S'mores Cupcakes

Joe and I are going on a camping trip to the Grand Canyon this weekend. We're pretty excited as neither of us has ever been! I have had s'mores on my mind ever since we started making plans for the weekend. I started making a list of things to bring a week in advance.... and things to bake 2 weeks in advance! S'mores have been on my mind ever since we made the official plans. I made a quick check of my Pinterest page for inspiration and realized I have been obsessing over s'mores for far too long. I had... wait for it, waaaait for it..... TEN pins on my dessert page for things to make using s'mores inspiration. 10 and counting, I'm pretty sure I added a few more the other day. I needed a fix. I needed one bad.

Joe took one bite and just shook his head "yes" and widened eyes. That was BEFORE the marshmallow fluff frosting was on top! He likes to give me detail in what's happening in his taste buds "at first I thought it was dry but then I realized my tongue had just touched the graham cracker crust, then when I started chewing the chocolate and graham cracker came together and totally tasted like a s'more. That is probably the best chocolate anything I've ever eaten... and you know how I feel about chocolate (he's not that in to it)." I am telling you, begging you... bake these cupcakes. I promise you will get your s'mores fix and you can take these anywhere with you.

The combination of the chocolate bits in the cake, the slightly crunchy graham cracker crust and the topping that is completely homemade but tastes JUST like marshmallows gave these cupcakes all the components of a true s'more.

This batter was all made using one bowl, gotta love that. People not suffering from altitude can use a mixer for their cake batter. To avoid too much air getting in, I mixed everything by hand. I'd suggest using a mixer if you're not in the mountains. One of the other things I was all too please about after these cupcakes came out of the oven was that they didn't sink in the middle... a result of altitude (among several others).




Ingredients

Chocolate Cake Batter: adapted from Hershey's
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup boiling water
1 bag Hershey's milk chocolate chips

Graham Cracker Crust
20 Graham crackers (crush up)
6 Tbsp melted butter
pinch of salt
2 tsp sugar

Marshmallow Frosting
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt



Directions

Cake:
Mix all dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a large bowl.

Add milk, oil, vanilla and eggs straight into the bowl and thoroughly mix everything together.

Add boiling water and combine.

It will be runny.

Graham Cracker Crust:

Put 20 broken up graham crackers into a food processor and pulse until crushed.

 In bowl mix crushed graham crackers, salt, sugar, and melted butter with a fork.

Marshmallow Frosting:
Add egg whites, sugar and salt to bowl over simmering water (or double broiler). Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is hot. About 5 minutes. Add hot mixer to a bowl or stand mixer and beat  on high until stiff peaks form.

Assembly

Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Scoop 1 Tbsp of graham cracker mixture into each cup and press the crust gently with the back of the spoon to pack it tightly in the bottom of the cup.

Scoop in batter on top til about 2/3 the way full. 

Drop chocolate chips on top of  batter (be generous). Bake at 375 for 15 minutes (high altitude) or 350 for 18-22 min.


Pipe frosting onto completely cooled cupcakes. May use a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off if you don't have a piping bag! After piping my cupcakes I decided to give it a whirl and try to toast the marshmallow fluff topping with a lighter... totally worked! Took a while, but they got that yummy toasted marshmallow taste that is essential to s'mores. I totally had a picture of that, but the boyfriend got confused and took the wrong container of cupcakes to work to share with the guys before I got the pictures taken. (Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the frosting process... I was just too excited!