A subtle taste of Biscoff cookie cake, filled with Biscoff Cream, topped with luxuriously smooth white chocolate buttercream and a white chocolate ganache drip.

It’s getting close to Mother’s Day! Since women love cupcakes—here’s something simple and delicious and one of my favorite cupcake recipes…

Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes are based on Cake by Courtney’s Biscoff Cake. I think Courtney is a genius at pairing flavors and textures together in cake form. A noteworthy goal would be to make every one of her cakes—I personally would love to take that challenge!

I am what you would consider a “super fan” of Courtney and her cakes! I discovered Courtney’s cake recipes during 2020, when I was on lockdown with the pandemic, in a foreign country and needing something to do. I started baking her cakes—well, her cakes as cupcakes. I couldn’t get the correct kind of cake pans in Europe because of the lockdown, but I did have muffin tins and cupcake liners! Thus, during 2020, I made dozens of Courtney’s cakes as cupcakes and shared them with neighbors.

Sometimes the ingredients I needed were super hard to find in Europe (especially peanut butter), but Speculoos (the European name for Biscoff) was EASY to find in cookie and spread form! White chocolate bars instead of white chocolate chips substituted well. This Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcake recipe was super successful and Courtney’s cake flavor did not disappoint—in fact, it has become one of my favorites.

You may be interested in baking a cake instead of cupcakes, so take a look at cakebycourtney.com to see Courtney’s Biscoff Cake! It’s one you won’t want to miss!!

Tools Needed to Make Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes:

This post might contain affiliate links, please check out my full disclosure policy. I only refer products I have tried and tested.

Muffin Tins and Cupcake Liners
OR Cake Cups: Baking cups found at mymindseye.com. (They do not sponsor my blog, but I LOVE these baking cups for cupcakes.) I typically place these cups on a baking sheet and bake the cake batter directly in these cups, instead of using cupcake liners. It uses a little bit more batter than my cupcake liners, which I really like, because it gives me more cake to pair with the filling and buttercream. I love serving these cake cups with a mini spoon and the cute designs on the sides make the cupcake look extra special!

Here’s an Amazon Link for: Ateco Disposable Decorating Bags and Wilton 1M Decorating Tip

Cake Decorating Bag and Wilton 1M cake decorating tip

A yummy bite of Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients for Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes:

The Cake Batter:

Biscoff (or Speculoos) Cookies: You can find these in the cookie section of the grocery store (and I noticed that Costco now sells a large package of Biscoff Cookies!). Of course, you can always get several small packages on your favorite airline trip! When you start turning these delicious cookies into flour for the cake batter, be sure to save some whole cookies for decorating the tops of your cupcakes.
All-purpose flour: This recipe uses regular all-purpose flour, not cake flour this time.
Baking powder and Baking soda: Both leavening agents are used for this cake. Baking powder will cause rise when it gets wet and when it hits the heat of the oven. Baking soda will affect the leavening since the recipe has acidic ingredients (brown sugar and buttermilk/yogurt). Using both will create a good rise, as long as both are fresh and not expired!
Salt: An ingredient that goes a long ways with such a small amount. And it is definitely missed when it’s forgotten! If you use salted butter, omit the salt ingredient.
Unsalted butter: This is an ingredient that needs to be at room temperature for baking a cake. Using unsalted butter allows you to control the amount of salt in a recipe. I highly recommend that you just always buy unsalted butter.
Granulated sugar and Brown sugar: This recipe uses both types of sugar and it’s an amazing combination for this recipe!
Eggs: This is also an ingredient that needs to be at room temperature for baking a cake. Room temperature ingredients are a must for getting the most rise out of a cake.
Buttermilk (or plain Greek yogurt + milk): This is the third ingredient that needs to be room temperature. Plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream) + milk in a 1:1 ratio for buttermilk is the perfect substitute. I don’t use buttermilk enough to keep it in my fridge, but often find other uses for yogurt and sour cream. I actually like the results of this substitute better than using buttermilk in my cake batter.

Ingredients for Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes

The Filling – The Buttercream – The Drip:

Unsalted butter: Room temperature for the Biscoff Cream and slightly chilled by taking it out of the fridge just a few minutes before you begin beating it for the buttercream.
Biscoff (or Speculoos) Spread: You can find this in the peanut butter section of the grocery store. I finally had to ask a store clerk where to find this in the US grocery stores. In Europe, it was so obvious!
Powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar): Measure this ingredient first, preferably by weight, and then sift it. Sifting makes a smoother, creamier texture and is particularly important for buttercream. You want buttercream to be smooth, without lumps, when using cake decorating tips to top your cupcake.
White chocolate chips or white chocolate bars: Either style of white chocolate works, just use a high quality white chocolate that contains some cocoa butter for the best flavor.
Heavy whipping cream: The addition of heavy whipping cream, instead of milk, to an American Buttercream recipe changes the texture in the perfect way! The texture is silky smooth and almost resembles Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Getting 40% Heavy Whipping Cream (like Costco sells) makes the absolute BEST ganache—which will be used for the buttercream and the drip.

