Cupcake a Week: Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

We all love chocolate chip cookies right? And what about cupcakes, we love them too? So how about combining the two and creating a chocolate chip cookie cupcake! These tiny cookie cakes take me back to my teenage years. When my sister and I were in middle school and high school it seems like every weekend we would head to the mall. We were what you might call shopaholics...always seeking out the latest fashion trends at all of the name brand stores.

Man have I come to realize the value of money since those days...I don't even want to think about the thousands of dollars I spent on clothes growing up not even thinking twice about how frivolously I was spending my money. Even in college I was the same way. My college roommate would always joke with me saying "it looks like a department store blew up in your closet" because it would be crammed full with so many clothes I'd be lucky if the doors would even shut.

I am proud to say though that I have done a lot of "growing up" since those days and I no longer feel the urge to splurge on the latest hot fashion items! Knowing that there are bills to be paid and a house mortgage sure do make you get wise about how you spend your money quick. Or maybe it's the fact that I no longer work in a professional work environmet but instead work out of my house...no need to buy high heel shoes and dress slacks anymore...it's running shorts and a t-shirt for me most days! Or maybe it's the fact that where I live now I no longer have access to all of my favorite stores...let's just say the shopping scene in Mobile is not quite the same as it was in Cincinnati.

So its probably the combination of the three (bills, work from home, none of my favorite stores) as to why I am just so cheap these days that I pretty much don't buy any clothes unless they are on sale or at the outlet mall or it's for a special occasion. My husband practically has to convince me to go spend money on myself for a new outfit! I think he buys more clothes for himself...he just can't seem to find the pair of Docker's that fit just right or have enough khaki shorts!

But anyways now that I have gone on a tangent about my history with shopping and spending money on clothes, let's get back to those cookie cups! I don't know that I would have ever been introduced to these had it not been for my shopping obessession. See right across from one of my favorite clothing stores in the mall was this cookie shop called "The Original Cookie Company". Everytime we went to the mall, my sister and I would have to stop in and get several different types of cookies...there was the sugar cookie with M&Ms the double chocolate and the absolute must have chocolate chip cookie cup with icing on top! YUM YUM YUM! This cookie company no longer exists in that mall and I'm not even sure if it exists at all, but those sure were some delicious cookie cups!

So while my sister was here visiting last week I wanted to make her some chocolate chip cookie cups so we could relive our mall madness days! We just used the Nestle Toll House recipe, and placed the dough in a mini cupcake tin to bake. Once the cookies cooled we swirled on some buttercream icing I had left over from making Easter cupcakes! Now these didn't taste quite the same as those cookie cups we remember from The Original Cookie Company but these were a pretty close second!