S'MOREO CUPCAKES!!!!

 It's National Smore's Day. YAY!!!!!!
(But shouldn't it be a S'mores day pretty much any day?)
Just the word S'more implies that.
S'more..please?!!?

♥♥♥♥

I called these my S'more sparklette cupcakes last year ♥

The year before I made this extra tall layered s'mores cake. Layered with oreo crust, graham cracker batter, fudge batter, and a cheesecake layer.

The s'mores cake looked like this before we cut into it!

  

This year.. I did something different to celebrate!
I made S'moreo Cookie Dough Cupcakes!!!!!!

On top: A marshmallow sandwiched between my homemade cookie dough frosting, chocolate ganache,and a Smore Oreo Cookie. Broken up little pieces of Hershey Bars stuck inside the sweet and sticky pools of chocolate ganache. 

As if the graham cracker batter, chocolate fudge batter and a gooey marshmallow surprise inside weren't enough, I baked a whole Smore's Oreo (I call it a SMOREO) inside the cupcake as the graham cracker crust ♥

My S'moreo Cupcake Science:

1. I marbled a graham cracker and fudge batter together. (see recipe below)

2. I scooped a small amount of swirled batter onto the bottom of a cupcake wrapper.

3. I placed an entire S'moreo on top of the swirled batter as my "crust".

4. Covered the S'moreo with more swirled batter.

5.  Baked at 325 for appx 18-22 minutes...

When the cupcakes came out of the oven, I immediately piped marshmallow cream out of a disposable piping bag into the centers of the cupcake using a piping bag.  It is important to pipe the marshmallow cream inside the cupcake while the cupcakes are still hot and fresh out of the oven.  I've baked marshmallows inside of cupcakes before while in the oven...and they've exploded. While all of that can be fun/entertaining, you end up with more marshmallow in the oven than in your cupcake. So I came up with this idea!  Piping the marshmallow cream inside of the cupcake while it is still warm is a much more efficient way to "bake" a marshmallow inside of your cupcake. If you can't find marshmallow cream, you can place a whole marshmallow inside of your cupcake while it is still warm too. It all just melts and gets gooey and puffy inside your cupcake.

 I made cookie dough frosting because this is a cookie inspired cupcake, and folded graham cracker crumbs into the cookie dough frosting since this is a S'more inspired cupcake!

There are a few ways to decorate a S'moreo cupcake!

I channeled my inner nostalgia here, and sandwiched my ingredients together just like you would a regular  S'more! I made the Cookie Dough Frosting stiff enough so I could scoop the frosting on top with an ice cream scoop. I spooned the chocolate ganache on top of the scoop of cookie dough frosting and sandwiched a marshmallow on top of that with a half or whole S'moreo cookie! ♥ 

Little Hershey Bars make the best little mini "gems" on top of the S'moreo cupcakes!

Some people might say that HUGE scoop of cookie dough frosting on top is too sweet. After experimenting with both options, I feel like the flavors all come together a lot better when my cookie dough frosting is a little more creamy and I can pipe a layer on top of the S'mores cupcake like this. ♥

But do whatever you want, no matter what, this is the sweetest cupcake I've ever made! It is pretty much 5 desserts in one:

1. Cupcake

2. S'moreo inside and outside of the cupcake.

3. Gooey Marshmallows

3. Cookie dough frosting that tastes just like cookie dough!

4. Chocolate ganache

5. Hershey Bars

Watch my mini cable TV appearance how I make them here:

(local New London, WI cable access)

Hand Written Recipe for your own S'moreo Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

2-3 Packages of S'more Oreo Cookies

(1) 13 oz container of Marshmallow Cream or Fluff

1 package of Marshmallows

2-3 Hershey Bars
Ground Graham Cracker Crumbs

Fudge Cake Batter:

1 box triple fudge cake mix (Betty Crocker)
1 box dry instant chocolate fudge pudding (not prepared, dry powder form)

1/2 cup oil
1 1/4 cup hot water

4 eggs

Yellow Graham Cracker Cake Batter:

1 box yellow cake mix (Betty Crocker)
1 box instant white chocolate pudding (not prepared, dry powder form)

