I told myself I wasn’t going to bake this weekend. My response when my mother asked if I was baking? Taking the weekend off.
Lies. All lies.
I made it to Sunday afternoon.
In my defense, Sunday was a really dreary day. Overcast and raining most of the day. These days, in my opinion, are the best days to bake. I don’t feel guilty being inside since it’s too crappy to do anything outside.
My thoughts were stuck on cookie dough. Chocolate chip cookie dough to be exact. The end game in my mind was a Chocolate Chip Cupcake filled with cookie dough and topped with Vanilla Frosting. I also wanted to decorate with mini chocolate chip cookies. I decided to start with my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I thought maybe I would make that and then the feeling that I NEEDED to bake something would be out of my system.
I was wrong. So the dough went in the fridge to cool. I started on the cupcakes which were my go-to vanilla cake recipe with a few minor changes. Of course I added mini chocolate chips, I replaced a bit of the granulated sugar with brown sugar and I also added a dash of cinnamon. I always add cinnamon to my chocolate chip cookies and it just gives the cookies a little bit of oomph.
I made the cookie dough filling while the cupcakes were baking. This stuff is dangerous. My husband looked at it after I put in a bag to pipe in the cupcakes later and asked me if that was the frosting. I told him it was cookie dough filling and his eyes lit up. Cookie dough is his weakness.
The frosting was something I’ve never tried before. I made a boiled milk frosting or ermine frosting. I wasn’t sure it was going to turn out. And just like a Swiss meringue frosting, this one needs to have the “shit beat out of it”. Excuse my french. Andy looked in the bowl and said it looked curdled. Thanks, Captain Obvious. Except he was right. This looked way more curdled than meringue buttercreams I’ve made so I was worried. But I turned up my mixer to high and let it go. I figured it couldn’t get any worse. I walked away and let it do it’s thing for awhile. And miraculously, when I returned it was a beautiful cloud of white frosting. I taste tested it and in my opinion, this beats out any other frosting I’ve made. And the reviews from my co-workers were the same. The best tasting frosting. It’s light and not too sweet. Which is perfect for these cupcakes since the cookie dough is sweet enough on it’s own!
For the finale, I baked up some cookies to top off the cupcakes. This took a little trial and error to figure out the perfect size. The dough rounds were tiny, maybe the size of a quarter, but when baked they spread and came out perfectly adorable.
If you’re a cookie dough lover these are for you!
Ann