cupcakes Archives - Roni's Blog

Food, Sweet

S’more Cupcakes

The smokey smell of pallets burning over a backyard campfire, the sweet taste of marshmallows that have been over-charred from being in the fire for too long, and an evening tolerating all your friends in a confined space. Oh, winter bonfires. Okay, I’m just kidding about tolerating people, I actually really enjoy group activities. Especially when there is food involved. And while the snow hasn’t quite fallen yet and the winter bonfires are still a few weeks away, I’ll just bake.

That’s ultimately what led to these s’more-inspired cupcakes. They still need a little work, but for my first go, I think I succeeded. Simple, cute, and a little rough painstakingly roasting mini marshmallows over an apple cider scented candle. Yeah, that last part happened.

Anyway, all you really need is a yellow cake box mix, chocolate frosting, graham crackers, and mini marshmallows. You’ll also want on hand some toothpicks for the roasting part, you’ll see what I mean.

S’more Cupcakes

Gather:
Yellow Cake Mix (and the eggs/oil/butter, whatever the manufacturer says you need)
Chocolate frosting (from a can, cause I’m lazy)
Cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
Mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350. Using the manufacturer’s instructions, mix together your cake mix. Now, I tried poking a mini marshmallow into the center of each one, but when it baked, well… those mini marshmallows disappeared. So it’s your call if you want to take the effort to see if they’ll survive a time in the oven.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted in the cupcake and removed clean. Set aside and let cool completely.

In a Ziploc bag, place four to five graham crackers. Seal bag, leaving as little air in it as possible, and a corner open. Take a rolling pin and roll over the crackers until crushed. Leave a few little bits, try not to make it a complete powder.

Light a candle (or use your gas stove top if you have an open flame, candle works fine though.) Carefully place a marshmallow on the end of a toothpick and heat over flame. I purposely burned them just a bit to give them a campfire look, but you can be patient and toast them until golden brown, your call. Remove from toothpick and set aside until you’re ready to decorate cupcakes. This is tedious, but the end result is adorable.

After cupcakes are cooled, frost with chocolate frosting and sprinkle graham cracker powder on top of cupcakes. Place a single toasted marshmallow on each cupcake. Serve and enjoy.

November 19, 2013 by Roni

Food

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes, how I love thee. I’ve been inspired by one of my friends to start this up again. She’s one of those cute little things that can take tissue paper, turn it into decorations and everyone goes “awww, that’s so cute!” Me, not so much. I usually try really hard, fail about three or four times and then miraculously get whatever craft I’m working on to sort of work. So that’s why I bake and cook. Being able to eat my mistakes is way more satisfying. It also allows me to get rid of the evidence way faster than waiting for the weekly trash pick up.

Today was a bit deary outside. Okay, a lot dreary with lots of rain and no plans but to sit around in my pajamas all day. So I threw in some laundry (it piles up so fast, where does it comes from?!?) and decided it was time to bake some cupcakes. I arranged my ingredients.

And then got to work. Mixed the batter and added about 1/3 of a cup of mini chocolate chips.

Lined my tins with the most girly cupcake liners I have and baked them for about 20 minutes. Then I realized I wanted to experiment. This is usually where things tend to go wrong, because I think you can substitute just about anything in a recipe. Believe me, it doesn’t always work. Like when I scoured our cabinets for cocoa powder. We don’t have any. But we did have hot cocoa mix. That’s the same thing, right?

Mixed about three big scoops into the remaining batter (avoiding the mini marshmallows) and went to town filling the tins with the new concoction. I have to say, it wasn’t a bad idea. They even turned out alright. Just a light brown look to them.

However, during all this time making these, I didn’t even consider that I had no frosting in the house, nor the ingredients to make it from scratch. Whoops. A few minutes searching around my brain for an alternative ultimately took me to the most recent episode of Cupcake Wars (that amazing show on Food Network where they compete and make cupcakes (who eats the leftovers??)). They had made this glaze and put it on top. Now, I know nothing about glazes. I once used a double boiler to make soap with my mom. Some homey craft she thought I’d love. Note: it is much easier to buy a bar of soap than mold it into the shape of a rose. Anyway, I decided to take my mini chocolate chips and make a glaze.

Half a cup of mini chocolate chips and a tablespoon of margarine, as well as half a tablespoon of water, using a glass pie pan as a double boiler.

It took about five minutes to get it pretty smooth, but it worked. Only problem was I didn’t make enough to cover all the cupcakes. Oh well, not everyone likes frosting. But, it was a successful afternoon. I ended up with these:
Now I just have to find someone to eat all these cupcakes. Thank God I have two roommates.

August 12, 2012 by Roni