Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Two-for-one experiment today! Mom's been wanting to learn how to pipe frosting, so we figured we'd try a couple of different cupcake recipes.

The first one we tried: Cookie dough cupcakes!
They sound deliiicious. But they and the Nutella cupcakes were both "eh" for me. But I'm posting them anyway!

These involve making chocolate chip cookie dough, rolling it into balls, and freezing them. One of the two of us (hint, not me. ;) decided that they wanted to buy a roll of pre-made cookie dough instead of making it from scratch. It was alright, but personally I think the brown sugar was waaay too understated.
After you mix the batter and put it in the cupcake papers, you drop in one of the frozen cookie balls. Trust me when I say to drop it in and LEAVE IT. I pressed the ball down into the batter (it still sticks out even when it touches the bottom), and as it baked it melted down. All of the cookie was on the bottom, which split the cupcake into this half-cookie, half-cupcake weird thing.

For the frosting, we made a chocolate buttercream.
It was extra thick so mom could test her piping skillz, which really overwhelmed the cupcake itself (which was a little bland anyway). But in general I'd say thinner would be great-- using it as a glaze would be amazing.
Cookie Dough Cupcake Recipe:

Cookie Recipe

• One tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough
• OR
• Cookie recipe here: http://adventureswithmarzipan.blogspot.com/2010/05/cookies-au-creme.html

Preparation

• After getting your dough, roll into balls about the size of a teaspoon. Put in the freezer for one to two hours.

Cupcake Recipe

• One package of yellow cake mix
• 1 1/4 c water
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350
• Combine the mix, water, oil, and eggs as per box instructions. (Lazy, right?)
• Line a cupcake tin with 24 cupcake papers.
• Drop a frozen dough ball into each cup, in the center. Do NOT push down.
• Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe (doubled for piping)

• One bag (two pounds) of powdered sugar
• 11 tbsp (one stick + 3 tbsp) butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 1/4 c cocoa

Preparation

• Using a spoon, mix together powdered sugar and cocoa.
• Add in butter, vanilla, salt, and half of milk. Blend together.
• Slowly add milk until getting the consistency you like.
• Frost/pipe onto cooled cupcakes.