How to Make Biscoff White Chocolate Cupcakes:

The Cupcake Batter:

Preheat oven to 325° F. Prepare muffin tins with cupcake liners or use cake cups on a jelly roll pan.
Place Biscoff or Speculoos cookies in a food processor or blender and pulse until the cookies are finely ground and resemble flour.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients: cookie crumbs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are well-blended.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. The color of the butter will lighten as well. This is the time to beat air into the butter which will aide in getting a good rise in the cake.
Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping after each addition. One egg at a time is important so the butter and sugar doesn’t break down and separate. After all the eggs are added, beat well until fluffy.
This next step is an important cake-making technique. You want to beat the dry ingredients as little as possible: so use low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 steps, and mix just until combined. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then ½ of the buttermilk, then 1/3 dry ingredients, then the rest of the buttermilk. Scrape the edges and bottom. Then add the last of the dry ingredients. Mix on low until just combined. Stop and scrape the sides and bottom and fold into the batter until mixed.

Cupcake Batter: Fill – Bake – Cool

Fill each cupcake liner ½ to 2/3 full (lean toward the side of 2/3 full). This cake batter doesn’t rise a huge amount, so filling up to the two-third’s level won’t be too full.
Bake at 325° for 18- 22 minutes or until top of cupcake bounces back when touched. I use the touch technique to test doneness. Then, set my timer for the lowest cooking time and watch the tops of the cupcakes without opening my oven. As the tops start to loose their shine, showing it’s almost done baking. I test doneness by lightly touching the top of the cupcake. You can feel if it still has some liquid underneath—let it cook for a few more minutes. If you lightly touch it and the fingerprint stays sunk, let it cook for another minute and test again. If you touch it lightly, and the cake bounces back, it’s done!
Let cool for 5 minutes and then remove the cupcakes from the muffin tins. Don’t let it cook longer than that in a muffin tin because the cupcake continues to cook in the hot pan and will dry out! I learned this lesson the hard way! If you are using cake cups, they cook perfectly on the baking sheet and don’t dry out at all!

Fill centers of cupcake with Biscoff Cream

Biscoff Cream Filling:

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and Biscoff or Speculoos spread on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes. Place in another bowl and cover until ready for use. You can refrigerate this filling if not using immediately.

White Chocolate Buttercream:

White Chocolate Ganache:

Microwaving cream and white chocolate can be trickier than milk or dark chocolate. White chocolate wants to seize (get lumpy) easier. The way to avoid this problem is to heat the cream first in the microwave and pour the warm cream over the white chocolate to melt it.
Stir until the mixture is a smooth ganache. If needed, heat the mixture for another 20-30 second and stir until the white chocolate is melted. Set aside, but don’t let cool too much. If the white chocolate mixture is too cool when added to the creamed butter, the white chocolate will set up and create lumps in the buttercream.

The Buttercream:

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes or until the butter is fluffy and light in color.
Slowly add the white chocolate ganache (which should still be warm) while mixing on medium-low speed. Using warm white chocolate softens your butter a little, but that is fine so the white chocolate stays fluid. If your frosting feels too soft after it’s all mixed together, just refrigerate it enough to harden it up again.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the sifted powdered sugar until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Add the vanilla and increase the speed to medium-high for 5 minutes, until the texture is light and fluffy.
Use a wooden spoon or silicon spatula to stir the frosting to get all the air bubbles pressed down. Less air bubbles will create a smoother texture when using a cake decorating tip for the swirl on top of the cupcakes.

White Chocolate Drip:

Create the white chocolate ganache just like you did for the buttercream. You will notice the ratio of cream to white chocolate is different for the drip because the ganache needs to be more fluid for dripping.

In a microwave safe bowl, heat the cream and then pour it over the white chocolate to melt. Stir until the mixture is smooth. If needed, heat the mixture for another 20-30 second and stir until the chips are melted. Put warmed chocolate mixture into a drip bottle or a disposable cake decorating bag or a Ziploc bag so it’s ready to “drip” on the decorated cupcakes.

Assembling and Decorating the Cupcakes:

With a cupcake corer or a spoon or a knife, cut a hole into the center of the cupcake that doesn’t reach all the way to the bottom. Fill a disposable cake decorating bag or Ziploc bag with the filling. Cut off the end and squeeze filling into the holes in the center of the cupcakes.

Use cake decorating bag and tip (Wilton 1M) to decorate tops of cupcakes with the White Chocolate Buttercream. Start on top outside edge of cupcake and swirl around the entire edge, then continue to swirl into the center until the buttercream resembles a soft serve ice cream cone.

Extra décor: Drizzle White Chocolate Drip in a swirl on the White Chocolate Buttercream. Tuck a half Biscoff/Speculoos Cookie into the frosting before the White Chocolate Drip hardens.

Enjoy creating a delicious masterpiece for the mother in your life.

–Kim

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