Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

January 25, 2015

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Oh cashews, you amaze me. Seriously though cashews are like the Leonardo da Vinci of food. They can do, feel and taste like almost anything. Including cheesecake! My first cheesecake experiment involving cashews was an Espresso & Dark Chocolate Cheesecake (stay tuned for the recipe soon!). It quite literally blew me away! My best girlfriend Valentina came over and we ate most of the cake together. Now cakes can get messy whenever you increase the number of people you're sharing it with. You have to worry about cutting, serving and having enough utensils and plates to go around. Wayyyy too much work if you ask me especially whenever you're trying to actually watch the Super Bowl. You don't want to miss the winning play of the game because you were busy trying to slice a cake. These Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes have non of that hassle and are big crowd pleasers. I mean seriously, who doesn't like Oreos? My taste-testers loved the oreo-cashew filling and compared it to cookie dough. While the adults had a little more self control and only got one a piece, the children in the group kept coming back for seconds... and thirds. If you want to tone down the sugar content a little bit feel free to nix the icing, although I will tell you it definitely takes these cupcakes from the playoffs to the Super Bowl!
Note: Oreo's are considered accidentally vegan by PETA

Yields a dozen cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake
1 1/2 cups of soaked cashews (soak for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight)
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup of vanilla almond milk
dash of salt
7-10 oreo cookies crushed
12 whole oreo cookies
Cream Cheese Icing
1 cup of vegan cream cheese
1 cup of vegan butter
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
Cupcake
1. Blend soaked cashews, coconut oil, agave, almond milk and salt in a high powdered blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.
2. Add crushed oreos to the blender and pulse 3 times or until combined well.
3. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and place an oreo cookie at the bottom of each liner.
4. Using a spoon or frosting pipe, fill each liner with the batter evenly.
5. Chill cupcakes in the freezer for at least 2 hours or until firm.
Cream Cheese Icing
1. In a standing mixer beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy.
2. Beat in sugar and vanilla until well combined.
3. Pipe frosting onto the solid chilled cupcakes.

Serve immediately or place the frosted cupcakes in the freezer until you are ready to serve them. If you like an ice-cream like consistency you can eat the cupcakes straight out of the freezer. If you like a more cookie dough or cheesecake type consistency allow the cupcakes to thaw at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before eating.