Smores Cupcakes!

Scott's birthday is upon us. He doesn't like cake that much, he does however like marshmallows. I just couldn't let the whole "he needs a birthday cake!" thing go. We are having a birthday party for him and I just feel like cake needs to be present. So I decided to try to make the kind of cake he'd like the most and I knew it had to involve marshmallows.

Smores naturally! Who doesn't like smores! I used Martha Stewarts recipe but tweeked it a little (I prefer milk chocolate) and some random marshmallow frosting recipe. I used those powdered egg whites in place of actual egg whites because I have serious issues with food safety and I will not eat, or serve raw egg white to anyone I love. You can risk it if you want but the powdered ones work fine.

I also don't own a kitchen torch (though I would like one) so instead of torching them, I put them under the broiler and watched them carefully. It worked fine, it's not as precise as if I got to torch them but whatever, you just chew them up and swallow them anyway.

Martha's Cupcake Recipe
(Say what you will about Martha but I always end up using her cupcake recipes. She's good like that)

2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 20 squares)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.

2. Sift 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed.

3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add boiling water and stir to combine; set cake batter aside.

4. Place graham cracker crumbs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl; stir until well combined.

5. Place 1 tablespoon graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Use the bottom of a small glass to pack crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Reserve remaining graham cracker mixture for topping.

6. Place 2 teaspoons chocolate in each muffin cup. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until the edges of the graham cracker mixture is golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter. Sprinkle each with remaining chocolate and graham cracker mixture. Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.

Random Marshmallow Recipe

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 Cups light Karo Syrup

1-1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Directions:

Beat together 2 egg whites & 1/4 tsp. salt with a mixer until very frothy. Add 1/4 cup sugar very slowly, and beat until smooth & glossy. Slowly, add 3/4 Cup light Karo Syrup, & beat until it holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

7. Transfer frosting to a large pastry bag fitted with a large plain round or French tip (such as Ateco #867 or Ateco #809)**. Pipe frosting in a spiral motion on each cupcake. Transfer cupcakes to a baking sheet. Using a kitchen torch, lightly brown the frosting, taking care not to burn the cupcake liners. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

***I have 3 plastic tips. I need better cupcake gear I have no idea what those numbers mean I just used the one that was most like a star, because I always use that one.

Whipped cream filled Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache frosting

Lately my motivation for cooking and baking has been "meh". As I was searching for dinner inspiration in the new issue of eating well I saw their Chocolate-Cherry cupcake recipe. http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chocolate_cherry_cupcakes.html


"Hmm" I thought..."That sounds good but it would be better filled with whipped cream and dipped in ganache instead of that cream cheese frosting."

Actually I'm quite sure the eating well recipe done exactly as it says is wonderful. Most everything I make that magazine rocks. This is just my preference, I am not a huge frosting fan in general, so I usually prefer ganache. I also belong to the church of "whipped cream makes everything taste better" so filling that bad larry with sweetened whipped cream is only natural.

So here is the recipe just how I made it...

Cupcakes (this section copied and pasted from eating well)

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
  
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
  
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pitted cherries, fresh or frozen (thawed and drained), plus 12 fresh cherries with stems for garnish

1. To prepare cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat granulated sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. With the mixer on low, alternately mix in the dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with dry ingredients and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, until just combined. Fold in chopped cherries until just combined. Divide the batter among the prepared cups (they will be full).
4. Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22 to 26 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

From here on out you will be subjected to my bad instructions. Good luck!

Whipped Cream Filling

1 cup heaving whipping cream
some confectioners sugar ( I don't know how much just dump some in)
some vanilla (again just shake some in) it probably ended up being like a tsp.

Ganache
I used 9 oz of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream but if I were you I'd cut that in half because I had *way* too much ganache left over. Ganche is pretty much the easiest thing in the world to make. You just throw the chocolate chips in a bowl, then heat the cream up until almost boiling. Pour the hot cream over the chips and let sit about 10 minutes (cover the bowl). Come back and then whisk it all together. Hooray! You have ganache and it sounds FANCY!

All right so you can probably figure out how to do this but I'll just write it down anyway. So you've got your cooled cupcakes. Now you hollow them out. Don't go too crazy so that they fall apart but don't take out to little either. You can save the hollowed out parts for...I don't know what. Or you can just eat them all like I did.

Then get a pastry bag and fill it with your extra whipped, whipped cream. Make sure it's really stiff so that it will hold up a few days. Fill each cupcakes with whipped cream right up to the top.

After this step I froze my cupcakes. I did this because I thought it would just be easier and make less of a mess when dipping. You can probably skip this step if you want but I am not responsible for what happens.

Ok now I have my frozen cupcakes and my freshly made ganache (make the ganache right before you want to do the dipping. Or if you make it ahead of time microwave it so it's nice and melty). Dip the tops of the cupcake in the ganache and then top with a cherry.



tadah!






Store in the fridge obviously.