S’mores Cupcakes
Last year, a friend asked me if I had any s’mores-themed desserts up my sleeve. This revealed in me an apparent hole in my repertoire as well as an implicit bias against s’mores flavored things. Don’t get me wrong, I love an actual s’more. The combination of spiced graham cracker, with the soft and warm marshmallow and a sweet milk chocolate is truly to die for. I have, however, not had good luck with pre-packaged s’mores-themed items. To me, they never strike the perfect balance of the real thing. Not to be out-matched by a challenge, however, I developed this recipe, and I have to say it is one of the recipes that I’m most proud of.
You start with a graham cracker flavored cake. I’m sure that someone else has done this before, but I haven’t personally seen it anywhere. I am proud to say that I nailed the recipe on my first test, and the results are nothing short of brilliant. (Even though I do say so myself) The dry ingredients for this cake use brown sugar rather than white as that is what is traditionally found in graham crackers. I also added in a little cinnamon as I have a particular love of the cinnamon graham crackers rather than the plain. If you aren’t as big a fan, feel free to leave it out.
With the butter is added some liquid sweetener. Both molasses and honey are the primary flavors of actual graham crackers, so they do nicely in this recipe. After evenly mixing those ingredients in, you must add the other wet stuff. I use non-fat Greek yogurt as it has become my substitute for sour cream these days, but feel free to use sour cream instead.
I always use an ice cream scoop to dole out my cupcake batter. I find it makes for nice, consistently-sized cupcakes. This recipe makes only 12 cupcakes total. However, I have found that it doubles quite nicely. I wouldn’t push it any more than that though. When you try to do too big of batches, something screws with the leavener (baking powder), and the cakes won’t rise properly. (This is a general rule with all baking recipes by the way, not just this one) The cakes, once baked, then must cool completely before you can even think of decorating them.
I wanted to make sure to include a prominent marshmallow component into these cupcakes. Real s’mores are always so gooey, and that’s part of what makes them fun! Instead of using whole marshmallows in this recipe, I use marshmallow fluff to really amp up the goo-factor. To get the goo inside you must cut out the center of the cupcakes. I use a 1.5 inch cookie cutter, but you can just cut out the center with a pairing knife instead. I then fill the center of the cake with the fluff and top with a little cake cap from what I removed. The leftover cake crumbs make an excellent baker’s treat!
You want to top these cakes with a very chocolatey frosting. Again, we’re going for real s’more vibes here, and a real s’more just isn’t complete without that back-of-the-tongue sweetness found in a milk chocolate square. I think this frosting recipe replicates that well. It is a traditional American buttercream recipe with melted and cooled semi-sweet chocolate added in. I use a piping bag to put a swirl on top in what I like to call the “poop emoji pattern.”
To decorate I cut a handful of mini-marshmallows in half on the diagonal and dot them in the frosting along with shards of graham cracker. I think that the effect is fun. If you let the cupcakes sit in the fridge for at least an hour, covered, the graham crackers soften and become easier to chew. On the whole, this recipe comes together better than I could ever have dreamed of. I am immensely proud of it and I hope that you’ll all try it out and let me know how it goes!
Remember, you don’t have to be a professional chef to make magic in the kitchen!
Joe the Blue Wizard
S'mores Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) All-purpose Flour
- 3/4 cups (150 g) Brown Sugar
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) Kosher Salt
- 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp (1.5 g) Ground Cinnamon
- 1 stick (110 g) Unsalted Butter, softened
- 3 tbsp (45 mL) Honey
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) Molasses
- 1/2 cup (120 mL) Greek Yogurt
- 1 large Egg
- 2 large Egg Yolks
- 1 tsp (5 mL) Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 lb (450 g) Marshmallow Fluff
- 1/2 tsp. (1 g) Espresso Powder
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) Milk
- 3 cups (400 g) Powdered Sugar
- 2 sticks (220 g) Unsalted Butter, softened
- 1 pinch Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp. (2.5 mL) Vanilla Extract
- 4 oz. (115 g) Semisweet Chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2 Whole Graham Crackers, cracked into shards
- 1/2 cup (70 g) Mini Marshmallows, cut in half diagonally
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl whisk together flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder until there are no lumps from the brown sugar.
- Add honey, molasses and butter to the bowl and beat with an electric mixer until evenly combined and the consistency of breadcrumbs.
- Add yogurt, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla and beat until evenly mixed.
- Divide batter between 12 cups of a lined cupcake pan.
- Bake on center rack for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a center cupcake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Use a 1 1/2 inch biscuit cutter to remove the center of each cupcake.
- Cut each removed cake section in half transversely.
- Fill the center of the cupcakes with the marshmallow fluff and top with top half of the cupcake sections.
- Dissolve espresso powder in the milk.
- Use an electric mixer to beat together sugar, butter, salt, vanilla and milk mixture until smooth.
- Add cooled, melted chocolate to the frosting and beat until evenly combined.
- Top cupcakes with frosting as desired.
- Top frosted cupcakes with shards of graham crackers and mini-marshmallows.
Nutrition facts calculated using MyFitnessPal and are estimated. If you have dietary restrictions please calculate with your own brands of ingredients.
