These Cookies and Cream Cupcakes start with an easy vanilla cupcake base stuffed with Oreo bits and topped with the silkiest, creamiest, most delicious cookies and cream buttercream frosting you will ever need in you life.
I love Oreos. I still snack on them with a glass of milk every once in a while, when I need something sweet to get me through the afternoon. So naturally, anything stuffed with Oreos is certainly worthy as an afternoon snack to me. But these beautiful Oreo cupcakes are much more than that! Fluffy vanilla cupcakes with cookie specs all throughout, and the best cookies and cream Swiss buttercream frosting.
How to make Vanilla Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
This cookies and cream cupcake recipe starts with a base of an easy vanilla cupcake from a post earlier. Oreo bits are added to the batter to create those cookies and cream specs in the cupcakes.
- For the cupcake batter, the Oreo can be crushed by hand in a ziplock bag and a rolling pin, or in a food processor. But make sure that you don’t process it to a fine ground. We want pieces large enough to show through the batter, and different size pieces for variation.
- Add the crushed Oreo bits to the vanilla cupcake batter.
- Fold with a spatula to distribute them evenly.
- Use a large ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly into a 12 cup standard size muffin pan.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
How to make Oreo Frosting
The Oreo frosting adorned on top of these vanilla Oreo cupcakes is a creamy and silky vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream with finely ground Oreo mixed into it. For the buttercream, you will want to use a food processor to ground the Oreo into a very fine ground so you can pipe the frosting without getting cookie bits stuck inside the piping tip.
- If you use a food processor in step 1, use the same one to process another 6 Oreos for the frosting.
- Turn it to the “on” position and let it process the cookies to a fine ground. When finished, check to make sure there are no large bits left. If there are, continue to process until everything basically becomes Oreo dust.
- Make the vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream using a stand mixer.
- When the buttercream is fully formed, stop the mixer and add the finely ground Oreo to the bowl.
- Stir until completely incorporated.
Oreos are awesome. Therefore, these Oreo cookie cupcakes are awesome! End of story. But really though, they are even better with a glass of milk than just plain ‘ole cookies. Try them, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
More Cookies and Cream Recipes
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If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
This recipe was originally published on 6/28/2014. The recipe has been updated to reflect recent changes and improvements. The post has also been updated with extra tips and process photos to help you in the kitchen.
📖 Recipe card
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes {Vanilla Oreo Cupcakes}
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour ((197 g))
- ¾ cup granulated sugar ((135 g))
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt ((1g))
- 1 teaspoon baking powder ((4 g))
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda ((2 g))
- ¾ cup buttermilk ((170 g, room temperature))
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil ((67 g))
- 1 large egg ((room temperature))
- 1 large egg yolk ((room temperature))
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract ((13 g))
- 6 Oreos ((crushed))
Frosting
- 4 oz egg white ((115 g))
- ¾ cup granulated sugar ((135 g))
- ¾ teaspoon vinegar ((4 g))
- 10 oz unsalted butter ((283 g, room temperature, cubed))
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ((5 g))
- 6 Oreos ((finely ground))
Instructions
Make the cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix with a whisk to distribute evenly. Set aside.
- Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract to a medium bowl. Beat together with a whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture and fold until just combined.
- Crush 6 Oreos in a ziplock bag with a wooden rolling pin. Fold the crushed Oreos into the cake batter.
- Use a large ice cream scoop to divide batter into the previously prepared muffin pan. One flat scoop of batter for each cupcake cavity, or about ¼ cup of batter each.
- Bake in the middle oven rack for 17 - 18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to the touch, remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the frosting
- Finely ground 6 Oreos in a food processor and set aside.
- Add egg white to the stand mixer bowl and beat with a wire whisk attachment on medium low speed until frothy.
- Increase speed to medium and slowly add sugar, one tablespoon at a time to allow it to incorporate into the egg white. Half way through adding the sugar, stream in the vinegar. Then continue to add the sugar until all gone.
