Easy Peasy Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

I was supposed to bring cupcakes to a Birthday party the other day. I intended to make these the night before, but then I stayed up late watching a movie with my sister-in-law since my husband was at a men's event over night.

I woke up the next morning and got a bit side-tracked. By the time I set out to make the cupcakes I wasn't sure I'd have enough time to do the cupcakes and frosting from scratch, so I opted for plan B.

Oh yeah, that's right baby, the boxed stuff! Hey, in my defense I had my 3 nephews and 2 kids here by myself. Really though, my getting side-tracked had little to do with them and more to do with me engaging in a conversation over the internet that I should have known better than to engage in. Ugh, wake me after the election is over please! See... I get side-tracked easily, even while writing.

I twisted open 24 Oreos and placed the frosting side face up in each cupcake liner. 

And I stuck the 24 non-cream filled cookie halves into a bowl. Then I crumbled them with my fingers into small sized (not crumb sized) pieces. 

I whipped up some French Vanilla cake mix because that's what I had on hand. I stirred 2/3rds of the cookie pieces into the batter.

Then I used my sweet Pampered Chef Large scoop to fill each cookie-lined cupcake liner. 

While the cupcakes were baking I chopped 12 cookies in half, to place on top of the cupcakes after they were frosted. I had 3 cookies left over. 

All of my cupcakes ended up with an obnoxiously high center. 

So I just went ahead and used a serrated knife to chop the tops off. 

And I fed the kids the cupcake tops. They were thrilled! 

I opened a can of chocolate frosting and whipped it up to expand it in the bowl of my Kitchen Aid mixer. Then I added the rest of the oreo cookie crumbs to the frosting. 

Note: If you're going to add them to the frosting instead of on top of the frosting, I recommend making sure the pieces are small enough to easily fit through your frosting tip. 

After I got part way through frosting the cupcakes, I realized that I was going to run out of frosting. So I opened up a can of cream cheese frosting and decided to have a little fun!

I'm not always great at thinking ahead! 

I mean, I just wanted to make sure that people had lots of choices! 

I crushed up a few of the remaining cookies and sprinkled them on top of the frosted cupcakes.

And I placed an Oreo half on top of each one. 

Look at that, all ready to serve. The kids were super impressed. And it was totally easy!

This was my favorite part. Don't ask me why, I just thought this was pretty cool!

See that cute little Oreo on the bottom? Yummy! 

And there you have it, easy peasy cookies and cream cupcakes!