Soft, vanilla cupcakes filled with a realistic sugar cookie dough, and finished with a sweet, vanilla buttercream. These Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes are addictively tasty for kids and adults alike!
Bribing Children
When my son was two or three years old, he hated having his hair cut. It was a whole event getting him to go, getting him to sit in the chair, and then him letting someone near his hair with scissors. Quite the drama.
Fortunately, his ‘hair cut store’ is located next to a bakery. One of his first haircuts, I told him that if he’d sit without yelling, and let the stylist cut his hair, we could pick out a cupcake for each of us. He would get one for going through with it and I would get one for surviving the ordeal. It worked like a charm. Everyone was happy.
Now, he is five years old, and actually wants to have his hair cut when it gets too long for him. But, we still get cupcakes after every cut. It’s just our thing.
Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes
The bakery my son and I frequent sells a delicious vanilla cupcake filled with sugar cookie dough. I get it pretty much every time we go. When things closed in our area because of COVID, I was a little bummed that my son and I couldn’t go get our cupcakes. So, I decided to recreate them.
Vanilla Cupcake
First, I needed a sweet, soft Vanilla cupcake. I modified my Homemade Funfetti Cake recipe, which worked beautifully.
I try to make recipes with things that most people have around the house. Since I know many people don’t keep cake flour on-hand, for most cakes and cupcakes, I use a mixture of flour and cornstarch. The combination makes soft, fluffy cake layers.
Cookie Dough Filling
The cookie dough filling was my top priority for these cupcakes. It needed to be realistically doughy, sweet, and safe.
Cooking Flour
As it is known that raw flour can be contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella, it’s best to cook the flour before eating it. In the case of raw cookie dough, I simply spread the flour out on a baking sheet, and cook it at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
Cooking the flour does not change the taste, but makes it safer to eat.
Keeping the Dough Doughy
My first concern with the filling was having the cookie dough turn into a hard cookie while the cupcakes were baking. To prevent this, I made the cookie dough into balls that I froze for a day before using them.
Freezing the dough helped to keep it doughy as the cupcakes baked. And the cookie dough balls that I didn’t use for the cupcake filling made a perfect snack!
Frosting
Buttercream is my go-to frosting. And for these cupcakes, it just made sense.
When frosting cakes, I generally use half butter and half shortening, as the combination pipes well. For these cupcakes though, I wanted the frosting to be 100% butter to give it a rich flavor and creamy consistency.
I then covered the frosting with multicolored sugar sprinkles to give the appearance of a sugar-topped, sugar cookie!
These Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes are addictively delicious. You’ll want to make them over and over again!
Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cookie Dough Filling
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons candy sprinkles
Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Frosting and Decor
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons milk or whipping cream
- Sugar sprinkles desired colors for decor
Instructions
Cookie Dough Filling
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread flour out evenly on a 9×13 baking pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before using in dough.
- Use electric mixer with paddle attachment to beat butter, sugar, and powdered sugar until lightened and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in milk, vanilla extract, and almond extract until well combined.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour and salt. Then, mix into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in candy sprinkles.
- Form dough into balls that are about 2 inches in size.
- Place balls on parchment paper in freezer. Let freeze for at least 12 hours before using in cupcakes.
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 16 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.
- Use electric mixer to beat butter and sugar until lightened and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Then beat in vanilla and almond extracts.
- On low speed, mix in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Scrape down sides as needed.
- In a small bowl, stir together flour, salt, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda. Alternate beating in flour mixture and buttermilk, in 2-3 additions, starting and ending with flour mixture.
- Fold in sour cream until well incorporated.
- Place 1-2 teaspoons of batter into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then place a frozen cookie dough ball in each liner (you will not use all of the cookie dough balls).
- Cover cookie dough balls with batter so that each muffin tin is about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake for 14-17 minutes, or until tops are golden brown. Let cool completely before decorating.
Frosting and Decor
- Use electric mixer to beat butter until lightened and smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Mix in salt and vanilla until well combined.
- Alternate mixing in powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and milk, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency and sweetness level are reached.
- Decorate cupcakes as desired. Roll the frosted cupcakes through sugar sprinkles, or sprinkle over frosting.
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed these Sugar Cookie Dough Cupcakes, you should check out these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Easy Cutout Sugar Cookies
Blueberry Cupcakes
Funfetti Cookie Cake
Homemade Funfetti Cake
Links to Amazon items used to make this recipe:
