These biscoff cookie butter cupcakes have a brown butter spiced cupcake base filled with speculoos cookie butter and topped with fluffy cookie butter frosting and lotus biscoff cookies!
They're the perfect wintery cupcakes for biscoff lovers and spice cake lovers alike!
Jump to:
What is Cookie Butter?
Cookie butter is a spiced spread, with a creamy peanut butter like texture, made from ground up speculoos cookies (pronounced "speck-you-lows").
So wait, what are speculoos cookies? They're little crispy spice cookies that are a staple winter treat across Europe! They're similar to American gingerbread cookies, just a little crunchier. The most famous speculoos cookies are the Belgian Lotus Biscoff cookies, but you can find a ton of different varieties! But what every version has in common is a crispy cookie flavored with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and ginger.
You can use cookie butter in pretty much all the same ways you would use nut butter. Spread on toast, in cookies, on oatmeal, or just right out of the jar with a spoon!
The OG cookie butter is Lotus Biscoff Butter made from the infamous Biscoff cookies, but Trader Joe's has their own speculoos cookie butter that's just as good (TJ's also has lots of different fun flavors of cookie butter)!
If you love cookie butter, you might also like these cookie butter macarons, this chocolate cookie butter tart, or these biscoff butter cookies!
Ingredient Notes
You only need a few simple ingredients for these biscoff cookie butter cupcakes!
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my cupcakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Cookie Butter - The OG Lotus Biscoff cookie butter is the best if you can find it (major retailers like Walmart and Target usually carry it), but I also love Trader Joe's speculoos cookie butter! You can also make your own speculoos cookie butter if you prefer. The creamy cookie butter works best for these, but you can use the crunchy version if that's all you have.
Biscoff Cookies - These cupcakes are adorable topped with biscoff cookies! I also like to crush up some cookies and add them right to the batter, but that's optional. The classic Lotus Biscoff cookies are my favorite, but any speculoos cookies will do the trick!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. It also tastes great with the cookie butter! If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
I recommend making the brown butter the night before you make the cupcakes, so that it has time to fully cool to room temperature!
Since both the cupcakes and the frosting call for brown butter, I find it easier to just make one large batch and then weigh out the difference using a kitchen scale (½ cup of butter weighs about 113 grams).
However, if you don't have a scale you can just make two separate batches of brown butter!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, crushed cookies, and salt together in a large bowl.
Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the softened brown butter and creamy cookie butter until fully combined and smooth.
Then add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue to mix until fully incorporated.
Stir in about half the flour mixture. Then stir in the milk and the rest of the flour and mix until just combined.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the cookie butter cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.
Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with 1-2 teaspoons of cookie butter.
Frost the cooled cupcakes with the brown butter cookie butter buttercream. Then garnish with a drizzle of cookie butter, crushed biscoff cookies, and a whole biscoff cookie!
Note: for drizzling, microwave a little bit of cookie butter for 10-20 seconds. Then let it cool slightly so it's cool to the touch (and won't melt the buttercream) but still melty enough to pour.
These biscoff cookie butter cupcakes are best eaten the same day!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Cupcake Decorating Tips
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
Use a cupcake corer to easily remove the center of your cupcakes before filling with speculoos cookie butter.
For these big beautiful cookie butter frosting swirls on these biscoff cupcakes, I use the large round tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
After frosting garnish with a drizzle of cookie butter, crushed biscoff cookies, and a whole biscoff cookie!
Recipe FAQ's
These biscoff cookie butter cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving. Wait to top with biscoff cookies until right before serving.
Cookie butter is made from Speculoos cookies (like lotus biscoff), which are spiced cookies that taste similar to gingerbread. So cookie better has a sweet, slightly spiced flavor with a texture like peanut butter!
No, but I recommend it! The brown butter takes both the cupcakes and frosting to the next level! However, you can substitute unsalted butter if you must.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Recipes You Might Like!
If you love this recipe, please leave a star rating at the bottom of the page! This provides helpful feedback to both me and other readers.
Also be sure to add us as a trusted site on Google so that our recipes show up more in your searches!
For more delicious, scratch-made recipes you can subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on social media!
Recipe Card
Cookie Butter Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons biscoff cookie crumbs
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- ½ cup biscoff cookie butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
Cookie Butter Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- ½ cup biscoff cookie butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream, or milk
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup pan with cupcake liners.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, crushed cookies, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the softened brown butter and creamy cookie butter until fully combined and smooth.
- Then add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue to mix until fully incorporated.
- Stir in about half the flour mixture. Then stir in the milk and the rest of the flour and mix until just combined.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the cookie butter cupcakes cool completely before filling and frosting.
- Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with 1-2 teaspoons of cookie butter.
Cookie Butter Frosting
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature brown butter and cookie butter together until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add in 2-4 tablespoons of heavy cream if needed to thin out the frosting. Then beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy!
- Frost the cooled cupcakes with the brown butter cookie butter buttercream. Then garnish with a drizzle of cookie butter, crushed biscoff cookies, and a whole biscoff cookie!
- Note: for drizzling, microwave a little bit of cookie butter for 10-20 seconds. Then let it cool slightly so it's cool to the touch (and won't melt the buttercream) but still melty enough to pour.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Cristina A says
Hi! Can these be stored in a cake stand with lid at room temperature for up to 3 days or have to be refrigerated?
Thank you!
Kyleigh Sage says
From a food safety perspective, since the frosting has butter and cream it should be refrigerated. Personally, I often leave buttercream cakes at room temp for a day or two, but food safety wise I can't recommend it.
Anonymous says
Best cupcake I’ve had in a while or maybe ever!
Nicola says
Beautiful cupcakes and I am not a fan of cinnamon, went down a treat by family and friends. As Kathryn said the ratio for the buttercream is a little off, as I made it and it was like a cookie consistency, had to add more liquid, I was using the metric measurements, maybe that changes things too. Still yummy all the same.
Jess says
Very good cupcake recipe. Taste exactly like the cookie.
Am I able to bake this in 6in cake pans?
Kyleigh Sage says
Yes! This will yield 2 6 inch cake layers!
Shandra says
Made these today for a girls night, had to try one of course…for science…
So good!
Anya Cudequest says
Made these cupcakes today and my family was obsessed absolutely delicious!!!
Kathryn says
I made these for Friendsmas and they were a hit!! I think the frosting ratio may be a bit off since I added like 40g less sugar and still needed twice the heavy cream. Regardless, it was absolutely delicious! The browned butter makes all the difference and I'd definitely make these again