Oreo Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream [Easy Recipe!]

Looking for the perfect recipe for Oreo Cupcakes? Then you are in the right place! These cupcakes are fluffy, perfectly sweet and taste just like Oreo cookies. Best of all? They are topped with a light and airy oreo buttercream that’s to die for!

Cupcakes + Chocolate + Frosting that tastes like oreo filling + Oreo crumbs = HEAVEN. I actually thought about naming these beauties cookies and cream cupcakes but honestly they taste literally like an Oreo cookie, so Oreo cupcakes it is.

These Oreo Cupcakes are more or less a cosmic explosion of delicious flavors and basically the best thing in the whole world after sprinkles.

What you need to make Oreo cupcakes?

I’m so excited you want to bake these cupcakes! I’m 100% sure you are going to totally love them SO much.

Here’s what you need to make the cupcakes:

Chopped chocolate: These cupcakes are RICH! And the secret to making really decadent chocolate cupcakes is using melted chocolate in the batter. I like to use a milk chocolate but you can use a bitter one if you prefer.
Cocoa powder: A combo of cocoa powder and melted chocolate is the ultimate combo.
Hot coffee: The hot coffee melts the chocolate and helps incorporate the chocolate with the cocoa powder. Don’t worry, your cupcakes won’t taste like coffee at all! It just helps the chocolate flavor shine trough.
Flour: I prefer to use an all-purpose flour for cupcake recipes so I can adjust the baking powder.
Sugar: Traditional granulated sugar is the best.
Melted butter: Want your cupcakes to be moist? Then melted butter is a must (see that even rhymed!)
Eggs: To make them light and fluffy. I use the whole egg.
Vanilla: To balance the chocolate flavor.

And here’s what you need to make the Oreo Buttercream:

O.M.G! Can we please talk for a hot second about the Oreo Buttercream? it’s seriously one of the best things I’ve ever had. It’s light and airy and oh so fluffy. It has an intense vanilla flavor but also some little Oreo crumbs.

It honestly tastes like a Cookies and Cream frosting so it’s incredibly delicious and pairs really well with the chocolate cupcake.

Vanilla buttercream: The star of the recipe is my world famous vanilla buttercream. However, you can also use store bought frosting, I won’t judge (but if you have 3 more minutes in your hands make it from scratch! You won’t regret it!).
Crushed Oreo cookies: You want to really crush them until they are teeny tiny crumbs.

How to make Oreo Cupcakes [Step by Step]

Now that you have all your ingredients on hand is time to get baking! The great thing about this Oreo cupcake recipe is that’s incredibly easy to make.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Preheating the oven is a total must have when baking cupcakes, specially if you want them to rise beautifully.
In a bowl mix the chopped chocolate with the cacao powder and the hot coffee. The hot coffee is going to melt the chopped chocolate and help. everything combine smoothly. Once it’s mixed let it cool down.
In a separate bowl beat the melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Pour the chocolate mixture and continue beating until the batter is shiny. Add the sugar.
Slowly add the flour and baking powder and continue mixing until everything is just incorporated. You don’t want to over-mix your batter.
Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and take to the oven. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the cupcakes are done.
Remove from the oven and let them cool down completely. This is super importante. You want your cupcakes to be cool to the touch so they are easier to decorate and the buttercream doesn’t melt.

How to make the Oreo Buttercream [Super Easy!]

Making the buttercream it’s incredibly easy. I like to start with my recipe for the very best vanilla frosting. It’s light and airy and not too sweet which is perfect.

Prepare the frosting according to those directions and then come back here. Done? Great!

Now it’s time to crush the Oreo cookies. You want to pulverize them as much as possible, especially if you are going to be decorating your cupcakes with a piping bag. If the crumbs are too big they are going to get stuck in the tip.

I used a traditional star tip to decorate them in a flower shape (rose shape) but you can decorate them as you want.

Why cookies and cream cupcakes are the best?

First is the cupcake base, it has chocolate, and more chocolate, and then some more oh chocolate. Really it has chocolate chunks (melted) and cacao powder. When you are baking and use melted chocolate and cacao powder you end up with a darker in color treat and a more intense and deep flavor (like oreos!) also you end up with a moist cake.

Moist cake means that even if you over bake your treats – because we are all guilty of using that oven time to stalk someone on instagram and sometimes that gets a bit too interesting – your cupcake is not going to end up being dry.

Also you can store your cupcakes for a couple of days without sacrificing texture (read they are going to take a bit longer to end up harder that your ex heart)

After the cupcakes comes the frosting. I used our vanilla buttercream, the one that we made a bout a week ago. if you have not made it yet go, run, really go now and make it because you don’t know what life is. It tastes literally like oreo filling, and I’m a die hard fan of oreo filling, almost a conossiour, so I have some kind of authority to say that it tastes like the real deal.

And then the oreo crumbs, those crumbs are like the fairy dust in this treats. They make them magical, give the frosting the awesome freckled color and also add some crunchiness balancing the softness of the cupcake.

Oreo Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 Cup chopped chocolate
1/3 Cup cacao powder
3/4 Cup hot coffee
3/4 Cup flour
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoon melted butter
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Vanilla Buttercream
4 Oreos crushed

Instructions

In a bowl mix the chocolate and the cacao, add the hot coffee and continue mixing until everything is melted and well incorporated. Let it cool for 20 minutes
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
In another bowl mix the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Pour in the chocolate mixture and continue mixing until the batter is shinny
Slowly add the sugar, flour and baking powder, mixing until everything is well incorporated and there are no lumps left
Divide the mixture between the 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15/20 minutes or until done.
Remove from the oven and from the pan and let them cool until they are no longer hot to the touch
Meanwhile crush the oreos and mix them with the buttercream. Place the frosting inside a pipping bag and decorate the cupcakes
Serve and enjoy

How to store Oreo Cupcakes

If you want to make these cupcakes in advance you are extra lucky! This is a recipe that keeps incredibly well and it’s really easy to make in advance.

You can keep them for up to 2 days stored in an airtight container (think a Tupperware). While you can keep them at room temp I honestly prefer to refrigerate them. They dry a little bit more in the refrigerator but since it’s just a couple days you are on the clear.

Once you are ready to serve them, just take out of the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature.

You can also freeze them. Cupcakes are incredibly freezer friendly and I actually have a whole post dedicated to it. In here you can read how to freeze cupcakes.

FAQ’s about making Oreo Cupcakes

What makes a cupcake fluffy?

This is one of the questions I get asked the most! Making cupcakes fluffy has a lot of different factors but usually the most common one is you want to incorporate air bubbles into the batter. Those bubbles expand in the oven with the heat. That’s why it’s so important to not over-mix the batter. If you mix it too much you kill those tiny air bubbles.

Can you buy Oreo frosting?

Well, yes. Actually there’s a quite popular bulk store that sells a 9 pound tub of Cookies and Cream buttercream icing. However making it from scratch is so easy and the end result is so so good I highly advise you make it from scratch.

Why my Oreo Cupcake turned out flat?

If your Oreo cookie cupcakes turned out flat the short answer is: you overmixed your batter.You want to mix until all the ingredients are barely incorporated. Theres no need to continua whipping and beating after it.