Experimental Baking: S'mores Cupcakes

So I needed to bring something in for the Superbowl Party at work and since the graham cracker cupcakes turned out so well with the key lime, I decided to mix it up and do them with chocolate instead. Same recipe as before, except I actually put a mini marshmallow in the center before baking the mini-cupcakes. I wouldn't bother with this because the marshmallow melted and kind of baked out in the process. It didn't seem to add any flavor, maybe it was slightly sweeter, but the difference was minimal in taste and bake time.

Instead of traditional frosting I dipped them twice in chocolate ganache, letting the ganache set up some between dippings. I probably wouldn't have had to double dip if I left the ganache cool down so it could get thicker before dipping, but I was impatient.

Here's the ganache:

It was pretty simple to make here's the recipe I used:
9 oz of chocolate chips (1 1/8 cups)
1 cup heavy cream

Heat the heavy cream until it just start to boil, then pour it over the chocolate chips and whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Here are how my s'mores cupcakes turned out looking:





I used one marshmallow on top as decoration, but I think I'll put more on next time so it's closer to the actually s'more ratio of ingredients.

I also had one ganache casualty, it still tasted good though:


~emy

Experimental Baking: Key Lime Cupcakes

Yea, so I was pretty bored this weekend since all my friends went skiing, and since I don't ski I decides to bake!

I saw this recipe for s'more like cupcakes on Bakerella, but since I'm not a big chocolate fan, and didn't have any coco powder I decided to go with a straight graham cracker cupcake. So here's the recipe I ended up using:

Graham Cracker Cupcakes: makes 7-9?? Bake @ 350 degrees F
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (more or less I think I was at 7/8 of a cup) graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup oil

I say the recipe makes 7-9 for the following reasons:

1. I ran out of the regular size cupcake papers and ended up with 6 regular and 5 mini cupcakes, and I don't know the mini cupcake to cupcake conversion rate
   
2. I had read that graham cracker cupcakes don't tend to rise as much and filled them 3/4 of the way - but they definitely ended up rising!

Check out the pictures:

Mini Cupcakes


Regular Sized Cupcakes


Notice the rise


Finished Graham Cracker Cupcakes!


So if you were paying attention, this post was called Key lime Cupcakes and you're probably thinking "where's the lime?!". Well if you know anything about key lime pie or custards, you normally have to use egg yolks to make them with. This wasn't an option because I wasn't going to bake a filling in it so I tried making this Eggless Lemon Curd Recipe, but with key lime juice instead. This failed miserably as the curd didn't set up at all - so I ended up folding in the liquid mixture into beaten cream cheese and cool whip, which worked out pretty well. I can't really say I have a recipe for this - I kinda just went by taste.

I found this old pumpkin carving tool, which was great for hollowing out the centers


Filled with the frosting-ish mixture


Frosted, using my handy cut end zip lock bag


Ta-Da!


Tips on Making These:

1. I think the finer the graham cracker the better, because then it's more like flour and the flavor is more distributed. I tried using the food processor at first to crush the crackers, but that didn't work out so well. The blender was a much better method
2. Bake time was given around 15min for the s'more cupcakes. I think my regular sized ones too 18-21 min and my mini ones too 12-15min. It's hard to say because I kept opening the oven to check
3. The frosting has a better texture if it's chilled. After mixing it was more liquidy. It tasted fine, but the leftovers cupcakes I put in the fridge and the filling/frosting was better when it was firmer.

~emy