“Campfire Kansas” Smore Cupcakes
Graham Cracker Cupcakes (makes a dozen cupcakes)
1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs
½ cup of flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ cup of butter, softened
¾ cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla
¾ cup of milk
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| A rolling pin would have made crushing them easier. |
For the 1 ½ cup of crushed graham cracker is about one package of graham crackers from a box. I split the package in two and placed them in plastic sandwich bags. Inside the bag I broke them into squares with my fingers and then closed the bag. Then I used the entire head of a wooden spoon to crush them up into fine pieces.
In a small bowl combine the crumbs, flour and baking powder; set aside.
To soften the butter, stick it in the microwave for 10 – 15 seconds. Beat the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is mixed together well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and then add the vanilla.
Add the graham cracker crumbs-flour-baking powder mixture to the batter alternatively with milk, beating well after each addition.
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| I used an ice cream scooper to put the batter into the liners. |
Divide the batter into a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners.
The original directions I followed said that you could fill the liners nearly to the top because the cake doesn't rise that much so I put 2 ice cream scoops worth of batter in each liners which ended up filling only 12 liners. The original recipe said it would make about 16 cupcakes.
Bake at 350F degrees for 20 minutes or until done. It's good to know your oven. Most cupcakes in my oven only take 18 minutes. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. It is recommended you remove the cupcakes from pans and cool completely on a wire rack but I usually just let my cupcakes cool in the pan.
Marshmallow Filling (makes enough to fill a dozen cupcakes)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¾ cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup Marshmallow Fluff
3/4 tablespoons
2 regular sized Hershey candy bars
In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the confectioners'' sugar, Marshmallow Fluff and 3/4 tablespoons of the heavy cream at medium speed until fluffy.
Transfer to a pastry bag to make filling the cupcake easier.
I didn't know where our pastry bags were at this point so I cut a cone shape out of the top of cupcake using a knife and filled it with 1 teaspoon of the marshmallow filling.
For a fun surprise I put 1 piece of the hershey candy bars in of the cupcakes on top of the bottom layer of marshmallow.
Then I put another 1 teaspoon of marshmallow on top of that.
I then cut off the point off the end of the cone and replaced the top of the cone back in it's place on the cupcake to cover up the filling.
Dark Chocolate Frosting (modified from MarthaStewart.com) (makes enough frosting for 30 cupcakes)
1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/8 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
To melt the chocolate, I used a double boiler, which means I melted it in a bowl over a pan filled with water on a low-medium heat setting.
When boiling water, I was told that it is best to boil more water than needed and then measure out the correct out because boiling such a little amount of water is not food for the pan.
Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter (it's best to break up the pieces using a fork and adding it instead of just putting a stick of butter in). Then add in and beat at the same speed the confectioners' sugar, and the salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low.
Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (This tastes awesome!)
Beat in the cocoa mixture. (Don't taste the cocoa and water mixture because cocoa does not taste like everyday chocolate because it is bitter, but it tastes amazing after you beat it into the chocolate mixture!)
If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container.
Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.
Put the frosting in a pastry bag and frost the top of the cupcake however you'd like.
Thoughts on...
“Campfire Kansas” Smore Cupcakes:
Cupcake - The graham cracker cupcakes taste just like graham crackers! Probably one of the best cupcakes I've ever had. But beware because they are super soft.
Filling - I would like it to taste a little bit more marshmallowy. Next time I think I will add a layer of marshmallow on top of the frosting or put some mini-marshmallows on it.
Frosting -The frosting is to die for. Simply amazing. Perhaps using less frosting would make the marshmallow taste a little more prominent.
This may be a cupcake you want to eat on a plate with a fork. When I took my first bite of it, I was standing and Preston was underneath me, some of the top fell off and landed on him. So he had a streak of chocolate frosting down his side, just where he couldn't reach it when he tried to twist his body around and lick it off haha. This is probably due to how soft the graham cracker cake is but I think it may have to do with the fact that I kind of butchered the top of it while cutting the cone out and it had already fallen apart.
Overall Rating (1 – 10, 1 being “blech” and 10 being “YUUMMMMM!!!!”)
“Kansas Campfire” Smore Cupcake: 9
The cupcake taste was perfect! Plus it's rare to hear of a Smore cupcake using a graham cracker cupcake (I never even heard of a graham cracker cupcake until I thought I came up with the idea, only to find it already existing on the internet haha.) Most people make Smore cupcakes with chocolate cake. I didn't give it a 10 only because I would've liked a little bit more of the marshmallow taste.
