Smore Cupcakes

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the completed cupcakes with the chocolate icing on top. I was a bit rushed making these and packing them up in a cooler to take to the lake.

On Saturday we went to Lac Philippe to celebrate S and my birthdays with some friends and family. We had a delicious bbq and picnic lunch, swam (the water is so much warmer than Meech lake), lounged around and hiked to the Lusk caves! I really loved going through the caves. I definitely recommend wearing your swim suit because you are neck deep at some points. It's also useful to have a headlamp. Of course my headlamps batteries were dead, but luckily S is organized and had brought a whole bunch of head lamps.  It is a bit scary, but really fun and beautiful! For those in the Ottawa area, I recommend checking it out. Note it is about 4-5km walk to get to the caves from the beach. I say walk, and not hike because the terrain is easy. You can also get most of the way by canoe or kayak.

Photo credit:Tamara

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make Smores cupcakes to go along with the camping/lakeside feel. Plus I love smores. I combined a few recipes here because I lost the original one I had found which was the easiest. Here is one that I used for inspiration  There are many different variations. Some use real marshmallows, some have you make your own with egg whites, and some use marshmallow puff. I used real marshmallows.

Basically you make a layer of graham cracker crust, then a chocolate cake layer, one marshmallow that bakes in, one other marshmallow that's mostly in tact and then a chocolate icing over top.

 Graham crust

Chocolate cake layer

With Marshmallow

They were a bit messy and didn't look as nice as the photos in the original recipe but in the end still turned out pretty well. I transported them in a muffin tin in a cooler and that seemed to workout okay.

For the crust:

1 1/3 cup graham crackers crumbs

5 Tablespoon sugar

5 Tablespoon unsalted butter-melted

For chocolate cupcakes:

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk- room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg-lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup boiling water

For marshmallow filling:

2x16 marshmallows

For milk chocolate icing:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

10 oz. milk chocolate-finely chopped

1/2 Tablespoon vegetable oil

**Note: this made way too much chocolate icing. I definitely recommend cutting the recipe in half at least.

To make the crust:
Place rack in center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F, line cupcake tins with 16 cupcake liners and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter and mix well with a fork.
Press about 1 1/2 Tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liners and bake 6 minutes, then set aside to cool.

To make the cupcakes:
In a large bowl combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes with a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed, then add boiling water and beat to combine (batter will be thin). Divide batter evenly between cupcake liners over the crust (it should be 3/4 full).
Bake about 30 minutes. Add one cupcake in each and bake an additional 10 or 15 minutes. Add another cupcake in each and bake 5 more minutes. It took a lot longer than I expected for the cake part to be cooked.

To make the icing:
On a low heat in a small sauce pan melt chopped milk chocolate with 1/2 Tablespoon vegetable oil, stirring until it’s completely smooth. Remove from heat and add cold heavy whipping cream, stir well until it’s evenly combined.  Put the icing in the fridge to cool a bit and then spread onto cupcakes.