Please read the instructions completely before you begin! This is generally advisable when baking, otherwise mistakes can easily be made in the heat of the moment, which can then be irreversible.😉

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and line a muffin tin with twelve paper baking cups of your choice. If you don’t have a muffin tin, stack two, or even better, three, of the paper baking cups inside each other to place twelve cups on a baking sheet. (Individual cups would collapse too quickly under the weight of the batter, making a huge mess—and the whole thing won’t look pretty either.)

Now take the twelve OREOs and carefully separate the cookie halves. This works best if you use a sharp knife and run the blade under one of the halves. Place the cream-covered cookie sides into the prepared paper baking cups as shown.

Set aside the cookie halves without the cream and the broken ones; you’ll need them later. (It’s a good idea to buy a few extra Oreo cookies to be sure you have enough cream sides for the cupcake bases.)

Now take two bowls. In the first, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt), leaving out the sugar for now. In the second bowl, beat the room-temperature butter and sugar with a mixer until creamy. Add the egg whites and vanilla extract and beat well for several minutes until fluffy.

(I don’t have vanilla extract, so I use Vanilla Baking from Schwartau. You can also use real vanilla pulp or vanilla sugar – not vanillin. If you want to keep the recipe true to the original, you can of course make your own vanilla extract. Simply place several slit vanilla pods in a screw-top jar, such as a rinsed jam jar, and pour over schnapps or vodka. Let this mixture stand for at least six weeks and up to six months. Homemade extract is less intense than store-bought, so use a little more. The dosage has to be tested for each mixture. But at least you know you’re not baking any chemicals into your cupcakes.)

Now add the dry ingredients and milk to the liquid batter and mix everything until smooth. Roughly crumble or chop any leftover or broken biscuit halves. You can either mix them directly into the batter or scatter them on top once you’ve filled the baking cups. I did the latter during this baking session. Press the crumbs into the batter a little more to even out the surface. (I unfortunately forgot to do this at the time.)

Bake the cupcakes on the middle rack of the oven for about 15 to 18 minutes. If you’re not sure if the batter is cooked through, pierce it with a toothpick. If there’s still batter sticking to it, let them bake for a few more minutes and then check again until the toothpick comes out clean. Just be careful not to overcook them! Remove them from the oven and carefully turn them out of the pan to cool.

Now it’s time to prepare the frosting. First, mix the cream cheese and butter in a bowl with a mixer for about a minute. Then add the vanilla extract and sifted powdered sugar and beat for another minute. Finally, add the whipped cream and mix on high to achieve a nice consistency.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, you can decorate them with the frosting. I use a piping bag with a star nozzle for this. As a decoration, place a mini OREO or an OREO half on top of the topping, and voilà, they’re ready to eat! Until then, it’s best to cover the cakes and refrigerate them or store them in another cool place.