S'mores Cupcakes- the redo!

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My summer of weddings is officially over. The chaos, the running around, the making cakes in hotel rooms is done. But I can’t say that I didn’t go out with a bang because 2 weeks ago I made an entire dessert buffet in a tiny hotel room with an even small kitchen- although, thankfully, a full oven. There were tears, there were mere hours of sleep, there were sunrises being watched, but it all worked out in the end, out of some miracle.

This last wedding was that of my beautiful friends Jordan and Lonny (who we affectionately call girl-Jordan in my house to distinguish from my boyfriend Jordan). It was a wedding full of breathtaking scenery, beautiful handmade details, and lots of love. And lots of dancing. Of course.

I didn’t bring my camera to the actual wedding, so I have seldom few pictures of that, but I did get some nice ones of the dessert buffet, and along with it, I am going to post my recipe for S’mores Cupcakes again, because it remains on of the most looked at pages on this site, and has some of the worst pictures! So I thought that should be remedied.

Recipe Adapted from Bon Appetit

Graham Cracker Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15 crackers)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp Baking Powder

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1/2 cup Butter, softened

3/4 cup Milk or Buttermilk

Ganache:

3/4 cup Dark Chocolate

2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Marshmallow Topping:

3 Large Egg Whites

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 cup Water

3/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Decorate with

Broken pieces ofGraham crackers

2 Bars of Hersheys Chocolate

To make Ganache

Bring the cream to a boil

Pour on top of chocolate

Stir until smooth 

To Bake Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350F

Line with cupcake liners or butter and flour 1 dozen cupcake tins, or 3 dozen mini cupcake tins.

Whisk together your dry ingredients

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time beating well between each addition.

Alternate in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients beginning and ending with the dry.

Spoon the batter 3/4 of the way up the cupcake liners.

And bake them until they’re beautiful and slighly browned and an inserted skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs, about 20 minutes for full sized cupcakes

To Make Marshmallo Topping

Put 3/4 cup sugar and water in a pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove spoon and bring to a boil and with a candy thermometer let it comet ot he firm ball stage, 246Degrees F.

While it’s boiling put the egg whites and the vanilla in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until soft peaks form. Add in the 2 tablespoons of sugar slowly until stiff peaks form.

When the sugar is up to temperature slowly pour it into the whites while whisking on high speed. Keep whisking until the bowl is cool and the meringue looks very marshmallowy, this will take about 8-10 minutes and the meringue should be mostly wrapped around the beater in a ball, and little should be on the sides of the bowl.

Put into a piping bag right away.

To Assemble:

Turn on the Broiler.

With a pairing knife cut a little hole out of the middle of the cupcakes.

Put the ganache into a piping bag and pipe it into the holes in the cupcakes (the consensus was that there wasn’t enough chocolate in the ones I made so don’t hesitate to load em up!)

Pipe the marshmallow topping on top of the whole thing!

Now throw the whole things under the broiler for a couple minutes until the tops just get golden.

July 24, 2011
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S'Mores Cupcakes

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A few years ago, after working at a very good restaurant for an extremely talented chef who made me cry every day for 8 months, I took a hiatus from cooking. To pay the bills I took a job as a hostess for a summer. The catch was that they promised me full time work and only gave me two shifts a week, which would have been way more manageable except that then I got dumped. And that would have been easier if I had lived in the city for longer and had more friends but I didn`t. And so I spent my days applying for jobs and not getting the jobs I`d applied for and crying, and feeling rejected and just generally having a really rough go. And so everyday I woke up and made cupcakes. Everyday. Compusively. I made blueberry cupcakes, raspberry caramel cupcakes, dolce de leche cupcakes, maple pecan cupcakes. I made an insane amount of cupcakes. I gave them to people at work (which might be why they ended up giving me more shifts) and I gave them to my one good friend (who obliging took them everyday, even though shes very food concious) occasionally I gave them to boys I went on dates on, but they were rarely worth it. Fortunately that phase is through and my life has sorted itself out and I have since decided I am over cupcakes. I am cupcaked out. But today I had to go to a beach party and bring dessert, and I realized why people started making cupcakes in the first place. It`s cake, that doesn`t involve cutlery, or plates. And then I realized there was one kind of cupcake I`d never made before. S`mores cupcakes. I`m telling you, you really ought to make these. Yes there are multiple steps and yes it`s a little time consuming, but really. It`s S`mores cupcakes. You know you`re going to.

