The reason why you should bake cupcakes

Sometimes, you just want to bake.  It's cathartic and wonderfully satisfying to not just make something, but to make something that you know is fatty, sugary, utterly bad for you, and super tasty.  Normally I like to pass on my baking results to my workmates so that I don't eat them all myself.  Baking awesome things does not lead to a "healthy" weight unless you share, and sharing is most of the fun anyways.

I love anything that is "cookies and cream" flavoured.  Really, it's a short hand for something that's vanilla flavoured with chocolate flavoured cookie bits in it.  That being said, the easiest fix you can get for anything "cookies and cream" flavoured is Oreo cookies.  Of course, the filling of Oreos is not "creamy" per se - it's some awful vanilla and hydrogenated coconut oil confection that has no nutritional value save an enormous helping of calories.

I also have an unreasonable love for cupcakes.  Single serve, frosting covered confections that you can pretend are okay to eat because they are technically smaller than a slice of cake?  Hell yes.

The joy of baking comes from baking something that you love to eat.  Something that you would eat when raw and will eat when cooked, and that you know will bring a sunny moment to anyone else you want to offer them to.

These cupcakes are, basically, the entire point of baking in my mind.

The Reason Why You Should Bake Cupcakes

1 150 g pack of Oreo cookies
100 g of softened butter
1 cup of caster sugar (white sugar is just fine)
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste (or real vanilla essence)
2 large eggs (free range eggs would make me happy)
1 cup of self raising flour (not plain)
1/2 cup of milk (low fat milk is just fine - there's enough fat in the cookies to send it into terribly bad food territory)

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Using a 12-hole cupcake pan, place 1/2 Oreo cookie in the bottom of each cupcase case.  Remember the add?  Don't pull the cookies apart - twist them.  Place the filling side up.
Put the remaining cookies in a plastic bag (ziplock or whatever you have) and smash with something heavy like a rolling pin (some sort of canned food will work just as well) until the largest pieces are no bigger that 1/4 a cookie)
Cream the butter and the sugar, then add the vanilla
Add eggs, one at a time and mixing until incorperated
Slowly add 3/4 cup or so of flour until incorperated
Add milk and mix - the mix will look a little curdled, and that's okay
Add the last 1/4 cup of flour
Once the ingredients are just incorperated
Fold in the pre-bashed cookies
Split the batter evenly between the cookie lined cupcake cases
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden and the batter no longer wobbled when you shake the pan, and that the batter springs back when lightly poked

These cupcakes are awesome as is, but can be iced with all kinds of things.  I like something simple like white chocolate (melted in a microwave) or a mix of peanut butter and milk chocolate (also melted in a microwave).  A good buttercream or cream cheese frosting would work well.

I melted about 1/3 of a cup or white chocolate chips with 1/3 of a cup of hazlenut spread (Nuttella to you and I) in the microwave and smeared it over the top.  It didn't end up setting, but it's still very tasty.

Remember, anything cooked always tastes better when it's shared with friends!