Halloween treats just got a cuter with these Chocolate Cookies –N- Cream Mini Bat Cupcakes! Moist mini chocolate cupcakes are frosted with a lip-smacking cookies –n – cream frosting and topped with adorable Oreo cookie bats! Take them to your next Halloween party. They are guaranteed to be hit!
Ingredients
For the chocolate cupcakes
1/2cupUnsweetened cocoa powder
3/4cupspooned then leveled All-purpose flour
1/2teaspoonBaking soda
1teaspoonBaking powder
1/4teaspoonSalt
1/2cup1 stick Unsalted butter
2ouncesabout 1/3 cup Semi-sweet baking chocolate
2large Eggsat room temperature
¾cupGranulated sugar
1tablespoonVanilla extract
1/2cupHeavy creamcold
For the cookies -n- cream cheesecake frosting
11-12Chocolate sandwich cookiesI used Oreos
12ounces1.5 packages Cream Cheese, cold
1 1/2heaping cup Confectioners' sugar
1 1/2tablespoonVanilla bean paste
1 1/2cupHeavy creamcold
For the cookie 'bats'
48Mini chocolate sandwich cookiesI used Oreos
48,cut in half to make 96 pieces Regular sized or 'thin' chocolate sandwich cookiesI used Oreos
96Candy eyesI used Wilton
Instructions
Bake the cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line two mini muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine unsweetened cocoa powder, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk for a few seconds to combine.
In a stainless steel bowl fitted over a pan of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally until fully melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, over medium/high speed (hand mixer works here too, folks) whip the eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream until smooth. This may take about a minute or so depending on the speed of your mixer.
Stop and scrape the bowl. Remove bowl from mixer and sift the flour mixture over the wet ingredients. Gently fold, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl until mostly combined. Be careful not to overmix. You should not really see any dry flour bits, but do not over fold or your cupcakes will be hella dry.
With a cookie scoop, fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way with cake batter. You will be tempted to add more batter, but don't. This cake batter tends to rise and spill and you don't want that. Less is more here.
Place muffin tins in the oven and bake for 15-18, or until a cake tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Allow cupcakes to cool in the muffin tins for a few minutes. Remove cupcakes from the muffin tins, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. As the cupcakes bake, make the cookies -n- cream filling.
Makes about 48 mini cupcakes.
Make the Cookies -n- Cream Cheesecake filling:
Add the sandwich cookies to a food processor and pulse until the cookies form fine crumbs. Set aside.
To a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the cream cheese. Whip over medium speed for about 20 seconds. Stop the mixer and add the confectioners' sugar.
Turn the mixer back on and over low speed, whip the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until combined. Increase the speed to medium/high and whip until the mixture is combined and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean paste. Add the heavy cream in three parts, waiting for the mixture to thicken slightly before adding in more heavy cream. Whip until fluffy and combined. Turn off the mixer and fold in the crushed cookie crumbs.
Transfer the filling to a piping bag fitted with a star or round tip. Alternatively, you can transfer the mixture to a Ziploc bag and snip off a corner with scissors.
Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
To assemble:
Remove cookies –n– cream filling from the fridge. Pipe each cupcake with cookies -n- cream filling. Nestle a mini Oreo cookie in the center of each cupcake, flanked by an Oreo cookie half on either side to make 'bat wings'. Spread a tiny bit of frosting on the back of each candy eye and place them on the mini Oreo cookie.