I’ll have S’more

What’s in a Cupcake Hero anyways? To me, a Cupcake Hero presents a recipe for either a new combination of flavors or a unique use of a cupcake. When Laurie announced that the theme for March’s Cupcake Hero was Marshmallow, I immediately thought of S’mores. So I decided to aim for using cupcakes in a unique way to make s’mores.

I wanted to make s’mores the same way you would at a campfire, except there are no graham crackers, just graham cupcakes. Personally, I’m a big fan of catching my marshmallow on fire, letting it get all black, then blowing out the flame right before squishing it between my prepared graham crackers. I even stuck with the good old Hershey’s chocolate bar. It’s not the best chocolate out there, but when it comes to s’mores, it’s a key ingredient.

Since I made these into mini-cupcakes, they’re not as messy as real s’mores. You can just pop one into your mouth and eat it in one bite. I went ahead and made some regular s’mores to do a comparison of the taste. I preferred the cupcake version – it was less messy and was easy to eat. Hubby missed the crunchy-ness found in normal s’mores. I will definitely consider making a batch of these cupcakes to take to my next camping trip…

Graham Cupcakes – (from Vanilla Garlic) – makes 12-14
1/2 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup of milk1 cup of flour
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt

Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until well creamed. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes using a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.

Place graham crackers in a food processor or in a plastic bag and beat the crud out of them until it’s been ground into small crumbs and powder.

Sift together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture, then add some of the milk. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry-wet-dry method, ending with the dry. Continue to mix until just combined.

Scoop into cupcake papers and bake for 15-18 minutes in a 350 F oven or until a cake tester comes out clean.
S’mores assembly
I spent a decent amount of time getting the right combination of marshmallow to chocolate to cupcake. This is what we liked, but feel free to play with the combo. For the chocolate bars, I used the mini ones that come in a pack of 8. Not the normal size you’d get for camping, but smaller. I also used big marshmallows, but cut them in half.
Once cupcakes have cooled, cut in 1/2 horizontally.

Place 1 small square of chocolate on the top of the cupcake (use 1 square on the top and bottom if you like it really chocolatey). Heat in microwave for 20 seconds to start the melting of the chocolate.
Cut a large marshmallow in half horizontally (two small marshmallows would probably work perfectly here). Heat your marshmallow. I roasted mine over my gas burner with a fondue stick (the big guy shown here was for one of the trials – the whole marshmallow was too much for me). Once marshmallow is done to your liking, quickly put it onto one 1/2 of the cupcake and make the sandwich.

Stick a toothpick through the entire thing for ease of eating. ENJOY!