s’mores cupcakes

I’ve started my family medicine rotation a couple of weeks ago. It’s been a lot of fun! The docs, NP, PA, and MAs I work with have been super nice and awesome teachers. I’ve been learning a lot and getting a ton of great experience. To try and make myself useful since I’m literally just a sponge, I have been baking like crazy. I’ve baked chocolate cake, cookies, keto brownies (those were interesting) and blueberry muffins so far. And naturally, since clinic ended early today, I decided to make s’mores cupcakes! I’ve been experimenting with icing (my fiance has been bugging me to make buttercream, so I made chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream peonies), and I thought I’d give marshmallow icing a try.

Here’s the recipe I used from lifeloveandsugar.com. I modified it a tiny bit as follows to make 16 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

Graham cracker crust

• 1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp melted butter

Chocolate cupcakes

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Marshmallow icing

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice (or cream of tartar if you have it)
• optional semisweet chocolate bits (I got mine from Trader Joe’s, they’ve got a nice jagged edge)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 320 F. Set up cupcake tin with liners.
2. Mix crushed graham crackers with butter and sugar until evenly coated.
3. Add the mixture to cupcake liners, push down to compact.
4. Bake for 7 minutes. Then remove and let cool. Turn the oven down to 300 F.
5. While you’re waiting for the crusts to bake, make your cupcake batter by mixing the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt) in a large bowl.
6. Add wet ingredients (vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract) and stir to combine.
7. Once you’ve got a thick batter, add the 1/2 cup boiling water and gently mix until everything is well incorporated. The mixture should be fairly runny, but don’t worry!
8. Fill cupcake liners over halfway.
9. Bake at 300 for 17-20 minutes, or until cooked through the center.
10. Remove from oven and let cool. (I like to put mine in the freezer because I’m impatient.)
11. While the cupcakes are baking, make your marshmallow icing! Combine egg whites, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla in a heat proof bowl.
12. Heat using a double boiler or a pot of boiling water, whisking constantly until all the sugar is dissolved.
13. Here, the original directions say to use a thermometer and wait until it gets to 140 or 160 — I just waited until all the sugar was dissolved and there were some bubbles forming from my whisking.
14. Remove from heat and use a stand mixer/hand mixer to whisk. Start at a low speed, and gradually increase to high speed. Whisk for about 7-10 minutes, or until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
15. Ice your cooled cupcakes and enjoy!