Sunday, July 18, 2010

S'mores cupcakes, Four Ways!

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Is there anything more quintessentially American than sitting around a fire pit with some good friends, and making some delicious s'mores? Who would have thought that three things as simple as graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey bars, could combine to make something so amazing as a s'more?

And combining a s'more with a cupcake? Genius. Really. Right up there with Einstein, and his theory of relativity. Now, there are several schools of thought on how to best turn a s'more into a cupcake. Chocolate cake, with marshmallow frosting, and crumbled graham crackers, graham cracker cake with chocolate frosting, and marshmallow filling, graham cracker cake with marshmallow frosting, and chocolate filling...The list goes on, and I decided to try them all!

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Now, originally, I was planning on posting all of the recipes for the cupcakes here, in detail, but then I served the cupcakes to The Family, at Sunday dinner, and one version was such a far and away winner that it seemed almost silly (and LONG) to share the others. Want to know the funniest thing about it? The winner was the cupcake that I didn't make from scratch! The chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting, and crumbled graham crackers. At the end of the post, I'll provide a link to the from-scratch graham cracker cupcakes, and a few general tips, but mostly, I'll cover the winning version. I tried this version two ways, one with graham cracker crusts pressed into the bottom of each cupcake liner, and one without. The one with the graham cracker crust was definitely better!

Hallelujahs: Amazing, Easy (a boxed mix, could it get any easier than that?), ADORABLE!
Hellfires: Very sweet. The frosting is more sugar, and less marshmallow that I had expected, but regardless, it is DELICIOUS. However, you can definitely only eat one at a time. Unfortunately, it also requires a graham cracker crust. See Cheesecake post for my thoughts on those.

When something involves these ingredients, how can it NOT be good?
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-Note: Okay, yes, I cheated, and used a boxed mix. But, when something tastes this good, who cares?! Also, give me a break, I was making 4 different kinds of cupcakes. I needed a little helping hand, and Betty is my right hand woman. She's always there when I need her. Betty Crocker, that is.

S'More Cupcakes

Graham Cracker Crust
1 package of graham crackers, crushed (3 packages per box, only use one package)
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup of sugar

-Combine the crushed graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter.
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-Press about 1 tbs of the mixture into each cupcake liner
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-Place in oven at 350* for about 5 minutes, to pre-bake the crusts, and prevent them from getting soggy.
-And if you hate making graham cracker crusts as much as I do, be smart about this. Put your two favorite men to work, and make them do it for you! (Aren't I a lucky woman?)
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Cupcakes
1 box of Chocolate Cake Mix, prepared as directed
-I used a Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge Mix, which called for some oil, water, and 3 eggs.
-Mix up your cupcake batter, and pour into pre-baked liners.
-This is where we'll highlight another must-have tool we've talked about before. Remember way back in the peanut butter cookie post? We introduced the pampered chef scoop? Well, there are two sizes of that scoop. The larger size is PERFECT for cupcakes. 1 full scoop perfectly fills the cupcake tins 2/3 full. Seriously, I LOVE these things!
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-Once your cupcake liners are full, place in the oven, and bake, following the directions on your cake mix.
-Tip: I always set the timer for my cupcakes at least 5 minutes earlier than the box tells me to. There's nothing more frustrating than dry, burnt cupcakes.
-Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Marshmallow Creme Frosting
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
14 oz of marshmallow cream

-Mix all ingredients in your stand mixer
-Place into Ziploc bag, cut off the tip, and pipe onto cupcakes. Or, if that's not your style, grab a knife, and ice them the old fashioned way.

Decoration
-Once your cupcakes are frosted, dust with crushed graham crackers, and 1 rectangle of your Hershey Bars
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Recipe for Marshmallow Creme frosting can be found here: http://sewdarncute.typepad.com/sew_darn_cute/2007/04/smores_cupcakes.html

Okay, if you decide you MUST try the other variations with the graham cracker cupcakes, instead of chocolate cupcakes, here are a few tips.
1) I found the recipe for the graham cracker cupcakes from here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1255031
2) A note about from-scratch cake batters in general. They are MUCH thicker than boxed mix recipes. Don't be alarmed, it makes for a much denser, more delicious, cake. See how it sticks to the mixer paddle, here? MUCH thicker, and that's okay!
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3) For variations, I tried these 2 ways. For the first 12, I inserted a square of a Hershey's bar into the center of each before baking:
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They were iced with the Marshmallow creme frosting listed in the winning recipe, and then drizzled with chocolate ganache for artistic effect (you'll see why I'm a pre-med major, and not an art major).
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-For the second option, I baked them with nothing in the center, and then when they were cooled, I cut out a section in the middle of each cupcake, and filled with plain, marshmallow creme (NOT the frosting). Then, I frosted them with chocolate ganache.
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-And one more quick note about the ganache. Normally, I make my ganaches with semi-sweet chocolate because I love that deep, slightly bitter flavor to them. However, in this case, it just did not work with this recipe. I think next time I make this recipe, in order to stay true to the inspiration (the s'more) I will use Hershey's milk chocolate in order to make the ganache.

