Cookie Dough Cupcakes

So awhile back I went on a baking spree and finally made these Cookie Dough Cupcakes. I had originally found a recipe for them online but decided to just use boxed cake mix to make things easier on myself. You can make a homemade cake which I usually do but since there are so many other components to these it really doesn't matter because the cake really isn't the star.

First make the cookie dough:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 cup water
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 1/8 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use mini)

Blend the butter and sugars in a mixer on low speed until fluffy. Add the water, vanilla, and salt. Mix until well blended. Add the flour a little at a time. Blend flour completely and then add chocolate chips. Mix just enough to combine. Shape the dough into little balls and freeze on a baking sheet. Honestly sometimes I just mix up the dough & just put it in a container and freeze it then just spoon out little bits when I get ready to make the cupcakes but doing the balls will make the dough spread more evenly in the cupcake. (I just get lazy! Ha!)

Mix the cake mix according to directions. Preheat oven to 350 F. Fill the cupcake lines about 2/3 full. I have a scoop from Pampered Chef that is perfect..I think it's the large one. Place the frozen cookie dough ball in the center of each cupcake. Don't worry if the cake batter doesn't cover it, it will during baking.

Bake cupcakes about 16-18 minutes.

Cookie Dough Frosting:
3 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar a little at a time and mix until smooth. Beat in the salt, milk, and vanilla until smooth.

Honestly I prefer using cream cheese frosting because I feel like the cookie dough frosting is too sugary for me but other people love it so just depends on what kind of mood I'm in. Either way sprinkle them with mini chocolate chips.

Be warned, if you make these and take them anywhere you will be harassed until you bring them back again. They are that good!

Also, for those that are wondering since the dough doesn't have eggs it is perfectly safe to not cook all the way and to leave sitting out. This is actually the same dough I use for the cookie dough egg rolls I posted a few posts back.

What a Difference a Month Makes!

I have a few updates on my trip to Africa. First off I would just like to say that I am so incredibly honored to have shared my experience with 23 amazing people who continue to impress me with their generosity every day. After you read this I hope you will see how amazing they are as well!
When we came back from Tanzania we were all filled with the desire to do more. We were warned that this would happen and told to start small and think of things we could do that were not overwhelming so we didn't stress ourselves out trying to come up with something to do. My group didn't take that advise. We were all about doing things that would make a big impact. Because we continued to work together, tackling something big didn't seem so bad.
Within the first couple of weeks one participant, Harriet, reached out to one of the schools that had no water. She paid their back bills and paid their water bill for the next couple of years going forward. Wow. That was pretty amazing!
We've been back for a little over a month now and last week another participant, Ben, reached out to our group and said he had spoken to someone at another school and we needed $675 to get their back bills paid, new pipes installed, and to pay their water bill for a year going forward but the catch was we needed to get it by next week. The day the email was sent out I had back to back meetings with no time to respond with my donation. By the time I was done & ready to respond later that afternoon, the money had already been raised and we had successfully completed getting water restored in school #2. That's how awesome the people I went with are. In fact Ben turned away more than one of us so we already know that some of us will be donating to the next project.
We have a lot of things that we would like to do. Sometimes the communication is a little slow in coming but we are working on it. I finally got a contact today at another school without water so hopefully we'll be working on water for our 3rd school soon. There are many other projects in the work and we hope to have a fundraising site so people can donate money to help us as well.
I don't think any of us realized the impact that we can make with so little effort. We just changed the lives of hundreds of kids for $675 that we raised in one afternoon. That is completely amazing to me. I can't wait to go back in January and see what changes have taken place. And I can't wait to see what we can do going forward. People ask me why I don't just donate the money I am spending on the 2nd trip but it's not just a trip. It's an ongoing experience. I can now be a leader for the next group and say look at what we've done. 24 people came together and this is what we did and this is what you can do too. Then maybe someone else will go back and get the next 24 and so on and so forth. Not to mention the amount of people that I have talked with this trip about who are considering doing a trip or donating money. It just keeps going and going and going.
I went on that trip thinking I would make a difference by giving kids some shoes and have a little fun while doing it. I never expected that I would become a voice and change their lives even more. My first group will have a special place in my heart forever but I can't wait to go again and share this with even more people!

If you would like to help out with the January trip you can donate to my fundraising page. If you would like to help out with further projects please let me know and I will contact you with our next thing!