Tagalong Cupcakes are delicious pound cake covered in peanut butter buttercream and dipped in chocolate. A perfect cupcake version of the Girl Scouts’ best cookie.
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season! Were you a Girl Scout? I was a Girl Scout. This time of year always brings back fond memories of that period of my life: riding a bike without training wheels for the first time during a meeting, making SWAPS, watching troop leaders chase a flaming paper towel across a campground during a multi-troop camping trip…
I loved being a Girl Scout as a girl, so I thought it would be fun to create a series of Girl Scout-inspired cupcakes as an adult.
I had SUCH a blast coming up with these. I thought long and hard about how to interpret each aspect of the cookies. Some of them were literal, chocolate coating for chocolate coating, but for some I had to really think about what the cupcake equivalent would be.
For example, two of the cookies have a shortbread-like base and one of them is literal shortbread, so I figured buttery classic pound cake would be the best sub in for buttery classic shortbread.
We are starting today with my favorite cookie, Tagalongs. Why these aren’t everyone’s favorite will forever elude me (see more of my complaining when we get to Samoas), but what evs. More Tagalongs for me!
Tagalongs are a cookie base covered in sweet peanut butter and dipped in chocolate. So my Tagalong Cupcakes are the aforementioned pound cake base, with a layer of sweet peanut butter buttercream, and then dipped in chocolate.
And surprise, Tagalong Cupcakes are amazing. They actually taste quite a bit like Tagalongs, but fluffy and soft rather than crunchy. The peanut butter pairs shockingly well with the pound cake and obviously, peanut butter and chocolate is a no-fail combo.
Stay tuned for the next three Fridays as we make our way through the other three most popular Girl Scout Cookies, in order from least to most popular, ending with the cookie that accounts for the largest percentage of total Girl Scout cookie sales (you can probably guess which one that is).
And if all this talk of cookies has given you a hankering for some, you can use the cookie locator to find your nearest troop selling them! Support some young ladies so they can grow up and run a food blog that… makes cupcakes based off of Girl Scout Cookies.
Time is a flat circle.
More Girl Scout Cookie Cupcakes…
Do-si-do Cupcakes
Thin Mint Cupcakes
Samoa Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- ▢ 12 Pound Cake Cupcakes cooled*
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 42 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 135 g) creamy peanut butter*
- ▢ 2/3 cup ( 80 ) powdered sugar
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream divided
Chocolate Coating
- ▢ 1 cup ( 6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chopped (high-quality chips or baking chocolate are fine)
- ▢ 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil
Instructions
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- Combine butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add up to 1 more tablespoon of heavy cream if needed so you have a smooth and spreadable frosting.
- Spread a fairly thick layer of frosting over the cupcakes, stopping about a quarter inch from the edges. Run your knife or spatula over it once or twice to ensure that it is as smooth as possible.
Chocolate Coating
- Combine chocolate and oil in a small microwave-safe bowl just large enough for dipping. Microwave at medium power for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until all lumps disappear. Stir vigorously until chocolate is smooth and glossy.
- Dip cupcakes in the chocolate and allow excess to run off before setting aside to dry. If your cupcakes baked up below the wrapper, you can spoon the chocolate on and tilt the cupcake until the entire surface is covered. The chocolate on the cupcakes will set within about 15 minutes in the refrigerator or an hour on the counter.
Notes
Nutritional Information Peanut Butter Buttercream Adapted From: Food.com Chocolate Coating Adapted From: Martha Stewart
Panko and Parmesan Broccoli is an easy, cheesy broccoli side dish. Healthy, quick, and perfect for busy weeknights.
I have another quick and easy vegetable side dish for you today. Like I mentioned in my No-fail Butter and Garlic Green Beans post, I have some strict requirements when it comes to the veggie sides that I cook regularly. They have to be easy. They have to be quick. And they have to taste good while still being healthy.
Long, complicated, heavy sides are fine for the weekend, but on busy weeknights, I know myself well enough to know that I’ll just skip my veggies if it takes too much work to make them. And while mayonnaise-laden pasta salads and things like Loaded Baked Potato Salads are everything good and beautiful in this world, I shouldn’t be eating them every night of the week.
