Ferroro Rocher Stuffed Cookie Monsters

Last week was a busy one for my oven and I.

After Chinese New Year, my mother's birthday, and Valentines' Day, my boyfriend's birthday trails right after. With full work days followed by nights of eating out, I could barely find time to bake these! But what better excuse to bake the most decadent chocolatey treat than my sweetheart's birthday? Since my boyfriend loves Ferroro Rochers, I wanted to incorporate them into cupcakes. And after reading Bakerita's success with hers, I felt confident to give these a try.

Due to time constraints, I took a shortcut by using Betty Crocker's german chocolate cake mix for these. It's my go-to chocolate cake mix because it's not too sweet, but is perfectly moist. 

Ferroro Rocher stuffed cupcake recipe:

1 box of chocolate cake mix of choice

20 Ferroro Rocher chocolates

1. Prepare cake batter following the box instructions

2. Fill cupcake tins with batter till half full

3. Insert a Ferroro Rocher into each cupcake (it won't be fully submerged in the batter, but don't worry, the cupcakes will cover the Ferroro Rocher as they rise in the oven)

4. Bake as instructed by the cake mix box, or till an inserted toothpick comes out clean

The final product was a chocolatey, hazelnutty cupcake packed with textures and flavors. I'm not usually a fan of very chocolatey cakes but this one really is a winner for me.

sorry cookie monster, had to chop you in half!

My trusty buttercream frosting recipe:

1 cup butter (softened)

2.5 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

1. Whisk butter for a few minutes

2. Add powdered sugar and whisk on low till all blended

3. Add in the salt, milk and vanilla extract and beat till mixture is smooth

Months ago my boyfriend got really amused by a picture of Cookie Monster cupcakes online (lol), so I had taken down a mental note to try to replicate my own version of them for his birthday. For Cookie Monster's face, I added blue food coloring to my buttercream frosting. I then cut up marshmallows into halves as eyes, brown mini M&Ms as eyeballs, and half a Chips Ahoy cookie as the mouth. Halfway through garnishing, I ran out of brown M&Ms and so went with heart sprinkles as eyeballs instead (they're the same ones I used for my Valentines' Day chocolates). I loved how these turned out - they're crazy-in-love Cookie Monsters!

Happy Birthday my love!