Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

One of my favorite parts about being grown up is getting invited to dinner parties.  Tonight I was invited by a friend of a friend (who is now a friend herself) to an end of summer all girls dinner party.  When I asked if I could bring anything, she suggested dessert.  Woot.

My first thought was to make these delicious peanut-butter cupcakes that Mr. made once, but then I found out that the hostess is allergic to nuts.  Plus I can't find my cupcake cookbook. :(

Attached to the cupcake idea, though, as they're somewhat easy to transport, I started on the hunt for a simple yet unique recipe with ingredients that could be found at the nearby supermarket.

First I looked at Little Ms Foodie's blog remembering she had this delicious recipe I've been meaning to try for Mascarpone & Strawberry cupcakes, but I wasn't confident I would be able to find mascarpone cheese at the supermarket.  However, she did have a link to How to Eat a Cupcake, where I discovered a link to the recipe I ended up using for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

The mere thought of whole milk makes me a little queasy, so I instead used 1 cup of skim milk and 2 teaspoons of melted butter.  I also wasn't able to find frozen cookie dough, so I bought 1 lb of the refrigerated kind, broken into 24 pieces, then froze, as suggested.

I didn't quite feel up to making icing from scratch, so I just bought some store chocolate icing... with sprinkles.

Since the recipe makes twice as many cupcakes as I was taking to the party, I enlisted the help of STM.  We make quite the baking team.  We also make quite the eating team.  After the first batch, we sampled them to make sure they turned out alright.

Yes, that's cookie dough goodness in the middle.  Content with our results, we continued with the rest.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say they were a huge hit.  I was the second guest to arrive, so most were unaware that I was the one who brought the cupcakes when they moaned in delight.  Mission accomplished.

Even if the cupcakes hadn't been a hit, though, the dinner party was truly fabulous.  I met a lot of people, including a girl who had gone to undergrad with Mr. - what a small world!  I only knew two people going into the evening, but by the end of the night, I felt like I had known all of them much longer.

And as I headed to the subway, I noticed this text message from Mr.: 

'I hope the dinner party is well.  The cupcakes are good.'

What a lovely night!