, they don’t look any different than any other normal cupcakes… except they’re concealing a delicious secret!
I topped these off with chocolate fudge Funfetti frosting with sprinkles for the perfect final touch. And let me tell you… these were heaven in cupcake form! I found the recipe to be more of a guide – you could totally prepare all different kinds of cupcake batters and freeze various flavors of cookie dough to mix things up a bit, and create the perfect surprise cupcake treats to suit your taste preferences. I’m thinking a spice cupcake with a sugar cookie center perhaps? Or pumpkin cupcake with gingerbread center? The possibilities are endless! But I totally see a fall seasonal flavor variety of this being our contribution for the holiday get togethers.
THINGS WE LEARNED FOR NEXT TIME
Because these aren’t your traditional cupcakes and this was the first time we’d made them… we learned after trial and error that it’s best to NOT push the ball of cookie dough down into the cupcake batter. I know it’s hard to resist, especially because it seems like the cookie dough needs to be submerged in the batter, but it doesn’t! Really! Just plop it on top of the batter and let it sink as much as it is going to on its own – don’t help it. On the cupcakes where we pushed them down, the cookie dough stuck to the paper on the bottom and so it wanted to come out with the paper being peeled off. Â If you do find it to be a bit fiddly (we found the cupcakes in general to be a bit messy, though absolutely amazingly delicious!) you may want to eat them with a fork! :)
So I guess in the end, even though it’s Monday and we didn’t try a whole new set of recipes for dinner yesterday as planned, (and probably won’t be able to this coming Sunday again, either, as we’ll still have guests), we’re still here to share a recipe this week! Hope you enjoy the surprise cupcakes, and hope my guests love them, too! Have a great week <3