Recipe: S'more Cupcakes

I often checkout the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake. They had a post about Sew Darn Cute's s'more cupcakes. So, I clicked over, checked out the recipe, and decided to make them for the 4th of July.

Sew Darn Cute's recipe uses Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cake recipe. And then you from the cupcakes with a great marshmallow butter cream, then sprinkle crushed graham crackers over the top. Sew Darn Cute also added a square of chocolate to the top. I skipped this as, come on, wasn't I eating enough calories just by eating the cupcake?

INGREDIENTS

Makes 2 eight-inch square or 3 eight-inch round layers. Or, about 36 cupcakes.

• Unsalted butter, for pans
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa.
2. Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups** warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.
3. Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.
4. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.

** After reading the comments on the Martha Stewart website, I decided to reduce the water water to a cup. It seems that a lot of users had cakes that sunk in the middle. I might even reduce it to 3/4 cup or 7/8. My cupcakes sunk a bit in the middle. Still, I got rave reviews. Even my husband liked them - the best cupcakes ever, he said.

Marshmallow Frosting

1/2-3/4 lb. (2 or 3 sticks) butter, room temperature (I used 2)
1 lb. (2 cups) confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. tub of marshmallow cream (I recommend Fluff) ( I used 2 7 oz containers)

Cream the butter (I love my Kitchenaid!) on high until it's light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy each time. Beat in the vanilla until incorporated. Then dump in the Fluff and mix it up 'til it's all creamy. Transfer to pastry bag (if desired) and pipe onto cupcakes! (You can also cut the corner off a Ziploc bag and use that instead.)

The frosting iced about 15 or 16 cupcakes.

There is another s'more cupcake recipe I want to try. I found it again at Cupcakes Take the Cake.

I'll try this next!