cookie butter surprise cupcakes

if you haven't heard of cookie butter, i'm about to change up your life. if you're a fan of nutella or any similar sugary ridiculous spreads that totally are not a part of a balanced diet, cookie butter is for you. if you head over to amazon and read the reviews of the mystical cookie butter, you'd think it was made out of unicorn tears and baby's breath. people are absolutely nuts about the stuff. i heard the hype, but couldn't justify ordering it off amazon. for a jarred spread? really?

when i went to athens the other weekend with beth to visit molly, she informed us there was a trader joe's in town. i know a few things about this trader joe's place, one being that they have cookie butter. SOLD. and so, we went. and the more we chatted about it, the more it became apparent we needed to make some freakin' cookie butter cupcakes.

yeah, that's right. there are cookie butter cups too. i sampled the cookie butter and whaddaya know, it's amazing. i don't have the biggest sweet tooth in the world, but i completely get the appeal of this stuff. it's rich, it's unique, it's not "chocolate chip cookie"-ish but it's sugary, buttery and amazing. i brought my brother a jar and he just sits there and eats it straight, if that tells you anything.

anyway, we got to business. we adapted a basic cake recipe from a better homes & gardens cookbook and beth made up the cookie butter icing on the fly. they turned out amazing, so get ready.

for the cake, you will need:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 24 cookie butter cups (optional, but so amazing!)

for the frosting:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup cookie butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar 

to make the cake:

1.  preheat your oven to 350 degrees. line a cupcake pan with liners of your choice.
2. in a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. add in vanilla. add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. in a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. 
4. add half flour mixture to egg mixture, then add half buttermilk. alternate adding flour and buttermilk until combined.
5. add a dollop of batter to the bottom of your cupcake liner, then press a cookie butter cup into the dough. top with more batter until cupcake liner is 2/3 full.
6. bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick insert comes out clean. let cool before frosting.

 to make the frosting:

1. in a mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. 
2. add vanilla, cookie butter and milk. gradually add powdered sugar until just combined.
3. top cupcakes with cookie butter icing and a cookie butter cup.