Week 2 Cupcake - Chocolate Cupcake with Cream Cheese Cookie Dough Frosting

I was excited to try this recipe for the Cream Cheese Cookie Dough Frosting.  I love cookie dough, I love cream cheese frosting - what could go wrong?  Add that to the fact that is supposedly a copy-cat recipe from a Sweet Tooth Fairy Cupcakes and I was really excited.  I've seen her on Cupcake Wars at least twice and her product always looks amazing.  Also, I made a copycat white chocolate frosting from her last year and it was amazing.  I really dislike white chocolate - usually if a recipe calls for white chocolate chips that's either an automatic no or at best a substitution.  That being said I still dream about that frosting.

1. Source:  Chef-in-Training - one of my favorite and most reliable food blogs.

2. Ease of Recipe (1 being cake mix/canned icing - 5 tons of steps and very time consuming):  This recipe was really just for the frosting but I did a chocolate cake from a cake mix that was doctored.  All and all it gets a 2.  The frosting takes some softening of ingredients and a pretty good bit of mixing.

3. Changes Made: None to the frosting.  To the plain devil's food cake mix I replaced the water with milk with a dash of cream and maybe a cup of chocolate chips.  I may have also added a teaspoon or so of vanilla.

4. Problems:  It was a little over sweet right after I made it but the sugar-y flavor seemed to have mellowed after a little bit in the fridge.  Other than that it mixed up exactly as expected.

5.  Overall Impression: Frosting is very thick so it doesn't make a super pretty cupcake.  I can't even begin to imagine piping this.  However this is probably one of the more accurate egg-less cookie dough I've made.  Very very good!

6. Quantity: As usual I got 20 cupcakes out of a cake mix based batter.  Only had enough frosting to really ice 18 cupcakes.

7. Make Again?: Yes absolutely!