S'mores Cupcakes!

My favourite thing about summer is obvious - campfires! And why, might you ask, do I love them? S'mores, of course. It's not quite campfire weather yet though, so I've found a recipe to enjoy S'mores (and cupcakes!) throughout the rest of the year!

Now, I'll be a first to admit that these did not turn out as I'd hoped. They were nowhere near as beautiful as the photos on the original recipe would lead you to believe (but I've a solution for that, so fear not) and they weren't as chocolatey as I would have liked, considering that they're S'mores cupcakes. I think that the next time I make these, I'll go with what was my initial gut instinct to fill them with chocolate rather than use chocolate chips in the cupcakes. Nevertheless, they were pretty tasty and a nice change from the usual. Not to mention, they're so simple!

For the cupcakes, you'll need:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup milk

1 cup chocolate chips
1-2 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a regular muffin pan with liners, as this recipe yields 12 cupcakes. In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt. Set the bowl aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, oil and sugar. Beat until well combined and smooth and then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Next, alternately add portions of the dry mixture and the milk to the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and then fill the muffin pan with the batter.

At this point, the original recipe would have you pour a few mini marshmallows over the batter and then bake the cupcakes 18-20 minutes. However, I found that the marshmallows puffed up as the recipe indicated they would, and then melted everywhere because it was simply too long for them to be in the oven. So I'd suggest that you bake the cupcakes 10 or so minutes and then top them with marshmallows and continue baking for the remainder of the time. This should ensure that the marshmallows puff up and brown but don't just turn into a melted (albeit tasty) mess. Also, as I mentioned briefly earlier, and because of my personal preference, I'd likely omit the chocolate chips in the future and instead fill the cupcakes with a chocolate ganache or fudge or something instead.

The great thing about these cupcakes is that, had they turned out, the marshmallows look so nice that you don't really need icing. Mine weren't quite as beautiful as I'd have liked, however, so I melted some butterscotch chips and drizzled butterscotch on each cupcake.

Let me know how you like these, should you try them yourself! Perhaps, like me, you'll find that these cupcakes are the perfect solution to having S'mores year-round!