S'mores Cupcakes

S'mores Cupcakes

Although these cupcakes look really great, I kind of wish I had used something with a more marshmallow taste for the topping. I think I will continue to experiment with the recipe and see if I can't use marshmallow cream to make something a little more authentic! This boiled frosting is fine, but it's not really the true s'mores taste.

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cup flour

1 1/3 cup graham flour (I used Bob's Red Mill from my local whole foods store)

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cup (2 1/2 stick) butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

6 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together both flours, baking powder, and cinnamon. In another bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, and honey until fluffy -- mixture is quite thick. Add in eggs and vanilla, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake 13 min, turn, bake another thirteen minutes. Let cool.

Makes 24

Chocolate Ganache:

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 tbsp heavy cream

1 tbsp corn syrup

Cook all the ingredients in a saucepan until fully melted. Let cool.

Spread a generous amount on top of each of your cupcakes, covering the above-the-wrapper part completely.

Marshmallow Frosting:

1 tbsp unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup + 1/4 cup cold water

1 cup sugar

Sprinkle the gelatin over the 1/3 cup water in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan, heat the 1/4 cup water and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolve. Use a candy thermometer to determine when the mixture gets to 238 F (soft ball if you drip a bit in a cup of cold water). Remove from the heat and pour into the mixing bowl with the gelatin. Use an electric mixer to whip it until it's glossy and stiff. Use right away.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a wide tip and pipe a spiral on top of each cupcake. I didn't get my stiff enough, so as you can see my spirals kind of melted. 

But no matter! After the cupcakes are topped, use a kitchen torch to brown the marshmallow so it gets that campfire look.  As I said before, I was worried that there wasn't enough of a marshmallow taste, so for the last few cupcakes I torched some old marshmallows that we had lying around. I'm not sure I recommend it. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Nutella Moon Pie Cupcakes

Nutella Moon Pie Cupcakes

Wow, you guys. Wow. I am a genius. Nutella marshmallow fluff? Genius.

Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 1/2 actual bananas)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar. Add in bananas, buttermilk, vanilla, and eggs until well mixed. Sift in flour, baking powder, and baking soda, being careful not to over mix.

Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes, turn, bake 15 minutes.

Let cool.

If your cupcakes overflow the tins -- and mine did, believe me -- your best friend is a small, serrated knife. Use it to trim the edges off the cupcakes so that they are even, as in the picture. This keeps them from looking like terrible deflated mushrooms.

Makes about 15.

Nutella Marshmallow Filling:

2 cups marshmallow fluff

1 cup nutella

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Beat the ingredients until fluffy and well combined.

Chocolate Coating:

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Melt the chocolate chips either in a double boiler or the microwave, being careful to stir frequently to prevent burning. Stir in the oil to keep the chocolate from resolidifying. Let cool.

To combine:

Gently core the cooled cupcakes using your weapon of choice -- as always, I prefer a serrated apple corer.

Fill the holes with a generous helping of the nutella mixture, making sure there is a small peak on top of the cupcake. You can use  a piping bag if you would prefer (I didn't feel like doing any more dishes, so I used a spoon).

Holding the cupcake carefully over the bowl of chocolate coating, use a spoon to cover the top of each cupcake, fulling covering it down to the wrapper. You will need to turn it as you do this, and you will have to pay attention and be quick to make sure the filling doesn't melt off into the chocolate while you're working.

After the cupcakes are covered, decorate with small slices of banana and place them in the freezer or refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

When cool, gently peel off the cupcake wrapper so that the chocolate comes down to about the same even place. Feel free to refrigerate as necessary; however, let the chocolate come back to a soft room temperature before serving. It will hold its shape, but be soft enough to eat.

Cupcakes adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Filling by me.

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

These cupcakes take a bit of work, but they are definitely worth it. The mousse is slightly bittersweet, but balanced nicely by the frosting and the rich devil's food of the cupcakes. If the frosting is too sweet for you -- it was for my mother -- you can leave the cupcakes uniced and just enjoy the pure chocolate goodness.

Cupcakes:

3/8 cup cocoa powder

3/8 cup hot water

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together cocoa and hot water until all lumps are dissolved. Set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in another bowl and set aside.

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to keep sugar from burning, until butter is totally melted. Remove saucepan from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Beat until mixture is somewhat cooled. You want it to be cool enough that when you beat in the eggs, they won't cook from the heat.

Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla, then cocoa mixture.

Add in flour mixture and sour cream, beating only until ingredients are fully combined.

Fill cupcake tins 2/3 full. Bake 10 minutes, turn tins, bake 10 minutes. Let cool.

Mousse:

1 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp hot water

4 oz (1 bar) bittersweet chocolate, like Ghirardelli.

3/4 cup cold heavy cream

1 tbsp sugar

As with the cupcakes, whisk the cocoa powder and water until smooth and set aside.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler or by putting a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.

In the meantime, whip the cream and sugar. Be careful to time it right and stop as soon as soft peaks form. Otherwise the cream will whip into butter.

Whisk cocoa powder into the melted chocolate, then fold in the whipped cream until the mixture is smooth.

Frosting:

4 oz marshmallow fluff

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, soft

1 tsp almond extract

2 cups xxx sugar

food coloring/decorations, as desired

It's hard to measure ounces on marshmallow fluff, since it doesn't really want to go into a measuring cup or scale, so with that in mind: I used a little more than half of one of those 7 oz jars. Beat together the fluff, butter, and almond extract until creamy. Sift in the xxx sugar.

If the frosting is too thick to pipe, you can add a tablespoon or so of cream. Do this 1 tablespoon at a time.

When the frosting is the right thickness for piping, add any color that you would like.

Putting it together:

Core a hole in the center of each of the cooled cupcakes. I used an apple corer, as pictured, which is still my favorite tool for coring cupcakes, but a small serrated knife also works well.

Fill each hole with a generous helping of mousse, then store cupcakes in the fridge or freezer for about 20 minutes until the mousse is firm enough to pipe over.

Pipe a spiral of frosting over each cupcake, being sure to cover the mousse. Decorate as desired.

Adapted from Lady Behind the Curtain