S’mores Cupcakes

I don’t know about everyone else, but these are the facts of my life. Once I moved out of the house, my parents got all sorts of cool toys. I’m not saying that I was a deprived child (other than my sad cable tv-less existence), I had plenty of things to fill my childhood days with fun. I played the flute and my parents bought me a fancy flute with open keys. I still have it and think about trying to play it once and a while. I was a baton twirler and went to competitions all over the country. My trophies are still in residence at the Wilde parent household. My brother and I spent summers camping out in the backyard and riding our bikes along the creek.

Look at that chocolate ooze!

What I’m talking about are the cool toys that would have made our childhood even more carefree. It started slowly, with the John Deere. Johnnie showed up when I was in College and he was my dad’s new best friend. They would ride around the lawn in the summer and plow clean canyons in the snow in the winter. What Johnnie didn’t know, was that he was taking someone’s place. He was replacing my brother and I, Johnnie didn’t complain when he had to plow two feet of snow from a very long drive-way. Dad just had to feed Johnnie some gasoline and away he went to chew up the snow or grass.

Then came the boat, the hot tub, the air conditioning. The current toy that I’m totally jealous of is a fire pit. I think that is what I was thinking of when I threw together this recipe. Spring is coming soon, I can feel it trying to sneak up on winter, and spring is when the fire pit comes out. My dad gathers the firewood, the dog breaks up sticks to make kindling and my mom gets the marshmallows. Sounds like a great evening and I don’t think my apartment building would go for one in my unit.

S’mores Cupcakes

An Original Wilde Recipe

I loved the cupcakes themselves, very moist and delicious.  The combination of the airy marshmallow filling and the moist cupcake was a bad choice.  The airy marshmallow absorbed into the cupcake and was no where to be found the next day.  I'd suggest making a cream cheese-marshmallow filling, I'll have to post it sometime soon!
Cupcakes

½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (about 10 crackers)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350 F. Place cupcake liners in a muffin pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat for about 30 seconds for each egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine milk and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix to combine. Next, add ½ the milk and mix. Continue adding, 1/3 dry, remaining milk, remaining dry, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Scoop 3 tbsp batter into each muffin cup (batter will be light and fluffy. For big-top muffins use a ¼ cup for each. Bake cupcakes for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then remove to a wire rack. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
Marshmallow filling

7 oz Marshmallow cream
3 tbsp butter, room temperature

Mix together the butter and marshmallow cream. Put into a piping bag with a #7 tip (about 1/8 inch).

Chocolate glaze

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp light corn syrup
9 ounces chocolate chips
½ tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, heat heavy cream, butter and corn syrup to about 175 F. Take off the heat and add chocolate chips, stirring until melted. Add vanilla. Set aside until cools and thickens slightly.

Put it all together!

Take a cupcake, pierce the center of the cupcake with your piping tip and squeeze in some marshmallow filling. The cupcake will expand, once the filling starts coming out the top you’re done. So this to all the cupcakes.

Next, with the cupcakes on a wire rack, and parchment paper or plastic wrap on the counter below, drown the tops of the cupcakes with the cooled chocolate glaze. Allow it to flow over the edges until the entire top is covered. If the glaze was too hot you will start to see the marshmallow. Let glaze cool a little more and do a second coat on those ones.