Good Luck with your s'more cupcakes! I hope they turn out beautifully!

Plain Text Recipe

S'More Cupcakes

Graham Cracker Crust
1 package of graham crackers, crushed (3 packages per box, only use one package)
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup of sugar


-Combine the crushed graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter.
-Press about 1 tbs of the mixture into each cupcake liner
-Place in oven at 350* for about 5 minutes, to pre-bake the crusts, and prevent them from getting soggy.

Cupcakes
1 box of Chocolate Cake Mix, prepared as directed

-I used a Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge Mix, which called for some oil, water, and 3 eggs.
-Mix up your cupcake batter, and pour into pre-baked liners.
-Once your cupcake liners are full, place in the oven, and bake, following the directions on your cake mix.
-Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Marshmallow Creme Frosting
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
14 oz of marshmallow cream


-Mix all ingredients in your stand mixer
-Place into Ziploc bag, cut off the tip, and pipe onto cupcakes. Or, if that's not your style, grab a knife, and ice them the old fashioned way.

Decoration
-Once your cupcakes are frosted, dust with crushed graham crackers, and 1 rectangle of your Hershey Bars

11 comments:

  1. OMG sounds amazing!! please ship some to me! haha

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  2. I made some S'more cupcakes last week. I used the same chocolate cake mix (triple chocolate fudge), but it was too rich for me. I put a spoonful of the cupcake mix in the bottom or each liner. Then, I added a piece of graham cracker. On top of that, 2 mini-marshmallows. The remainder of the batter, I crushed graham crackers into it and mixed, then spooned over the top and baked. When I took them out of the oven, before they were cooled, I stuffed 2 Hershey's pieces into each and then topped with marshmallow fluff and a Hershey piece. They were a huge hit! Making Strawberry Cheesecakes ones next week.

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  3. these sound incredible and look yummy (to say the least). I came across your blog through betty crocker's fb page. they posted a link to this entry. May I please repost in one of my blogs? Please say yes, these deserve 2 b shared!
    -Rita-

    I am a very random person with four blogs. All of my blogs are the same way- random! They contain anything I feel like posting from stuff people send me to interesting things and blog entries I come across to random thoughts I have. Please check out all my blogs, my youtube channel, and my twitter. Follow as desired!

    Assorted Randomness: http://rockinrita.xanga.com/weblog
    Randomness Rocks!: http://rockinrita03.blogspot.com
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  4. Sounds great...thanks for the recipe!

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  5. I like the first recipe that was posted with the pictures of your "boys" making them, but did I miss the part as to what you do with those crusts of grahm crackers? The photo where you're putting the chocolate cake in the papers doesn't show the crust in them. Are the crusts for the cupcakes?

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  6. I wanted to ask the same question as before.Do you put the cupcake batter in the graham cracker crust?

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  7. Okay, sorry for the confusion on the graham cracker crusts!

    What I did for the batch with graham cracker crusts was as follows. First, I pressed the graham cracker crusts into the bottom of the cupcake liners, then I pre-baked the graham cracker crusts for about 5 minutes to keep them from getting soggy. Then, once the graham cracker crusts were out of the oven, and cooled for a couple of minutes, I poured the cupcake batter right on top, and baked them as normal.

    The reason that you can't see them in some of the photos is that I only did one batch this way, and probably snapped the 'filling' photo in one of the batches that I did without the graham cracker crusts. They taste great both ways, but the graham cracker crust batch was definitely the winner!

    Also, sorry about the photos not working for some of the day, today! I upgraded to photobucket Pro, so that shouldn't be a problem again!

    I seriously am SO excited to see you guys here, and hope you come back again!

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  8. I am a forever lover of smores, so I'm going to try this recipe soon. Sounds delicious!

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  9. I combined your recipe with the "marshmallow in the middle" idea. The marshmallow seems to have blended into the batter as they baked, but I don't see a problem with that...
    Excellent recipe either way! Thanks

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  10. Did you happen to try toasting the marshmallow under a broiler or torching it? I just wondered if it would work or if it just makes a mess. Thanks, Trisha

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  11. @trishthefish: I wanted to toast them with a kitchen torch, but I made these on a Sunday, which, in Utah, means that all stores are closed, except for Wal-Mart, and they didn't carry one (I even tried the automotive department!!). So I can't vouch for whether it works out, or not, but I definitely want to try it, next time! I don't see why it wouldn't work, the only thing I think I would do in that case would be to make the icing a little thicker, so it can stand up a little better. If you try it, be sure to stop back, and let me know how it turned out!

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