You are going to love this recipe for Easy Oreo Cupcakes! These chocolatey cupcakes are a favorite at my house- not only are they delicious, but you can easily whip up a batch in no time. They are fluffy, super moist, and the Oreo Buttercream is so good that you’re going to want to just dive right into the bowl.

Buttercream frosting is so easy to make, and this frosting recipe is based on our favorite vanilla buttercream recipe–just with crushed Oreos mixed in! 

I’m using a simple chocolate cake mix for this recipe –but you would never guess it! It has a couple of secret ingredients that make it even more chocolatey and moist than straight-from-the-box cupcakes.  We also use this doctored chocolate cake mix recipe in our Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes recipe!

How to Doctor up a Chocolate Cake Mix

• There are tons of ways to doctor up an ordinary cake mix and make it extra delicious. In today’s recipe, we’re adding a little mayo! I promise there is no flavor of mayonnaise in the cake, but it gives the cake a boost of moisture! We’ve used this method for the longest time– it’s a great little secret ingredient for cake mixes!

• Even though we’re starting with a Devil’s Food cake mix which is already rich and chocolatey, I also added just a little more cocoa.. and a little extra vanilla. 

• I also like to use coffee in my chocolate cakes because it brings out the flavor even more. A little something that mom told me, and it’s true! But if you don’t want coffee in your cake batter you can stick to water as the recipe calls for…it will still be really good!

• Some of the doctored cake mix recipes that we love add an extra egg or sour cream, but they make the cake slightly more dense– I want to keep these cupcakes fluffy and so we’re just going to stick with mayo (and cocoa powder)  for this recipe.

How to Make Easy Oreo Buttercream Frosting

• This recipe is based on our favorite simple vanilla buttercream recipe. First, cream the butter until nice and smooth. Then add your vanilla and a little salt.

• Put the mixer on medium speed and add half of the confectioners sugar and most of the milk (I like to use whole milk).

• Next, add the rest of the milk and powdered sugar and mix on medium speed for 3-4 minutes. For the last minute or so, you can turn down the speed to slow (#2 on a KitchenAid mixer). This step helps to eliminate air pockets in the frosting. It will become very smooth.

• Finally, it’s Oreo time! Crush your Oreos very finely- I like to put them into a food processor so that the frosting can easily be piped through a piping tip without getting stuck– I learned this the hard way (:  Having large crumbs/Oreo pieces in the frosting also makes it much more difficult to spread over the cake.

How to Decorate the Oreo Cupcakes

Now for the fun part- the decorating! I loaded my piping bag with our Oreo Buttercream, snipped away the tip, and swirled frosting onto my cupcakes. I topped them off with Mini Oreos but you could use whole Oreos — using minis as toppers just gives you another excuse to buy more Oreos–and leftover Oreos is a good problem too have (: 

Here are our finished cupcakes!  

Thanks for stopping in! Make sure to check out our other favorite recipes in our Recipes section! 

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Easy Oreo Cupcakes

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These Easy Oreo Cupcakes are decadent chocolate cupcakes (from a doctored cake mix) frosted with homemade Oreo buttercream frosting. SO good and always a crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

• 1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix (we like Duncan Hines), sifted
• Ingredients as listed on the box (water, eggs, and oil) *** We often substitute coffee for the water
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise, full fat (we use Hellman's)
• cupcake liners

For the Oreo Buttercream

• 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened but cool to the touch and holding it's shape
• 6-7 cups (690-805 grams) powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency. More sugar=more crusting). If you prefer a frosting that crusts less, see our note at the bottom of the recipe.
• 2 tsp. vanilla (8 grams), use clear imitation vanilla if you like a whiter frosting
• 1/4 c. (60g) whole milk or more if needed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (3g) to cut the sweetness (preferably fine grain or popcorn salt). Adjust to taste.
• Oreos- We used about 10 crushed Oreos for this recipe but use however many you'd like!
• **We also used mini Oreos for cupcake toppers

Instructions

For the Chocolate Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift mix into bowl and add ingredients according to box instructions. Add vanilla, mayo and cocoa.
3. Mix all ingredients on medium speed for two minutes, scraping the bowl when necessary.
4. Place cupcake liners in the pans and fill them about 2/3 full. This recipe makes approximately 22-24 cupcakes.
5. Bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes or until they spring back after being lightly touched in the center, or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

For the Oreo Buttercream

1. Cream the (slightly softened) butter until smooth. Blend in the vanilla.
2. Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
3. Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. I slow down the mixer to very slow. (#2 on the Kitchenaid) for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.
4. Crush the Oreos. We used a food processor for a finer crumb so that the frosting would spread more easily. You can also place them in a Ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin.
5. Fold Oreos into your buttercream.
6. This recipe can be doubled or halved.
7. Yields approximately 4 1/2 cups of frosting.