It’s my mission this summer to make as many s’mores desserts in a variety of formats as I can. If you invite me to an event this summer, you can be sure I will arrive with a s’mores pie/cake/cookie/bar/pudding/ice cream/popsicle/doughnut. My ultimate goal for the end of August is to have a s’mores party with homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers, and a variety of fillings: nutella, dulce de leche, peanut butter, caramelized bananas, and the list goes on.  We’ll see if I can actually make this happen.

To begin, last month there was a party for Alexis and Nick’s little baby Mila. Alexis’ family is Korean on her mom’s side, and they celebrate all new babies with a party once the baby is 100 days old.  I’m a big fan of this idea. In my sister-in-law’s family, they don’t do baby showers, instead they throw a big Chinese banquet when the baby is one month old. Doesn’t it just make so much sense? Everyone gets to come and meet the baby, and the best part of all is you can bring gender specific gifts!

This was the perfect occasion to kick-off my summer s’mores obsession with cupcakes! Of course there are a bunch of different ways to go here, but I decided on a graham cupcake, hollowed out and filled with milk chocolate ganache, and topped with marshmallow frosting. I don’t really want to talk about it, but obviously my marshmallow frosting didn’t work. I don’t know quite what went wrong, but I basically ended up with soft, goopy marshmallow fluff, that was not stiff enough to pipe on top of the cupcakes. In retrospect, I would totally make these again, but put the marshmallow component inside, and use a milk chocolate frosting on top.

It always makes me smile when I obsess over something in my kitchen and get grumpy over how it turned out, only to find people absolutely freak out and gobble them up. I only made a dozen cupcakes, and people were racing inside the house to make sure they got one. Just something for me to remember next time I mess something up!

S’mores Cupcakes

Source: Cupcake from Ming, Filling adapted from SK, Frosting attempt from JtheB

Ingredients

Cupcake

1 cups flour

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Filling

4 oz milk chocolate

1/3 cup cream

1 tbsp butter

Frosting

I’ll just direct you over to Joy, so you can see what this is supposed to look like OR just use marshmallow fluff OR just melt a big marshmallow on top.

Directions

  1. For cupcakes, mix flour, graham crumbs, baking powder and salt in a big bowl.
  2. Mix in the butter with a wooden spoon, so flour doesn’t fly everywhere when you start using the mixer.
  3. Beat in the sugar with your mixer, then the eggs, then the vanilla and milk.
  4. Pur batter into cupcake liners and bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  5. Cool the cupcakes completely, then use a small knife to carve out a hole in the middle of each one.
  6. For filling, chop milk chocolate and place in a small bowl. Heat the cream in the microwave for about 30 seconds, then pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for about a minute, then use a whisk or spoon to stir until the ganache is smooth. You can let it firm up a bit in the fridge, then pour into the cupcakes.
  7. For marshmallow frosting, follow Joy’s instructions, or just melt a big marshmallow on the top of each one, or add a smear of marshmallow fluff. It tastes amazing no matter what!