July | 2014 | crumbs and sprinkles

At risk of being pelted with cake decorations, I am about to make a dangerous admission… I don’t like cupcakes. At least, I don’t like what cupcakes have become during the cupcake boom of the past few years. When I was growing up, if a cake was made at home and individually sized, it was called a fairy cake and cupcakes came in a pack of six from Lyon’s, they were chocolate flavoured and distinctly flat (and absolutely delicious I must add).

However, for the past few years, cupcakes have become the fairy cake’s more dominant big brother and, for my liking anyway, have been covered in too much glitter. The frosting is crunchy and grates on the teeth and I generally preferred the buttercream topped fairy cake, perhaps with some sneaky sprinkles. Or so I thought and I have avoided cup cakes ever since until my boyfriend’s sister suggested I try making oreo cupcakes. I have been obsessed with oreos for years and they can lure me into most recipes so I decided to give it a go. What did I discover? Those crunchily iced, hard cup cakes were an unfortunate incident that’s kept me from enjoying cup cakes all these years. Apparently, if cup cakes are done right, or at least home made, they can taste delicious and have endless possibilities. My faith in the cup cake has been restored!

I particularly loved this recipe because there is half an oreo nestled at the bottom of each cup cake and the frosting was spot on – not too sickly but tasted enough of oreo to tie the cake together like an oreo cake sandwich. My boyfriend and I both agreed that they were absolutely delicious but would have benefited from a layer of jam above the oreo just to give it a kick and next time I make these, I’ll definitely be trying that for a sudden burst of fruity flavour amongst the chocolate. I’ve always enjoyed the combination of oreo and strawberry anyway so I think it would work really well.