Oreo Cupcakes

Fun fact: March 6 of every year is National Oreo Day. But I think we can all agree that Oreos should be celebrated every day!

And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than with Oreo Cupcakes! I take the easy route with these, by starting with a box cake mix and modifying it.

Add some crushed up Oreos for that wonderful cookies and cream taste, and do the same to your frosting. You want the full Oreo experience here!

Some Oreo Fun Facts

I've shared these facts before, when I made Oreo Krispies, but they’re so fun I think they’re worth repeating!

• Over 450 billion Oreos have been sold since their introduction
• Oreos are sold in more than 100 countries worldwide
• More women dunk this cookie than men
• More men bite the cookie whole than women
• Oreos are 71% cookie and 29% crème filling

Of course, Double Stuf Oreos (the BEST kind) have completely different proportions….

Ingredients Needed

How to Make these Oreo Cupcakes

I wanted to keep this simple, so I started with a regular box cake mix. I also wanted to make a small batch, so I didn’t use the whole box. Have I blown your mind here? Yes, it’s true, you can make cakes (and cupcakes) using half a box of cake mix. Which is fabulous when you don’t want THAT much cake around!

I use a white or vanilla cake mix for the starting point and add from there!

One modification I like to do is to use milk in place of the water called for. It's an easy cake mix hack that helps make a better (cup)cake. But if you have no milk on hand, go ahead and use the water.

Mix the ingredients in a bowl, just as you normally do. Then add in the crushed Oreos.

Spoon the mixture into a cupcake pan lined with paper liners. Bake the cupcakes and let them cool.

This makes about 12 "cookies and cream" cupcakes. I always seem to get 11, so I'm probably a little generous when filling the liners. To make a full batch, just follow the box directions for the cake and double the amount of Oreos used.

Frosting – of Course!

Feel free to use your favorite frosting on these. Cream cheese frosting would be great, or any white buttercream.

I keep the Oreo theme going with Oreo buttercream frosting. Since I plan to use Oreos to decorate each cupcake, I sometimes like to prep my cookies first by cutting them in half. When I do this, I typically end up with some that look good and others that look half crushed. The half-crushed cookies then get crushed fully for the frosting.

I use a typical buttercream frosting and fold the crushed cookies in once its mixed up. As I noted in the recipe card, keep in mind that the crushed Oreos will be adding a mostly dry ingredient to the frosting, so try to adjust it with a little extra cream when it is near done.

Also, the first time I made these cupcakes I tried to pipe the buttercream frosting onto the cupcakes. What a frustrating exercise that was! The little chunks of Oreo crumbs clog up the piping tip pretty much every time. This will happen whenever you crush the cookies by hand, like in a ziptop bag with a rolling pin. The crumbs just don't get small enough!

So if I crush the cookies by hand, I also go the old fashioned route to decorate: frost each cupcake using a plain old butter knife and plunk half an Oreo on top. Fabulous.

An even better solution is to use a food processor to crush the cookies. Just add the cookies and pulse until you have a bunch of perfect cookie crumbs. When I process the cookies this way and use a 1M piping tip, I am able to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes without any problems. 🧁

These cookies and cream cupcakes are a great way to celebrate America’s favorite cookie!