Milk and Cookies Cupcakes

The final lap to Kochu's birthday celebrations was making some cupcakes to take into daycare for Kochu to share with his friends. I tossed and turned about making him another cake but this was just a day after the whole Spider-man cake saga and to tell you the truth, I was all caked out! I couldn't bring my self to bake and decorate another whole cake and so in the end I decided to go with cupcakes. 

You just can't go wrong with cupcakes. Kids love them! 

Milk and cookies are one of those things that makes everything better. It’s also a perfect snack. But this time, milk and cookies came in cupcakes version. These Milk and cookies cupcakes have very good texture , dotted with mini chocolate chips.

The frosting is very milky and creamy and isn’t too sweet. This combo of this frosting and chocolate chips cupcakes, really does taste like milk and cookies.  Decorated with mini  chocolate chip cookies and extra chocolate chips, these are really great treat.  I made the mini cookies as well from scratch, but they’re really just for garnish and you can skip them if you like. Except that they’re delicious, so please make them.

Have a go and tell me you and your kids didn't love it! :)

Milk & Cookies Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from Lemon Sugar and Raspberri Cupcakes

Yield:  24 cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcake 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 6 oz mini chocolate chips, plus more for garnish
• 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (to coat chips)

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Beat together eggs and sugar until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Add flour, milk, oil, baking powder and vanilla and beat for another minute. Pour  mini chocolate chips into a small bowl.  Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons of flour over chips, and mix to coat.  Fold coated chips into batter.Pour batter into lined cupcake tins, filling each tin 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes (or use a cake-tester).  Remove from cupcake tin right away, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield:  36-48 mini cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated (white) sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 6 oz mini chocolate chips

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a large baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper, and set aside.

Beat together butter and both sugars until creamy and fluffy.  Meanwhile, combine flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl.  Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until just combined.  Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon a very small spoonful (about the size of a large marble) on to the cookie sheet.  Bake for 4-5 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn brown.  Remove from oven and allow to sit on the cookie sheet for another 1-2 minutes.  Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and repeat.

If your kitchen is warm, it would be a good idea to keep the batter in the fridge between batches.  Otherwise, they will spread too much.

Allow cookies to cool completely before garnishing.

Milk Frosting 

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks (1 and 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cool room temperature
• 3 and 1/2 cups confectioners/powdered sugar
• 7 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Amerigel Brown color (optional)

Method:

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.  Add the powdered sugar, and beat to combine.  Add condensed milk, cream and vanilla extract, then beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

If you want to get the double color toned frosting like mine:

Divide the frosting into two bowls. Add a couple of drops of the brown gel color to one bowl. Mix well to incorporate the color. Keep the other half of the frosting white.

Fill a piping bag with both colors, brown on one side and white on the other.Firmly squeeze the bag until you’re getting equal parts of each icing from the tip.

Generously frost cooled cupcakes.