It was my half-birthday yesterday, and I felt it deserved to be celebrated. YOLO, right?
I mixed up a batch of my favorite vanilla cupcakes, stuffed them with Golden Birthday Oreos, pulverized more of the Oreos to mix into the frosting, and finished them off with even more Oreos for garnish. It was about as birthday-appropriate as you could get, minus adding extra sprinkles.
Which, now that I think of it, I totally should’ve.
Have you all tried the Golden Birthday Oreos? For the 100th birthday of the Oreo in 2012, Nabisco introduced a package of “Birthday Cake Oreos” that I loved. They tasted like cake batter and came with sprinkles! For a while, they seemed to disappear and I thought they must have been a limited edition flavor, but a few weeks ago, I spotted a golden version of the birthday Oreos! I instantly knew they were about to make an appearance in some cupcakes.
I’ve got to admit, I do prefer the original Birthday Cake Oreos just a tiny bit…but the Golden Birthday Oreos come in second place because they’re pretty tasty in their own right. And everything tastes better in cupcake form!
Instead of using a vanilla-cream cheese frosting like I usually do with plain vanilla cupcakes, I used vanilla buttercream, which I adapted from my ever-reliable, favorite cookbook The Cupcake Diaries. It matched the classic birthday cake flavor better, as well as the flavor of the Oreos, and I loved the final results.
Definitely worthy of a half-birthday celebration…and a full one, too! :)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 8 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 1/4 tsp. vanilla
- seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
- 24 Golden Birthday Oreos
- 16 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. fat-free milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup crushed Golden Birthday Oreos (about 3 cookies)
- 24 whole Golden Birthday Oreos, for garnish (if desired)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin tins with cupcake wrappers and place a whole Oreo in each one.
- In a small bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together for 3-5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Slowly add eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add vanilla and vanilla bean seeds to milk.
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat with stand mixer until well combined. Add 1/3 of the milk and mix thoroughly. Repeat with remaining ingredients, scraping bowl as needed.
- Pour batter over Oreos in prepared pans, filling each about two-thirds full.
- Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool pans completely on a wire rack.
- Garnish cupcakes with whole Oreos, if desired.
Notes
Adapted from Georgetown Cupcake's The Cupcake Diaries
Nutritional information includes whole Oreos in both the cupcakes and on top for garnish. You could easily make this recipe more calorie-friendly by omitting one from each cupcake!
Nutritional Info:
Calories: 432.9
Total Fat: 18.4 g
Cholesterol: 46.8 mg
Sodium: 143.2 mg
Total Carbs: 64.5 g
Dietary Fiber: .4 g
Protein: 2.4 g
