S'more Cupcakes

For about a week we had nice fall weather and what better way to celebrate the the cooler weather than with some s'mores. I admit that other than the nice cool weather, I wanted to try out my new kitchen torch so these cupcakes were a must. These cupcakes were fun to make and incredibly gooey to eat. Everyone loved them and I can see making these again with some slight changes (see notes section).. Eating them with a fork is totally acceptable, at least in my house to limit getting frosting all over your face and hands.

S'more Cupakes - yields 24 cupcakes

Recipe Adapted from Annie Eats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare your cupcake pan(s)

Graham Cracker Crust:
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (most of one sleeve)
1/4 cup of sugar
5 1/3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate

Using a food processor or bag/rolling pin method, crush the graha m crackers and put into bowl. Add the sugar, melted butter and mix well. Scoop 1 tablespoons to 1.5 tablespoons of graham cracker mixture into prepared cupcake pan and press the mixture down to form a crust (the bottom of a squeeze bottle works well for this). Chop the bittersweet chocolate very finely and sprinkle a little into each cup, on top of the graham cracker crust. Bake for 5 minutes then put on a cooling rack to cool whole making the cupcake batter.

Cupcakes:
2 cups and 2 tablepoons sugar
1 3/4cups AP flour
 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Put all of the dry ingredients into bowl of mixer and mix until incorporated or you can whisk the dry ingredients together if you don't have a stand mixer. Whisk together the wet ingredients except the boiling water together in a separate bowl and slowly add to the dry ingredients. Mix together, stopping once to scrap down the sides of the bowl. Slowly add the boiling water and mix until just combined. Scoop the batter onto the top of the graham cracker crusts, making sure to fill the cups 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until cupcakes are done.


Frosting:
8 large room temperature egg whites
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Add the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar to your mixer bowl and place on top of a pot of boiling water. Place a candy thermometer into the bowl. Whisk the mixture until the the temperature reads 160 degrees. Using the whisk attachment, mix the mixture until stiff peaks form (several minutes) and add the vanilla extract.

Frost the cupcakes anyway you choose and either use a kitchen torch or your ovens boiler to toast the frosting.

Notes:

Next time, I think I would make the graham cracker crust thicker since there really wasn't a distinct
graham cracker bottom but still delicious.

The chocolate batter didn't rise as much so make sure to fill these up to the recommended 3/4 cup full.

Don't be shy with toasting the frosting. The general consensus was that I could have toasted the frosting a lot more. The cupcakes could have done with less frosting but you know, I personally love a lot of frosting.