I Love Girl Scout Cookies...

but I REALLY love cupcakes!!


When it comes to Girl Scout Cookies, it's Peanut Butter Patties for my hubby, Thin Mints for my oldest daughter, and Thanks-A-Lot for the rest of the kids. As for me, well I don't discriminate, I like them ALL. But the Caramel deLite (or Samoa, if you so choose), across the board, is a family favorite.


The Caramel deLite cupcake has been done in many delicious ways. With my version, I wanted to keep the flavor combination as close to the real thing as possible. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And the flavor combo of the Caramel deLite most certainly ain't broke!

I made a vanilla cupcake (with a twist), caramel-coconut frosting, topped with golden coconut and a chocolate ganache drizzle. The caramel-coconut frosting took some research. I adapted the recipe from a few recipes on cooks.com, and borrowed a tip of adding confectioner's sugar from a gluten free recipe on newdiets.com.

And now for the twist...

What you can't see is that this is actually a cookie topped cupcake. I baked a vanilla sugar cookie right in to the top of the cupcake. Being my first attempt at combining the two, I wasn't quite sure where to start. Should I use raw cookie dough or partially baked? Cookie on top or on the bottom? Only one way to find out, I had to try them all.


Drumroll please...





And the winner is...partially baked cookie on top.


Cookies and cupcakes? This won't be the last!


Vanilla Sugar Cookies 
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
5 cups all-purpose flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Soft dough will form. Wrap and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out dough on floured surface to approx 1/4 " thick, cut with cookie cutter shape of choice. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 8-10 minutes. (To top the cupcakes, I removed the cookies before completely baked to allow additional baking time with the cupcake batter)

*I halved the cookie recipe and still had plenty of extra dough to make a couple of dozen superbowl cut outs.


Vanilla Cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 heaping tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup COCONUT milk (substituted coconut milk for the usual regular milk)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add cubed butter, mixing until coated with flour. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until combined. Slowly add in milk and vanilla.

Fill cupcake liners between 1/2 and 1/3 full. Bake 17-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.


Caramel-Coconut Frosting
1/2 cup butter 
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups coconut
1 cup confectioners sugar

Melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat, add coconut stirring until golden brown. Set aside approximately 1/2 cup of golden coconut for topping. Add remaining butter and brown sugar to the remainder of the golden coconut. Heat through allowing sugar and butter to melt together with coconut. Add milk and bring to a simmer, remove from heat and cool. Stir in confectioner's sugar until desired consistency (spreadable) is reached. Spread frosting on top of cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with golden coconut. 


Chocolate Ganache
8 oz chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream

Finely chop chocolate and set aside in medium bowl. Bring heavy cream to a near boil (will begin to rise up in pot). Pour heated cream over chopped chocolate whisking until smooth. Allow ganache to cool slightly before drizzling over cupcakes.

Enjoy!







Comments

  1. Love this idea! They are my favorite cookies too!

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  2. Tooooooo awesome! Partially baked cookie on top it is! I love the experimentation! And from the looks of it, these were some super tasty cupcakes!

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  3. Oh my goodness!! These sound amazing!!! What a great idea :)

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  4. I love this idea. I stocked up on GS cookies just so that I would have enough to use in other projects in my kitchen. These cupcakes look super yummy!

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