This broccoli fits all three of those bills. It’sSO easy–if you buy pre-cut broccoli florets, you don’t even have to cut anything. It’s fast, and it’s so, so yummy. I’m not kidding, if you are making this dish with other people in the kitchen, you have to watch closely to make sure they are not stealing bites of it!
The broccoli is tossed with a little olive oil then sprinkled with panko, Parmesan, Italian spices and garlic before going into the oven for 10 minutes. When it comes out, your broccoli is perfectly cooked and coated in a crunchy, cheesy coating that everyone will love.
And fun fact, do you know the correct way to pronounce panko? It’s pan-KOH. As a Japanese person who speaks just enough Japanese to know better, I had been pronouncing it PANG-ko for years! I feel that it’s now my duty try and correct the damage I have done. 😉
Saturday Morning Snapshot
Brunch with my BFF so I made cookies…
State of the Blog
As promised, there were more cupcakes on the blog this week, also broccoli. I can think of worse ways to celebrate the end of Baking Mischief’s third month.
We’re in March now, so that means it’s time for a new monthly series! Tune in Monday for that. Wednesday we have a copycat restaurant recipe that I’ve lightened up a bit, and Friday, we will have Girl Scout cupcake #2 (it’s a good one).
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Pound Cake Cupcakes AKA Cupcakes for Breakfast – Light, buttery pound cake topped with the berries of your choice and smothered in a lot more than a dollop of homemade whipped cream. A perfect excuse to eat cupcakes for breakfast.
Quick Panko and Parmesan Broccoli – An easy, cheesy broccoli side dish with crunchy panko and Parmesan. Healthy, quick, and perfect for busy weeknights.
Tagalong Cupcakes – Delicious pound cake covered in peanut butter buttercream and dipped in chocolate. A perfect cupcake version of the Girl Scout’s best cookie.
Pop-culture Corner
The Hannibal Cookbook is available for pre-order! This is great news for Fannibals and cannibals the world over.
Also in the Fullerverse, we got news on Wednesday that Ian McShane has been cast as Mr. Wednesday in the American Gods adaptation. Sometimes dream casting really does come true.
Have you watched the new Ghostbusters trailer? It is doing terrible, terrible things to my Kate McKinnon girl crush.
Sony Pictures via Tumblr
Uh, Chris H looks good too.
Finally, just in time for Easter, this chocolate Cumberbunny is the craziest Cumberbatch-related thing I’ve ever seen, and this is coming from someone who once sculpted a Smauglock out of marshmallow fondant.
Meal Planning
Saturday: Naan Pizza Sunday: Chicken Pot Pie Monday: Chicken Parmesan Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Salad Wednesday: Chipotle Chicken Sandwiches Thursday: Sausage and Rice Skillet Friday: Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
Tagalong Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 12 Pound Cake Cupcakes cooled*
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- 3 tablespoons ( 42 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup ( 135 g) creamy peanut butter*
- 2/3 cup ( 80 ) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream divided
Chocolate Coating
- 1 cup ( 6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chopped (high-quality chips or baking chocolate are fine)
- 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil
Instructions
Peanut Butter Buttercream
- Combine butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add up to 1 more tablespoon of heavy cream if needed so you have a smooth and spreadable frosting.
- Spread a fairly thick layer of frosting over the cupcakes, stopping about a quarter inch from the edges. Run your knife or spatula over it once or twice to ensure that it is as smooth as possible.
Chocolate Coating
- Combine chocolate and oil in a small microwave-safe bowl just large enough for dipping. Microwave at medium power for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until all lumps disappear. Stir vigorously until chocolate is smooth and glossy.
- Dip cupcakes in the chocolate and allow excess to run off before setting aside to dry. If your cupcakes baked up below the wrapper, you can spoon the chocolate on and tilt the cupcake until the entire surface is covered. The chocolate on the cupcakes will set within about 15 minutes in the refrigerator or an hour on the counter.
