Blue Milk and Cookies Star Wars Cupcakes

May the Fourth be with you! And may many horrible Star Wars puns be with you as well!

This post will be short and sweet, as Mr C and I will be off to our local nerd pub to enjoy in the Star Wars day festivities. I believe twi'lek bellydancing will be involved. It makes me regret not having a couple of jedi costumes ready and waiting. 

In fact, I think the best part of the night will be the Star Wars trivia. The best part of pub trivia is, of course, the pub trivia team names. Our buddies have been brainstorming all week, and have come up with a few golden apples

• Obi One Kenobi Nil
• Wampa, there it is
• Salacious Apple Crumble
• Willrow Hood's Ice Cream Machine
• Nabootros boutros ghali
• Alderaan Duran

Like I said, may many horrible Star Wars puns be with you as well.

Anyway, lets get to the sweet things. These cupcakes are one of my favourite of our Star Wars treats. We've introduced them at VCON a couple of years ago, and thought this would be a good time to bring them back.   The cake is a cross between funfetti and cookies and cream, while the frosting is our good ol' friend, Swiss Meringue. The flag logos are from an image by David Perillo - Go buy his shirt! Before enjoying, make sure you turn up your speakers and play this song on repeat to make the experience more authentic.

Blue Milk and Cookies Cupcakes
Makes about a dozen 

1 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
blue sprinkles
~6-8 Oreo cookies (chopped into small pieces)

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In your large mixing bowl, whip together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add your egg whites and continue to mix until completely incorporated. Add your vanilla and almond extract.

2) Sift your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until it just beginning to incorporate with each other. Add your buttermilk and continue to stir until your batter is without lumps. Mix in your oreo cookie pieces, mix, then add some blue sprinkles and give it a few good stirs.

3) Fill your cupcakes liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean. Leave out to cool before topping with frosting.

Blue Milk Frosting
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
18 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
blue food colouring

1) Over a double boiler, whisk together the egg whites and sugar until the granules have a disintegrated. Pour the whites into a mixing bowl, careful not to get any condensation or water into it. 

2) With an electric mixer, whip the whites until it forms soft peaks. Continue mixing and slowly add the butter, about 4 Tablespoons at a time and mix until completely incorporated. Mix well - after adding your butter, your buttercream will reach the "curdled stage". Don't worry, just keep mixing and it'll smooth out.

3) After everything has smoothed, add the extract and your blue colouring. When everything is incorporated, use buttercream to pipe over your cooled cupcakes. Enjoy.