Girl Scout Cookie Inspired Cupcakes

It is Girl Scout cookie season! Catalogs to pre-order your favorite cookies were floating around the office a few months ago, and I finally received my order!

To resist the urge of eating an entire box of Samoas and Thin Mints in one sitting, I have been saving them until I had an excuse to bake again - and this happened to be for a co-workers birthday. By the way, saving these coveted cookies took immense willpower. Ok, fine, being honest here - I ate a cookie, or two.

I wanted to make these mini cupcakes with layers of flavors that best represents the cookie itself - taste testers agree that this was a successful effort. The star of these morsels of happiness were the different buttercream flavors.

First up, were the Samoas cupcakes - don't they look divine? I actually made two batches, one with a vanilla butter cake, and the second with the chocolate cake base. The vanilla butter cake was frosted with a caramel buttercream, and topped with toasted coconut. Although delicious, it was not as "coconutty" and "chocolately" as I would have liked. Taste testers agreed - the chocolate version was on point.

For the second version, I made a coconut Italian meringue buttercream. Topped them with toasted coconut, drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and ganache, and garnished with a wedge of cookie. Oh man - delicious!

Chocolate cupcake recipe can be found here (Yields: 48-50 mini cupcakes) 

Piped with Jumbo round tip

Coconut Italian Meringue Buttercream:

• 150g egg whites (I use pasteurized eggs whites because its more convenient then separating eggs by hand)
• 200g sugar
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (optional - I use this because of the humidity in FL)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (this is more for my taste, you can reduce the amount if you want it less sweet, but it really isn't that sweet) 
• 3-4 sticks butter at room temperature (If you like a strong buttery flavor, add 4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup shortening at room temperature (optional - if you are baking in hot weather and need stability, omit and add other stick of butter instead)
• 2 tsp coconut extract
• 1-2 Tbsp vanilla

Candy thermometer
Medium sized pot/saucepan
Stand mixer is recommended, unless you want an arm and shoulder workout - go ahead with your hand mixer.

1. Make sure all utensils and equipment that is going to touch your egg whites are whipped down with vinegar or lemon juice to remove any residual oils. This will help ensure your egg whites will turn into a meringue.
2. Measure out your egg whites in mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Measure out 200g sugar and 1/2 cup water in saucepan and place on medium heat. I like to wait until the sugar is fully submerged in the water and starts to dissolve before I start cooking it, about 5 minutes. Clip on your candy thermometer. Resist the urge to stir or swirl!
4. You want the temperature of the sugar syrup to reach 245 F, so watch carefully. When the temp gets to about 225 F or 230 F, start whipping up your egg whites. 
5. Whip your egg whites on medium speed until it has passed the frothy stage and the volume has increased a bit. 
6. Add 50g of sugar slowly, and allow the sugar to get incorporated. Add your cream of tartar (optional)
7. Increase to high speed and allow the meringue to form into stiff peaks.
8. Your sugar syrup should be approaching 245 F at this time, so keep an eye, once it hits that temperature remove from heat. 
9. Once your meringue is ready, slowly pour the hot sugar syrup while your mixer is on medium speed. Be sure not to pour the syrup onto the side walls of the bowl, it should be going right into the meringue. 
10. Mix on high speed for about 5-10 minutes until meringue is glossy and has stiff peaks. 
11. Reduce speed to low, add powdered sugar slowly until well incorporated. 
12. Add in your butter and shortening, I just throw in the whole sticks - and increased to medium speed. At this stage your buttercream will look soupy, then curdled, and then magically fluff up. 
13. Once the buttercream is fluffy, add in vanilla and coconut extract, mix until well incorporated. 

Chocolate ganache (also used for thin mint cupcakes):

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 heavy cream

1. Place both in microwave safe bowl. Heat in 10 second increments and whisk in between until smooth. 
2. Let cool to room temperature (if too hot, it will melt your buttercream!)
3. Place in piping bag or use spoon to drizzle over cupcakes. 

Caramel sauce:

• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine butter, sugar, and cream in small sauce pan on medium heat.
2. Whisk slowly until well combined, butter and sugar is completely melted and should not be grainy. 
3. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
4. Let cool to room temp, and drizzle over cupcakes. 

Toasted Coconut:

• 1 cup sweetened coconut

1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees F
2. Place coconut evenly spread on a cookie sheet and place in oven. 
3. Check every 5 minutes until evenly toasted - stir around if needed. 
4. Once coconut is mostly an golden/amber brown, remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp. 
5. Sprinkle over cupcakes

For the thin mint cupcakes (which I LOVED), the chocolate cupcake was frosted with vanilla mint buttercream, topped with a chocolate chip thin mint cookie crumble, drizzled chocolate ganache, and garnished with a thin mint cookie wedge.

Just the right balance between chocolate and mint, the mint frosting was perfectly sweet and refreshing. So good!

Piped with large closed star tip

Vanilla Mint Buttercream:
Follow same instructions as above.

• 150g egg whites (I use pasteurized eggs whites because its more convenient then separating eggs by hand)
• 200g sugar
• 50g sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (optional - I use this because of the humidity in FL)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (this is more for my taste, you can reduce the amount if you want it less sweet, but it really isn't that sweet) 
• 3-4 sticks butter at room temperature (If you like a strong buttery flavor, add 4 sticks)
• 1/2 cup shortening at room temperature (optional - if you are baking in hot weather and need stability, omit and add other stick of butter instead)
• 2-3 tsp peppermint extract
• 1-2 Tbsp vanilla
• 1-2 drops kelly green food coloring gel

Chocolate chip Thin Mint cookie crumble:

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3 thin mint cookies

1. Pulse in food processor until smal crumbs form
2. Sprinkle over cupcakes

I don't know what it is about these cookies, maybe its just the sweet nostalgia of having these treats every year since childhood - but these cupcake versions were a fun way to change up a tradition of eating my favorite cookies.