Cupcake a Week: Samoa Minis

Well as most of you probably know, February is Girl Scout cookie month! I'm sure you've seen those cute little girls outside of the super markets this month selling these famous colorful boxes of cookies for their troops or have already bought one, two, three or more boxes from one of the girls in your neighborhood. I have been ordering girl scout cookies for as long as I can remember since my sister was involved in girl scouts as we were growing up. My favorites have always been the Red Box - Tagalongs (chocolate & peanut butter), the Green Box - Thin Mints and the Purple Box - Samoas (chocolate, coconut & caramel). So since we have already bought and eaten half way through several boxes of cookies this year, I thought it would be fun to try and recreate one of my favorite cookies as a cupcake!

So here goes my attempt at making a Samoa cupcake. The 3 most important ingredients: coconut, caramel and chocolate.

I had to steal this box away from my husband because he had already eaten 2 rows of the cookies in 2 days.

I love the 3 layers of oooey gooey goodness on this cookie. The caramel topped with the toasted coconut and then the drizzle of chocolate...these 3 flavors together are delicious! And when you bite into the cookie and the caramel stretches out into a thin string that hangs from your mouth, that makes your lips all sticky...you know what I'm talking about right...or I am just a slob when eating these cookies????

And the coating of chocolate on the bottom side of the cookie is a special treat too! I used to put these cookies on my finger as a kid and pretend that they were a ring...did anyone else do that too? So now that I've gushed about all the features that make me absolutely love this cookie, let's talk about how to turn the flavors found in this cookie into a cupcake!

I started going through all different types of cupcake recipes, looking for ones that had at least one of the key ingredients: coconut, caramel or chocolate in them. I decided I wanted to make pretty traditional flavored yellow cupcake but I substituted the granulated sugar with brown sugar to help bring out a caramel flavor in the cake. Once I had the base of the cupcake batter made I then melted some caramels and mixed in along with some coconut flakes to add some extra textures and layers of flavors in the cake.


While the cupcake were cooling, I toasted some more coconut in the oven that I used for a garnish on top.

I melted some more caramels and drizzled over the cupcakes.

Then sprinkled on the toasted coconut.

And we can't forget about the chocolate. Don't worry about making the garnishes look perfect like the cookie...I just wanted to drizzle them on quickly and roughly that way each cupcake is unique and some are more ooey gooey than others...those are the best!

So what do you think...have I made a pretty good Samoa cupcake cookie replica? Have I convinced you to go out and buy a box of these cookies or whip up a batch of these cupcakes! I promise you won't be disappointed with either one of them, they are both delish! These cupcakes baked up so fluffy and moist with little pockets of caramel tucked inside.

Samao Minis Cupcakes (makes 36 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
-1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
-3 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup milk
-1/2 cup coconut flakes
-6 Kraft caramels, melted with a splash of water

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line mini cupcake tins with paper liners.
• Combine butter and brown sugar in bowl of electric mixer and cream together on medium speed.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix.
• Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
• Add the flour mixture and milk to the creamed butter and sugar alternating the dry and wet ingredients in 3 batches.
• Melt the caramels in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth. Pour melted caramel into the batter and stir.
• Add the coconut and stir.
• Divide batter evenly into prepared cupcake liners.
• Bake for 14-16 minutes. Let cool before adding toppings.
  

Toppings:
-8 Kraft caramels, melted with a splash of water
-1/2 cup coconut flakes, toasted
-1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, melted

• Melt the caramels in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth. Drizzle melted caramel over the cupcakes.
• Sprinkle toasted coconut over caramel topped cupcakes.
• Melt the semi sweet chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until smooth. Drizzle melted chocolate over the cupcakes.

If you have another Girl Scout cookie that is your favorite and you want me to recreate it as a cupcake leave me a comment and just maybe your cookie flavor will be featured as a cupcake in an upcoming post!

ENJOY!