1/2  cup oil
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1/2 cup crushed up graham crackers

Cookie Dough Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla malt powder (optional)
3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons milk or almond milk

1 cup crushed graham crackers

Chocolate Ganache:

8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

8 oz heavy cream or whole milk

Method:
1.  Prepare cake batters: Fudge batter in one mixing bowl, yellow graham cracker in another.  For both batters: First, cream the eggs and oil together. Gradually add remaining ingredients until all ingredients are mixed.  Scrape bowl down and mix all ingredients together to make sure no ingredients are hiding or stuck to the bottom of the bowl. To marble the two batters together, spoon the chocolate batter into the yellow and swirl with a knife.

2.  Scoop a small amount of marbled batter onto the bottom of the cupcake liner. Place a whole S'moreo cookie on top of the layer of batter. Cover the S'moreo cookie with another small amount of marbled fudgey/graham cracker batter, Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake at 325 for appx 18-24 minutes.

3.  As soon as cupcakes come out of the oven, pipe marshmallow cream inside of the cupcakes with a disposable piping bag.

4. While cupcakes are cooling, prepare cookie dough frosting. Cream the butter and sugars together using a flat beater attachment. Gradually add remaining ingredients until fluffy and creamy.  If you want a scoopable cookie dough frosting, add more powdered sugar so that it is easy to scoop on top of your cupcake with an ice cream scoop.

5. Prepare chocolate ganache: Combine chocolate and heavy cream (or milk) in microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 1:30 and stir.  Heat again for another 45 seconds and stir. Continue until chocolate ganache is shiny, smooth and fudgey. The longer the ganache sits and cools, the thicker it will get.

Decorate: 

1. Swirl or scoop cookie dough frosting on top of your cupcake.

2. Use a spoon to drizzle the chocolate ganache on top of cookie dough frosting.

3. Place marshmallow on top of wet chocolate ganache. 

4. "Sandwich" a S'moreo cookie halve (or whole) on top of the marshmallow. You can dip the S'moreo cookie bottom into the ganache to make it sticky enough to stick to the marshmallows.

5. Place a broken piece of Hershey bar on top of the chocolate ganache as an extra little "gem".

Jelly Belly Cupcake Contest ♥ Amanda Cupcake Style

I just entered the Jelly Belly Cupcake Contest..
I know what I would do with the $10,000 if I won!

 

I'd contribute it to opening Amanda Cupcake as a *bakery*.

I can imagine what my bakery would look like.

• An Amanda cupcake "cupcake" of the day.
• Creative cupcake making classes.
• I'd want to hire a creative pie baker. (I am more of the cupcake girl although I do make yummy mini pies).
• An interesting visual display of cupcakes upon entering.
• The smell of sugar and frosting and yummy-ness in the air.
• Some old school flair (coffee cake, donut holes with pretty sprinkles-things you miss from the old school bakeries).
• Coffee and Cake Pops.
• Conversation and romantic dates. Maybe future husbands and wives would meet on their first date over a cupcake here!
• And I would definitely want to see a line out the door.
• That would just mean that my dream of sharing my cupcake love is spreading around the world.

My Jelly Belly Cupcake Entries:

 Giant Cupcake with an Edible Jelly Belly Liner.  This whole thing is a cupcake.  But the Liner is made out of Edible Candy Melts.  (I molded it using a giant cupcake pan)  Then I "glued" each Jelly Belly to the Cupcake liner using melted chocolate.

I think of people like my dad who like to "pick" through the jelly beans and addictively eat them.  Can you imagine entertaining a party with this giant cupcake?  All your friends could stand around and pick off the jelly belly flavor they wanted to eat! And don't forget to mention the cupcake underneath it all!

Some of the Jelly Belly Flavors I used:

Pomegranate

Tutti Frutti

Chocolate Pudding

Cotton Candy

Pomegranate Cosmo

 I swirled on some chocolate cream cheese frosting.  And a disco cherry! True to the "Very Cherry" Jelly Belly Appeal.

I tried to make the other entries true" to the Jelly Belly brand.