- Increase speed to medium high speed and beat until stiff peak forms and the meringue is shiny and smooth.
- Reduce speed to medium low and slowly add the room temperature cubed butter, one cube at a time and allow it to incorporate into the meringue. When all the butter is added it will look chunky, like cottage cheese.
- Add vanilla and increase mixer to high speed and beat for 4-5 mins until buttercream is formed and smooth. Add the finely ground Oreo to the buttercream and stir to combine.
Assemble the cupcakes
- Add a piping tip of your choice to a pastry bag, fill with the frosting and add frosting to the cooled cupcakes.
- Garnish each cupcake with a whole Oreo if desired.
Notes
- For the frosting, the Oreos must be a fine ground to avoid getting stuck in the pipping tip. Either a food processor or blender will do the job. If you have neither, and must crush the Oreo by hand for the frosting, you may need to use a piping tip with a larger opening.
- If you are uncomfortable with making the frosting using raw egg whites, you could heat up the egg whites and sugar in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water until it reaches at least 160°F, make sure to keep stirring or whisking while heating the mixture.
- Calories estimated do not include the whole Oreo garnishing.
Nutrition
Shop The Recipe Tools
- Stand Mixer
- Standard Size Muffin Pan
- Food Processor
- Pastry Bags
- French Star Piping Tip (size 8)
- Kitchen Scale
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
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This recipe was a huge success! Making them for my son’s birthday now. Thanks!
Happy birthday to your son, Darryl!
I love most of your recipes, thank you for always having such clear instructions. I was disappointed in this recipe. The flavor was a bland. They were very dry, so the next batch I underbaked a little and they were still dry. Not sure how to bump up the flavor. I had placed an Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake as a crust and glad I did as this was the only thing that resembled a cookie flavor. They’re really pretty though.
Hi Kristy, I’m sorry you didn’t like these. If the cake is dry, it could be you’re using more flour than called for, could try weight for more exact measurement. If you add more cookies in the batter, that will also soak up the moisture as well, you can increase the amount of oil to compensate. I wonder if you were looking for something more chocolaty, since that’s the flavor of Oreo, you could try using a chocolate cupcake batter instead.
Won’t the egg whites be raw if you don’t heat it up?
Yes, that is correct. If you are uncomfortable with not heating the egg whites, you can heat it with sugar over a pot of simmering water until it reaches 160F and then continue with the recipe as instructed.
Is the 4oz required to put into the frosting, can I leave it out?
Are you asking about the 4 oz of egg white? For swiss buttercream, it is meringue base, so egg white is used, but if you don’t want to use egg, try the American style buttercream instead and just mix in the crushed oreos.
Yes I did mean the egg haha. And thank you. I will try the buttercream instead with crushed Oreos.
Super soft and yummy 😋! Quick to make and they’re already a favourite!!! Thank you! All the way from South Africa 🙏🏾
Welcome! So happy to have you here 🙂 And thank you so much for making my recipe and taking the time to leave a review.
The frosting, just felt like you were biting into butter. The cupcake was great though
These are delicious! The frosting is so light and airy and not too sweet. The only thing I would say is that with my mixer it took a good 10-15 minutes for the frosting to not look like cottage cheese anymore, so be patient!! It’s definitely worth the wait 🙂
So glad you liked these and thanks so much for the feedback and tip!
I also snuck a whole Oreo inside as a surprise instead of garnishing with one. I put half the batter in each space, then an Oreo, then the rest of the batter. Garnished with a 1/4 of an Oreo!
Awesome! I love the idea 🙂
Nooop
Hello! These look great, I’m just wondering if I am crushing the whole oreo, or do I remove the filling first?
No need to remove the filling 🙂
I was just wondering this thank you for asking
I love anything stuffed with oreos too and these are just divine. Love that creamy frosting.
Thanks Marie!