Choc chip cookie cupcakes

Cupcakes with a cookie on top!

I've been meaning to make some sort of cookie dough-themed cupcake for a while now. I wasn't exactly sure how to incorporate the cookie dough. A major First World dilemma, I know. 

Do I put it inside the cupcake? Would it be soft enough? Do I put some in the icing? Can I turn it into icing? I decided to experiment with the latter idea. 

I didn't bother making cookie dough from scratch. I find it's better to cheat when experimenting as you can easily end up spending a lot of money on something that isn't really edible. So, I bought one of those pre-made rolls of cookie dough at the IGA. 

I came home and made a standard batch of vanilla cupcakes and got them underway in the oven. 

Then, using my stick-mixer-food-processor-thingie, I creamed the cookie dough with a bit of milk. I then added it to creamed butter, and worked in icing sugar until the mixture was stiff enough for piping.

An extra picture... just cos. 

Because some of the chocolate chips were still intact, I couldn't use any of my piping nozzles to apply the icing. If there are any lumps or bumps in your buttercream, they will snag in the nozzle and you'll end up with some strange results. 

A piping bag can be used sans nozzle however, so I applied the buttercream via a bag with the end cut off. This created a neat swirl. 

In the meantime, I'd used part of the cookie dough to bake actual cookies. I made them as small as possible and cooked them until they were nice and crisp. As you can see in the pictures, I placed them on top of the icing, at a slight angle. 

Thus, I have created the choc chip cookie cupcake!

Chocolate chips don't need to get in the way of neat piping.