S'mores Cupcakes

So, first, these are delicious.

Second-- save these for a special occasion or a day when you have nothing on your schedule, because HOLY MESS, BATMAN! Delicious enough to warrant a mess, but, mess it is! Just for the batter, you need five separate mixing bowls, plus a microwave safe container/sauce pan to melt butter, that's not even starting on your pans/measuring cups/etc.

Why would I make such a mess, you ask? We can start with: SEE DELICIOUS ABOVE. Then we can note that these were made in honor of the fantastic Corrin's birthday / visit to the Chicago area. Corrin is my fashion guru and even carried one of my Julie Vision Designs bags in a NYC fashion week event last year. (Yes, I did practically pee myself with excitement, and still do JUST a little bit when I think about it.) It also turned out there was another birthday to celebrate once Corrin got her Chicago based gang together, so CLEARLY this warranted deliciousness.

I've been inventing this baby in my head for a while-- I feel like there are so many cupcakes out there that claim to be S'mores flavored, but don't do the trick. I find they are usually a chocolate or vanilla cupcake filled with either chocolate or marshmallow filling, topped with either chocolate or marshmallow icing, and the sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs. I consider this (though it may be tasty in it's own right) a s'mores fail. There MUST be substantial graham involved in s'mores themed deserts. So I came up with this: A graham cupcake, iced in a mountain of marshmallow, and coated in a layer of chocolate.

These do require being frozen for several hours (over night is best) in order to chocolate coat them, so please keep that in mind as you plan your epic s'mores cupcake making event.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here.)
Graham Cupcakes (Yield 3 dozen standard cupcakes) 
Adapted from the Food Network recipe found here.


3 1/4 cups all purpose four, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 large egg yolks, room temperature
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cup whole milk, room temperature

Step #1 - Preheat oven to 350*.

Step #2 - Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl and set aside.

Step #3- Mix four, salt, and baking powder together and set aside.

Step #4 - Using a mixer, beat the room temperature butter and sugar until fluffy.


Step #5 - Add the egg yolks to the butter/sugar mixture one at a time, mixing between each. Once the eggs well incorporated, add the vanilla and cinnamon. Beat well.


Step #6 - Add the milk and flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. To add, start by adding one third of the milk, followed by one third of the four. Alternate until all are included. Mix on low speed until the four is only just incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go-- do not over beat.

Step #7 - In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until medium-stiff peaks form. Make sure your bowl is clean and dry and your egg whites are room temperature. Egg whites are finicky, so if the bowl is wet or has traces of other ingredients, etc., they may not peak properly. Also, they will be more difficult to peak if they are cold, so make sure they are room temperature.

Step #8 - Fold the egg whites and the graham mixture into the batter. Folding is the action of mixing ingredients by a motion of using a spoon or spatula to literally fold the batter over itself. Use your spatula to kind of scoop batter from the bottom and plop it on top. The idea is to incorporate the egg whites gently-- the fluffiness of the egg whites keeps your cake moist and fluffy. DO NOT OVER BEAT and DO NOT USE A MIXER!! Any action other than folding will deflate your fluffy eggs.

Step #9 - Fill cupcake papers 3/4 of the way full of batter and bake for 15 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely. Ice with marshmallow icing and freeze overnight.

Marshmallow Icing

3/4 cup butter or shortening
14 ounces marshmallow fluff
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla (use clear if you want the icing to be white)

Icing Instructions: With an electric mixer, beat butter/shortening, milk, vanilla, and marshmallow fluff. Gradually add powdered sugar until fully incorporated. This icing is VERY sticky. Pipe it onto cupcakes and freeze the cupcakes immediately.

In order to keep the marshmallow flavor dominant, as opposed to a more icing-y flavor, I opted for a sticky icing that does not hold it's form well-- this means that, even though you may pipe it beautifully, it will not stay pretty. I used a Wilton 1M tip, which is not evident in the final product. Freeze as quickly as possible to keep as much form in the icing as possible, and to keep it from dripping rather than being a nice fully mountain. Also? You, your icing bag, your kitchen and everything else will be sticky by the end of this. Deliciously sticky.

The Chocolate Coating

16 ounces high quality chocolate
2 tablespoons coconut oil

OK, this part is so easy, it's almost laughable. I got the recipe from Real Simple magazine. You can use this chocolate coating for anything frozen, like, ice-cream or bananas. All you do is melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a double boiler or the microwave and put it in a container deep enough to dunk your cupcakes in. Then, remove them from the freezer and dunk the tops right into the chocolate. Garnish with graham cracker crumbs if you like. Put them in the refrigerator to set and allow to come to room temperature before serving.

3....2.....1.....

Contact!!!

Give it a little shake so any excess can drip off.

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