Graham Cracker Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15 crackers)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp Baking Powder

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1/2 cup Butter, softened

3/4 cup Milk or Buttermilk

Ganache:

3/4 cup Milk Chocolate

2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Marshmallow Topping:

3 Large Egg Whites

2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1/2 cup Corn Syrup

3/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

To make Ganache

Bring the cream to a boil

Pour on top of chocolate

Stir until smooth (sorry! i forgot to take a picture of this step!)

To Bake Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350F

Line with cupcake liners or butter and flour 1 dozen cupcake tins, or 3 dozen mini cupcake tins.

Whisk together your dry ingredients

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time beating well between each addition.

Alternate in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients beginning and ending with the dry.

Spoon the batter 3/4 of the way up the cupcake liners.

And bake them until they’re beautiful and slighly browned and an inserted skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs, about 15 minutes for mini cupcakes.

To Make Marshmallo Topping

Put 3/4 cup sugar, corn syrup, and water in a pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove spoon and bring to a boil and with a candy thermometer let it comet ot he firm ball stage, 246Degrees F.

While it’s boiling put the egg whites and the vanilla in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until soft peaks form. Add in the 2 tablespoons of sugar slowly until stiff peaks form.

When the sugar is up to temperature slowly pour it into the whites while whisking on high speed. Keep whisking until the bowl is cool and the meringue looks very marshmallowy! Put into a piping bag right away.

To Assemble:

Crank up the oven to 425F

With a pairing knife cut a little hole out of the middle of the cupcakes.

Put the ganache into a piping bag and pipe it into the holes in the cupcakes (the consensus was that there wasn’t enough chocolate in the ones I made so don’t hesitate to load em up!)

Pipe the marshmallow topping on top of the whole thing!

Now throw the whole things in the oven for a couple minutes until the tops just get golden. If you leave them to long they will not only burn but shrivel up a bit as the night goes on, so don’t worry about leaving them fair.

Cupcakes and Shoes

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If you like discount shoes and delicious homemade cupcakes check out the John Fluevogs stores on both Granville st. and the Gastown location! Cupcakes made by me, in my tiny apartment in my totally ill equipped kitchen! So here are a few notes, tips and thoughts on making cupcakes, both big batches (like yesteday’s 400) or small.

I made recipes that are all on this webiste already, the Red Velvet, Dark Chocolate with Satled Caramel Icing and Vanilla Pound Cake with Vanilla Buttercream.

I also cut dyed some fondant blue and rolled it out and cut out little high heels, but this is a really easy way to make a cupcake, or anything, extra cute with, honestly, little skill. It can be time consuming, but its really not hard!

I buy fondant, because I have made it before, and its less consistant, a totaly nuisanse, and not any better. It is cheaper, but I would rather have a product I know I can depend on.

Knead the fondant! Work it, and then work it some more. This process is going to get you a smoother and easier to work with product.

Always use paste food colourings, you’ll get a nicer color and a better texture with your fondant.

Roll out the dough and start cutting, leaving half the fondant covered so it doesn’t try out. Use a metal cookie cutter because they are stronger, thinner and sharper.

And keep going, and keep going, and keep going!

The most important thing is to be organized. What can you do in advance? Icings, fondant cuttings, even weighing out ingredients, this are things that make your life infinitely easier if your doing large batches. Use recipes that you’ve used before and your comfortable making.

And don’t cut corners. Use real butter, buy good quality vanilla and cocoa powder when ever you can. If you live in Vancouver some tips: I buy my butter at Save on Foods, sometimes its as low as $3.50! I buy my vanilla at Homesense, which is weird I’ll admit, but they often have non perishable food items super discounted, including my favourite brand of vanilla extract.  And I buy my cocoa powder from Dutch Girl Chocolates, just as her for some and she’ll give you a good rate. It’s cheaper then the cheap brands and it’s really really good quality!