Joe had come out of nowhere sometime last year with "How good does a s'mores cupcake sound? Doesn't that sound good? Do you think you could make some?" I thought it sounded like a great idea, but I never got around to making them. Then, after my "Sprinkle's" experience this past March, I knew I had to try and find a recipe to use here at home.
I searched high and low, sifted through SO many that all looked so yummy! Well, today I finally made some time to give some of them a go... and this one ends up being different than the others as well which makes me love them even more! Now, even though I made time today to make them, I realized as I was preheating the oven and getting my ingredients together that I was totally out of cocoa! Yikes, cant make a chocolate cake without some of the good stuff right? BUT alas, I did see a box of chocolate cake mix hiding in the pantry... SCORE :) So I guess these are considered cheat cupcakes, gotta love that too!
So here is what we need:
INGREDIENTS:
for crust-
- 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (approximately 1 1/2 sleeves)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 6 1/4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup mini choc chips
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
for cupcakes-
1 boxed chocolate cake mix
for filling and/or frosting-
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
- 1 tablespoons heavy cream
for topping-
- 3 oz semi sweet chocolate/chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup of softened butter
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350° and grease/line cupcake pans (I got exactly 28 cupcakes so I lined 2 full pans and then 4 on a 3rd pan).
1. Prepare the crust! Grind up your graham crackers in a food processor. They should be ground up pretty fine, like when making cheesecake or pie. Melt butter... I always just do it in the microwave. Set it to 35 seconds to start, let it run, stir and add an additional 8-10 seconds if needed. Add sugar and melted butter to the graham crackers and let the food processor go and get the mixture combined. Once it starts to held together a little bit, take out the blade carefully, and then add the mini chocolate chips. Stir with a spoon until distributed evenly.
2. Using a TABLESPOON, spoon mixture into the bottoms of each cupcake liner.
Press each mound down into the bottom and slightly up the sides, not too much, but make sure each one is fairly compacted in the pan!
Let me stop here for just a second and say that I literally tried 4-5 different versions of this cupcake today, all using the same ingredients, just changing things up ever so slightly! One of the bext things I did was add this step... putting a few mini marshmallows right on top of the pressed crust. I added 3 because I didnt know how it would effect the cupcake, but I would totally add at least 5 mini's :) It makes the crust even gooier and richer! A very nice touch!
3. OK, once those are all set and pretty, throw them in the oven for 5 minutes...
4. While those are baking, get your cake batter ready! Of course you dont have to use a box like I did, but if you want to save just a smidge of time, go for it... I wont tell :) If you wanna make your own, I really have found this one by Hershey's to be great!
5. Bake 18-20 minutes, do NOT over bake. As soon as the cupcakes bounce back slightly to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean when you test it, they are done! Does this not look good enough already? Holy cow... yum!
Check out another version I made putting marshmallows directly into the batter & putting a few right on top! What a mess lol! They actually still tasted really good, I just didn't account for the marshmallows expanding quite as much as they did IN the batter...
Oh well... we still ate those while I finished up the real batch :) Moving along...
6. With the cupcakes cooling nicely, start to make your filling! Add the softened butter, marshmallow fluff, and powdered sugar into a bowl and beat until whipped and fluffy. Add the heavy cream and beat for about a minute longer.
7. I think the easiest way to get the filling IN your cupcakes is to use a piping bag and circular tip. Prepare bag and then place it in a large glass, fold top edges down, and begin adding filling.
8. Place tip of piping bag into the center of each cupcake and gently squeeze bag AS you slowly lift the bag out of the cupcake.
Try to level off the tops a bit...
9. Once those are all filled, begin making your ganache! Add all ingredients to a glass bowl and set over a double boiler. Cook over low heat until the chocolate and butter have all melted and its nice and smooth. Take each cupcake and turn it upside to coat the tops.
T
The next few steps are a little bit of a blur... I had a few ideas that I wanted to try, but once I said the words "TORCH" to my husband, well, everything just moved so fast lol! First, I tried a few using some of the filling as frosting, then added some mini marshmallows to the top. Well, that didnt workout too well because I left too many spaces in between each marshmallow so when Joe torched it, the frosting just began to melt!
Let me note, though, that Joe liked this version the best, even though the marshmallows weren't all nice and toasty, he thought the frosting was great on top, but I thought it was way too sweet! For those of you who do not have a kitchen torch, you could totally make more frosting (double the recipe I give here), pipe it on top, and then add mini marshmallows right on top, and sprinkle with some crushed graham crackers like this:
Completely good and pretty all the same! You could even add a small Hershey's chocolate and make it even more special :)
For everyone else, this is what I did and I thought they tasted perfect... also a great step for the kids to help out with! Add mini marshmallows ALL over the top and then try to layer a few on top of those, pile it high as ya like :)
Again, perfectly yummy just like this and if you don't have a torch, another great option!
But if you want to take it a step further and possibly get your husband involved with some "power tools", have him fire up a torch and lend you a hand...
and the finished product...
