The Happy Little Hawkins Family: Drew's Birthday Party and His Fabulous Oreo Cupcakes

Drew's family birthday party was this weekend. We always celebrate several March birthdays together each year, and we did the same this year. After eating hamburgers and hot dogs, the birthday people opened their gifts. Drew's cousin, Brandon - another birthday boy, helped him open some of his gifts.

His cousin, Lilly, helped too.

Drew got several car toys - both Cars 2 and Hot Wheels cars.

He also got a couple of Wii games and a game for his MobiGo. He was very excited.

We had talked to him before the party about thanking everyone for the gifts they gave him, and he did a very good job about going to each person and thanking them for their gifts.

Maddie was very popular at the party. Most of the family hadn't seen her yet.

Jim's sister, Sharon, held her quite a bit.

Maddie really seemed to love Jim's nephew, Greg. She smiled for him a few times! She has just started smiling a little bit in the past week, so it was a pretty big deal for her to smile at him!

Drew had fun playing with his new cars with his cousin, Danny. Jim's niece and her family (who hosted the party) keep foster dogs, and one of the dogs just loved Jim! You can see him with his head resting on Jim.

I am usually the cake lady for this party, and I usually bake a big layer cake and try to decorate it a little bit, but I didn't think I was up for that this year. I decided to make cupcakes, but I wanted them to be a little more special than just plain chocolate or yellow cupcakes. I decided to make 2 kinds - a chocolate cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and a fun flavor, which I let Drew choose. I have the Cupcake book by the Cake Doctor, and there were two recipes from that book that I let Drew pick between - a Cookie Dough cupcake and a Cookies and Cream cupcake. Drew picked the Cookies and Cream cupcakes. They were so good! Here is the recipe with a few little tweaks from me:

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

24 paper cupcake liners

1 package Oreo cookies

1 package plain white cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.

Count out 24 Oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. Take the wafers with the frosting on them, and put one wafer, frosting side up, in the bottom of each paper liner. Place the remaining wafers and the rest of your package of Oreos (minus the ones you and the birthday boy eat!) in a Ziplock bag, and crush them by rolling over them with a rolling pin. Set the crumbs aside.

Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl, and blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides to the bowl with a spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for another 1 1/2 minutes. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of crushed Oreos, and fold them into the batter. Set aside the remaining Oreos for garnish. Scoop your batter into the lined cupcake cups. (I like to use a large cookie scoop for this.)

Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for five minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let them cool on wire racks for 15 minutes before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the mixer, and add the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Place a heaping tablespoon of the frosting on each cupcake and spread over the top to cover completely. Sprinkle the reserved cookie crumbs over the tops, gently pressing them into the frosting so they stick.