S'mores Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

I found the most gorgeous looking S'more cupcakes on Annie's Eats Blog and had to make it mostly for my love of all things Marshmallow and Chocolate and well...S'mores in general. I swapped out her posted chocolate cake recipe for a Chocolate Cupcake recipe I have used a few times from JoyofBaking.com.

We are getting ready to move again so things are beginning to become quite hectic with less time to bake and even less time to post photos with packing and last minute travels whatnot so these photos are a bit late.

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For the graham cracker crust:

• 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
• ¼ cup sugar
• 5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used only 3 ounces and next time probably would not use any as I did not notice this extra step)
  

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water
• 1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 8 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ tsp. cream of tartar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Crust:
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. In a small mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter; mix well with a fork. (I used my hands to get even consistency throughout) Drop about 1 tablespoon of the graham cracker mixture in the bottom of each cupcake liner and press down to line the bottom. Sprinkle a small amount of the chopped chocolate on top of the graham cracker crusts. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and maintain the oven temperature.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup about two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Marshmallow Frosting:

Combine the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in the top of a double boiler. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it reaches 160° F with an instant-read thermometer. (I do not own a thermometer so I whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved) Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk starting at low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form. Mix in the vanilla until combined. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. Brown with a kitchen torch and garnish with chocolate and graham cracker segments (optional).

Place 12 whole sheets of graham crackers in a plastic bag

Continue to pulverize graham crackers until a nice crumbly consistency!

I found chopping chocolate squares not quite so easy, so please tell me your methods! Eventually I began scrapping the knife down the short side of the chocolate and it worked fairly well.

Using the bottom of a tall shot glass, I pressed the graham cracker then sprinkled the chocolate in each cup.

I wanted to add marshmallows to the inside so I created two small holes then pressed mini marshmallows in while the cupcakes were still hot so they would be melt-y.

The EZ Egg Cracker (an as seen on TV gimmicky looking gadget) is awesome! I cracked and separated all the eggs in record time! Separate eggs while still cold for easiest separating then let egg whites warm to room temperature.

It may take some time but if you keep mixing...

and mixing...

You will have the most gorgeously glossy AND tasty marshmallow frosting! Yum!!

I did not have a kitchen torch and as we are moving out of the country soon and kitchen torches are airplane friendly I opted to brown in the oven. BE VERY CAREFUL here if you try this! As you can see, the cupcake on the far left caught on fire as it was too close to the top. Not a very safe idea unless you pay very close attention to the cupcakes.

These were soo good. The toasted marshmallow topping was delicious and looked so nice.

Ultra Mini Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Raspberry and White Chocolate Mascarpone Filling

Tip:

• Use a large ziplock bag to pipe your batter onto parchment paper and your whoopie pies will be almost perfectly symmetrical instead of trying to shape your pies after you have scooped them onto the paper with a spoon.

I started off my day with "Whoopies!" and ended my day with "Owwies!" Yes, I am being a little bit cheesey but everyone needs a little cheese in their life. I broke my toe Friday afternoon in my excited rush to pack clothes to travel home for a few weeks. My poor poor little itty bitty toe has been the bane of my existence for the last 4 weeks now and is only now showing signs of letting up. It is amazing how such a little thing can have incredible impact on your life. I guess little insignificant things are often times the building blocks to bigger and better things though.

Take my ultra mini Whoopie Pies for example. Barely the size of a quarter, these Whoopie Pies by themselves, unfilled, are nothing special, but put them together with a White Chocolate Cream Filling and Raspberry Preserves and bam!, they pack a powerful punch of taste and sweetness!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe from the book Whoopie Pies posted on www.Bakerella.com. I made only one change to the recipe, reducing the Baking Soda from 1 1/2 teaspoons to 3/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda.

Note: I am currently reading the book Bakewise by Shirley Corriher who uses a mixture of her culinary school skills mixed with science to break down the art of baking to make it perfect. She states if you use too much baking soda, you may over-leaven your cake causing it to actually fall instead of rise. Not only that, you may get that fairly unpleasant soapy taste baking soda by itself seems to leave in its wake. Shirley Corriher recommends using 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to 1 cup of flour. I estimated the flour and cocoa powder together would be roughly over 2 cups of flour and compromised with the recipe's stated 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda and made it 3/4 teaspoon, 1/4 per "cup of flour" and 1/4 just as extra.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie
from Whoopie Pies

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda **I used 3/4 tsp baking soda**
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
• In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
• Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
• Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
• Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently. **I poured my batter into a ziplock bag with a small hole at the bottom and squeezed out roughly a little smaller than a quarter of mixture as I wanted them ultra mini and I knew they would spread a little. Using a ziplock bag with batter in it helped tremendously in making my whoopie pies perfectly shaped. I squeezed the ziplock bag over one spot and continued squeezing until the circle size I wanted was achieved. With a teaspoon you sometimes may have slightly more or less mixture in each one and having to scoop and drop over and over becomes tiresome.
  
• Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.

For my ultra-mini pies, I had 140 cakes or 70 whoopie pies. I also had enough mixture for probably 30 more assembled whoopie pies but time was short and it was time to get crackin' at the assembly!

White Chocolate and Mascarpone Filling:

In a heavy small saucepan, combine 3 ounces chopped white baking chocolate (with cocoa butter) and 1/4 cup whipping cream. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate nearly melts. Remove from heat; stir until smooth. Cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese and 1/4 cup softened butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture. Chill about 30 minutes or until firm enough to pipe.

To Assemble the Whoopie Pies:

Spread the flat side of half of the cookies with about 1/4 teaspoon raspberry preserves. In a large pastry bag fitted with a small star tip, pipe White Chocolate and Mascarpone Filling over the raspberry preserve layer. Top with the remaining cookies, flat sides down. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

The Raspberry and White Chocolate Mascarpone Filling was a filling previously used here.. http://www.sweetsandothereats.com/2010/08/mini-raspberry-and-white-chocolate.html