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It’s almost s’mores season! Of course, I wouldn’t restrict s’mores to any particular season, as they are enjoyed all year long, but it is about time to uncover the barbecues, start up some camp fires and enjoy summertime foods. I got myself in the s’mores spirit by microwaving myself one!
It has been years, at least 15 years, since I’ve eaten one of these. Where have I been! This was so good and I’m using leftover ingredients from my s’mores cupcakes to make more s’mores.
I spent a while trying to decide how I wanted to build my s’mores cupcakes. I’ve seen it done so many different ways. I couldn’t decide between a graham cracker cake or a chocolate cake, or a chocolate graham cracker cake.
I chose to toss out my ideas when I saw this recipe on the Martha Stewart website; it’s a recipe for chocolate graham cracker cupcakes and toasted marshmallow frosting from Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle. It has a graham cracker crust base, a layer of bittersweet chocolate, chocolate cake, and graham cracker crumbs and chopped bittersweet chocolate baked on top. The frosting is basically a marshmallowy 7-minute frosting.
There had been comments on the recipe that it took a while to prepare; for me, I thought that the crushing of the graham crackers and chopping of the chocolate took the longest time. If you had a food processor or similar, unlike me, I’m sure it would make the task quicker.
The recipe calls for whole milk, but we only drink skim milk. So I searched for a quick substitute and ended up using a mix of skim milk and melted butter; 1 cup of skim milk, plus 2 teaspoons of melted butter. I used unsalted butter. It seemed to work fine. The cupcakes rose nicely, they have a very velvety sort of texture and are really moist.
I used the very last bit of sugar in our cabinets to make the frosting, so I hoped that I wouldn’t ruin it. I haven’t made 7-minute frosting before, so I wasn’t familiar with the process. As I was whisking the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar over a pan of simmering water, I noticed the mixture was very yellow and I thought for sure I had ruined it, but after 6 minutes under the care of the KitchenAid’s whisk it whipped up so perfect, so glossy and so white. It is a really beautiful marshmallowy frosting.
The recipe suggested using a kitchen blow torch to toast the frosting, but as I have no kitchen blow torch on hand, I put them under the broiler (on a low setting) in the oven for a few minutes (but moved the oven rack to the center of the oven). It didn’t toast them like a blow torch would, but it did give them a toasted appearance and crunch.
Unfortunately, I have heaps of frosting left and am not sure what to do with it. Egg whites don’t freeze well, I’ve heard, and I’m not sure how long it might keep in the refrigerator.
Anyway, these cupcakes taste so nice! I wouldn’t say they taste like the traditional s’mores sandwich, however. With the addition of bittersweet chocolate, instead of the traditional milk chocolate, I would consider this a grown-up’s s’mores cupcake!
Updated later: As there are egg whites in the frosting, it’s best to refrigerate your leftover cupcakes. Let them warm up to room temperature before enjoying, or give them a quick zap in the microwave; I put mine on defrost for 10 seconds and it warmed up the chocolate pieces to make them nice and gooey again. 🙂
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Yummy, I love smores, I tried a cupcake version with no success, yours look great.
those look scrumptious! good idea too!
I love s’mores! I keep wanting to try s’mores cupcakes but haven’t done it yet…I need to!! Your’s look great!
This is such a great idea! And flawless execution! They look fantastic, moist, cute and yummy… everything you could possibly want! You’re very creative: smores cupcakes would have never ocurred to me 🙂
The cupcakes look gorgeous and I bet they taste amazing. I started buying a quart of whole milk that just stays in my fridge for baking because we only drink skim too. I’ve done the skim + 2 tbsp. of melted butter lots of times too. Works like a charm!
Mmmmmm 😛 They look perfect!
Would you believe me if I told you I’ve never tried a s’mores cupcake? It’s true! I certainly have to try it one day.
What fun cupcakes!
Where did you get the dark cupcake liners? They’re gorgeous.
Megan, I got them from Cupcake Swirl. I love the brown liners too! 🙂
I have to say I think yours look MUCH better than Martha’s! I’m not a big fan of 7 minute icing but can see how it might taste good with the chocolate and graham cracker combo. Give me a jar of marshmallow fluff any day though and I am happy.
Maybe you can make meringues with the left-over frosting? The ingredients are similar.
Oh my. These look to die for! I must try these immediately.
They look great especially that frosting. Glad to hear that it all worked out.
~ingrid
Hi, your cupcakes look delicious! Just so you know, when you whisked your egg whites over heat, that cooked them, so they don’t really need to be refrigerated.
I just made these with a regular Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix but followed the rest of the recipe. I’d half the frosting recipe. I used the broiler of our oven to toast the tops. I used a spice jar to press the graham cracker onto the bottom of each.
THESE ARE AMAZING! They are beautiful too. I’m going to look like the queen of the kitchen when I bring these to my son’s scout meeting later today. They taste so good and look even better.
Thanks for sharing!
Janet
As someone who is in Australia, I can never seem to find graham crackers.
I know you now live in Australia, so am hoping you could recommend a similar biscuit, because I’d love to be able to make these.
Thanks 🙂
Hi there, you’re right about not finding graham crackers, they just don’t have them here! I’ve tried to find similar ones and the closest I’ve tasted so far are Arnott’s Nice biscuits. They taste very similar, however they’re not quite as crumbly. Give them a good bashing with a rolling pin though and they should work well in place of graham crackers! 🙂
I was wondering if the 7 min frosting kept in the fridge? I’ve never used this kind of icing before, but wanted to ice a cake the day before I serve it, and I just want to make sure the frosting will last, I saw i was a question you had, and I was hoping you have an answer I can learn from. :O)
I still don’t have an absolute answer to that question! However, with an egg-white based frosting, I probably wouldn’t trust it to hold up in the refrigerator overnight. Most recipes for this kind of frosting state that it should be used immediately. Whenever possible, I always frost cakes/cupcakes right before serving because the frosting tastes best freshly made, so that is what I’m going to recommend – if possible, for the best results, frost the cake just before serving (or at least on the same day). 🙂
I’m definitely going to make these, but I’ll need to bake them the day before I will bring it to a party. Is the cupcakes still moist after you put it in the refigerator? I have heard many people say that when baked goods are stored in the refrigerator, it’s no longer moist. Is that true for this cupcakes? Thanks! 🙂
Hi there, I have found that as long as you leave the cupcakes come to room temperature after you take them out of the refrigerator that they are still quite moist and delicious. Good luck!
Wondering what tip you used to frost these? They’re gorgeous!
Hi Erin, I can’t quite remember, but I am pretty sure by looking at them that I had used a Wilton 1M tip. 🙂