Want S'more?

I've been trying to come up with some new cupcake ideas. At lunch on Sunday, Travis mentioned smores. Thought that sounded kinda good. It was funny, too, because Sunday night Bakerella posted a smores cupcake. I guess good minds think alike. If you saw Bakerella's recipe, this is kind of Bakerella 2.0. Kind of.

First, I wanted to somehow have the flavor of melted chocolate AND melted marshmallow. I made a vanilla cupcake, stirred in some graham cracker crumbs and some graham cracker crust crumbles. (confused? keep reading)

I then sprinkled more of the crumbles on top. After baking, I let the cupcakes cool and then poked holes in the top. I poured chocolate ganache in the holes.

As you can see, the ganache was quite runny. Next time, I'll let it cool so it's a little thicker. I then frosted them with marshmallow frosting.

Then, I decided to torch the marshmallows. Any excuse to use my handheld flame thrower, I mean, torch.

Aren't they cute? I don't really like smores all that much, but I love the brown marshmallow tops. Cute little torched tops. So cute.

I tried to take a picture so you could see inside. Unfortunately, they're all blurry. Just pretend it's from the heat of a campfire. Or something else to explain the bad photography. Either way, you can kind of get the idea.

They're pretty good. You should try them. Use your favorite vanilla cupcake recipe. Or graham cracker cupcake recipe.

Graham Cracker Crust Crumbles (just rolls off the tongue, right?)

1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c. sugar (white or brown)

1/4 c. melted butter

Melt butter. Add sugar and crumbs. Mix.

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. butter

4 oz. semisweet chocolate

Heat butter and cream until almost boiling. Pour over chocolate squares. Stir until melted. I used a Nestle semisweet chocolate bar. It wasn't overly sweet, which worked well.

Marshmallow Frosting

8 egg whites (yep. eight)

2 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. cream of tarter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat water to a simmer in a saucepan or double boiler. Stir egg whites, sugar and cream of tarter together in a KitchenAid bowl. Place over water and whisk until sugar is melted and egg whites are warm. Attach bowl to KitchenAid. Beat on High until frosting is stiff and glossy, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Use immediately. Frosting will set up quickly. To torch or not to torch is up to you.