I think one of my favorite summertime flavors is s’mores. There is something so comforting about melting marshmallows between chocolate and graham crackers.
It’s almost as if the food has transcended flavor to represent something more; a feeling of joy, peace, love, family and friends.
S’mores Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
- 2 c sugar
- 3/4 c good unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 c buttermilk
- 1/2 c vegetable oil
- 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 c freshly brewed hot coffee I use decaf
- 1 c good quality chocolate preferably bittersweet and finely chopped
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs about 20 crackers
- 1/3 c unsalted butter melted
- 24 regular sized marshmallows not mini
Instructions
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl and mix until combined.
- In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Fold in finely chopped chocolate.
- Prepare graham cracker crust. Add melted butter to graham crackers and combine until moistened. Spread about 1 tablespoon of crumbs into bottom of cupcake liner. Press down flat.
- Pour the batter (a heaping tablespoon) into the prepared cupcake pans and bake for 18-20 minutes at 350, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Marshmallows
- On a parchment lined cookie sheet, set out 6 marshmallows. (You will be working in batches of six) Place under broiler for about 1-2 minutes, or until marshmallow starts to turn brown and deflate. Remove from oven and (being careful not to touch pan!) slide a spatula under the marshmallow and set on cupcake.
- Press gently to flatten. (You can also just pick up slightly melted marshmallow from cookie sheet and transfer to cupcake.)
- Best served warm!
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
More specifically though, there is something quite magical about a melting marshmallow. I have to admit, I am one of those people who likes it burnt. Are there any other burnt fans out there?
Completely burnt and still on fire. I mean, I try to put the fire out first, you know, for safety reasons and stuff. Those burnt marshmallows above? They are not quite burnt enough.
Seriously. But I digress.
Upon reflection, I think half of the fun in s’mores is the process.
Being with loved ones on a warm summer evening. Sharing oozy gooey desserts, licking fingers and laughing at all the messes. Cleaning up the garbage by throwing it in the fire.
Now that is fun. #youknowyourareoldwhen
Now when it comes to the cupcake, everything changed. Since the emotion and tradition were tied to the original process (and not the s’mores cupcake) I was completely focused on flavor.
Here is how I like a s’mores cupcake. The chocolate has to be RICH and bold. The graham cracker and marshmallow, they can hold their own and need no assistance. The chocolate cake, however, needs to be kicked up a notch.
This is the Perfect Chocolate Cake simply done in cupcakes.
How to Bake S’mores Cupcakes
While I liked the idea of placing the marshmallow right on the cooled cupcake and then placing under the broiler, this also sometimes burned the edges of the cupcake liner and that is no fun. However, if the cupcake is very, chilled it will help.
I preferred the method of roasting the marshmallows separately then placing them on the cupcake. Simply place the marshmallow on a parchment/silpat lined baking sheet and place under the broiler. This takes approximately 1 minute, but you will want to keep an eye on it the whole time. Allow the marshmallow to cool for about 30 seconds then, using a spatula, move the marshmallow to the cupcake. FAST, and EASY, and PERFECTLY done, every time.
This recipe was adapted from a million sources, and I claim no credit in the idea what-so-ever. I read about a hundred posts on s’mores cupcakes and have yet to find the original source.
Now I just need to make these a few more times with the kids so that we will develop a new s’more tradition. These are the sacrifices I make for my family. 😉
It has been Cupcake Week here at iambaker, where I am showcasing easy, fun, and delicious SummerTime flavors of cupcakes! Check out these other flavors!
Red Velvet Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
And don’t forget to stop back tomorrow for my FAVORITE summertime cupcake flavor ever. You will not want to miss it!!
Your baby girl is adorable! I’m afraid our children do get it from us. Pretty photos as always and I’ve made a similar version of these cupcakes cause they ARE after all so moorish. Happy summer Amanda xoxo
Thanks Beverly! I bet your cupcakes are amazing. 🙂 Happy summer to you too!!
Hi there! I made these today for my 4th of July get together. They turned out great! I had a ton of batter left over though, so I’m curious how many cupcakes this should yield? I also used more batter per cupcake than your recipe called for and had to bake them a little longer. I ended up with 12 regular sized cupcakes and baked the remainder in an 8″ cake pan and topped that with your buttercream frosting. Both were hits!
Hi Lora! So glad you liked them. Thanks for letting me know about the adjustments you had to make. I will make them again and see if I can fine tune the recipe! My apologies that you had to make adjustments at all. Sounds like you did the exactly perfect thing with the remaining batter!!
I made this recipe earlier and I’m confused about the batter size. In the instruction, you say to put 1 heaping Tbsp of batter into each of the cups. I started off putting 1 Tbsp. into each muffin cup and I had all this batter left! I ended up putting 3 Tbsp. of batter into each of the muffin cups. So they domed much higher than the ones in your pictures. So I’d just like to ask if the 1 heaping Tbsp is correct and if I should use that if I make these again – I’m baking them for a wedding in just a couple of weeks.
Hi, about how many cupcake will this recipe yield? The smell of burnt marshmallows, NOM!!
I’m just now putting these in the cups… Really is runny for a cake batter… I just can’t put in a full cup of coffee. Would you check the ingredients list and confirm the quantities are accurate? I’ll update when these come out of oven!
Update… The batter tastes crazy delicious–probably more coffee taste then I would do for smores. I haven’t tasted a baked one yet. I did put the whole cup of coffee in. Hurt to do it. Almost drinkable consistency. I had used two large eggs instead of extra large. I tablespoon of Graham was really tiny in the cup, do I doubled it. 1 tablespoon of batter was really tiny too so I doubled it. With doubling, the cups were now 3/4 full. No Graham mix left over after a dozen cupcakes, but enough batter left to do another dozen. The first dozen did not rise much at all… So I put the rest in six large cup cake pan without the Graham… They rose beautifully and overflowed the pan!!! (I wish I could load pictures) the only thing I did differently is prepared the Graham bottoms first–i think the batter must rest before baking. If I followed the directions, I think I would have been fine. But I didn’t–i like to prepare pans/crusts first, so out of habit,I reversed the order.
Thank you for this inspiration!! I LOVE how these turned out! I’d love to send you a pic of the finished product.
These are great!!
Is there a substitute for the coffee or is noticeable on tasting the cupcakes? These would be for kiddies and likely coffee is not their beverage of choice.
Thank you so much!
Hot water works too. 🙂
Dear Amanda,
Hello,do you have a Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe? I will be baking some for my husband’s department for Christmas time. And I wonder if you have a recipe that you could email me? Or that you could post here on your page? I will be frosting with a white buttercream frosting. Thank you,Mary