I hope it’s treat day, because I’m about to share our Monster Cookie Dough Cupcakes recipe with you. I love to bake. I always have. Back when I was little, I often took it upon myself to bake the birthday cakes for my 11 siblings. My mom preferred to be outside, and let’s be honest, with 12 kids she didn’t have a lot of time to bake anyway. I didn’t have a lot to work with. We always had flour, oil and sugar, but eggs and milk depended on the season. I played with substitutions, made terrible frosting, and had a great time doing it.
Over the past few years I’ve made a lot of cupcakes with my kids. We are inspired by watching Cupcake Wars, and we love coming up with new creations. My tween daughter was asked to bring something to a bake sale today, and, of course, she chose cupcakes. A lot of the bidders are going to be in the under 12-year-old age group, and we wanted to make cupcakes we thought kids would love.
We landed on Monster Cookie Dough cupcakes. Chocolate chip cookie dough is about the best thing ever, but when you add a sprinkle of color with some tasty mini M&Ms, it gets even that much better. We started with a Milk Chocolate Cupcake, because you can never have too much chocolate. The frosting is a chocolate chip cookie dough flavored frosting, and then of course we topped it all with our Monster Cookie Dough Cupcake topping. Our recipe is inspired by one of our favorite cupcake bakers at YourCupofCake.com.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the cake mix with the liquid ingredients in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the batter for 2 minutes on medium speed. Place 24 cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Then fill the liners to 3/4 of the way full. Bake the cupcakes for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out the the center dry. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
I love how simple this cupcake recipe is. The cupcakes are moist and delicious, but my tween made them all by herself.
Cream the butter, brown sugar, salt and vanilla together in a mixing bowl. Slowly add the flour, alternating milk as needed. I only used 1 tablespoon of milk, but you may need more depending on the temperature of your butter or altitude. You want the dough to be quite stiff, so it will hold it’s shape unbaked. Gently stir in the chocolate chunks. Using your hands, roll the dough into 1′ wide by 1/2′ tall bars. Use a knife to chop the dough into small bits. Let the bits sit and stiffen for 30 minutes while you prepare the frosting and wait for the cupcakes to cool. When you are ready to top the cupcakes, mix the cookie dough bits in with 1/4 cup of mini M&Ms. Tween girl was at school for this part of the baking, so I whipped this up for her with the help of an adorable little preschool assistant or two. (*I used wheat flour for this part of the recipe, because that is what I had on hand. It gave it a darker color and grainy texture that I really enjoyed. However, white flour would work well also.)
Baking with kids is such a great way to spend time together, and also practice up on counting, fractions, and other math fun. It is decidedly more messy when they are involved, but it’s probably worth it. We made the chocolate chip cookie dough frosting last. Here is the recipe we used.
Mix the butter, brown sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla together with an electric mixer. Slowly add in the powdered sugar alternating with the milk. Beat the frosting until it is smooth. You could stir the cookie dough chunks and M&Ms into the frosting at this point, but I was worried that the cookie dough chunks would fall apart. Instead we opted to frost the cooled cupcakes and then top them with the monster cookie dough chunks and M&Ms.
My two little preschoolers had the absolute BEST time helping me decorate these cupcakes. I had to monitor the process very closely to keep them from eating all of the monster cookie topping, but it was great fun. The best part is my tween was thrilled with the final result when she got home from school today. In an hour or so she’ll be taking them to the bake sale to raise money for her youth group, and hopefully they’re a big hit with the kids.
These Monster Cookie Dough Cupcakes taste as good as they look, and they’re a great recipe to make with the kiddos. Give it a try this week, or pin it for your next bake sale.
Have an amazing day!