Beautiful, colorful, fun, and about the flavor!

Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Cupcake.  I used the Toasted Marshmallow Jelly Belly Beans as the "Marshmallows"

I sprinkled on some graham cracker butter crumbs..Added a clear candy "spark" (to resemble a spark in the fire you are toasting your marshmallow in!) And of course..a Hershey bar!

I made a "blue velvet" cupcake that tastes like a blueberry jelly belly.  The cupcake itself is blue. The frosting is blue.  Decorated with a delicious carmelized candy bridge, some blueberry Jelly Belly beans..and topped with a fresh blueberry! So delish.

S'more Sparklette Cupcake Recipe Unveiled

Since my S'mores cupcakes were shared with the world last week, I have received many requests.
One was for the recipe. Another was a fun fun Amanda Cupcake Kaleidoscope order (15 S'more cupcakes in jars!) that I shipped out to my new cupcake friend Renee in Texas.

I promised last week that I would share the recipe love so you can try to create this magic in your oven. ♥
So here is my promise coming true! Please let me know how the baking goes and feel free to share your S'more sparklettes experience with me!

Blend Graham Crackers in a food processor or blender

ahead of time to make the graham cracker mixture.

This part is kind of fun!

When you add the butter and the brown sugar this is what the graham cracker crumb blend will look like.

You can use this for topping and also to bake inside of your cupcake liner!

 Probably the most delicious chocolate cake batter I have ever made.

The spoonful of graham cracker marshmallow cake batter I couldn't resist!



Line your cupcake pans with 12-15 cupcake liners.

I add edible disco dust to start out with, and later, graham cracker mixture for a yummy magical surprise at the bottom of the cupcake!

Stack the two cake batters on top of each
other and put a mini marshmallow in the center.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 Cover the marshmallow with cake batter and graham cracker crumb blend.

You have a S'more.

Ready for the oven.

This S'more cupcake is very warm & bubbly. Aww.

Naked S'more.  You could eat it like this...

Or add all of this goodness!

 You can tell your ganache is wonderful if you can wave at it and see your reflection.  Like I am here!

 You can even stuff all of this goodness into a jar.

And eat it.

I call them cupcake kaleidoscopes because there are neverending surprises of goodness as you turn the jar!

S'more Sparklette Cupcake Kaleidoscopes tied with a ribbon, and ready to eat with a spoon!

I even turned these into fun cake pop ice cream cones with a marshmallow on top! 

The Recipe, Unveiled:


S'more Sparklette Cupcakes
adapted from Bakerella's recipe here and re-mixed into an Amanda Cupcake Original!

Dry Ingredients:
There will be 2 mixtures in one cupcake liner!
A Buttery Yellowy Graham Cracker Cake & A Chocolate Fudge Cake. Yummy.


Buttery Yellowy Graham Cracker Cake Batter:

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
3/4 cup extra fine baking sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Graham Cracker Crumb/Butter Blend:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted



Chocolate Fudge Cake:
Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)
3/4 cup extra fine baking sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened high fat cocoa (come on, we are cheating anyway! and high fat cocoa is less bitter than the typical cocoa you can buy in the grocery store)

Liquid Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Directions for each cake recipe:

1.  Sift flour in a bowl and set aside.
2.  In a separate bowl, mix other dry ingredients together (baking powder, baking soda, either the graham cracker crumbs or cocoa depending on the cake recipe you are making-see above). Then add the ingredients to the sifted flour, and whisk together for 30 seconds.
3.  In your kitchen aid mixer, blend sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. (about 2 minutes).
4.  Add egg until just blended.
5.  Start by adding 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture, then add 1/3 of the remaining vanilla/buttermilk mixture.  End with dry ingredient mixture.  Make sure this process only takes about 1 minute maximum so that you don't overbeat (cupcakes won't be as fluffy if you overbeat)!
6.  Scrape the entire bowl and mix with your spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.

Cave into temptation and try the batter to make sure it tastes just as wonderful as you envisioned!

Magical Sinful Delicious Graham Cracker Crumb/Brown Sugar/Butter Blend:
1.  Blend the Graham Cracker Crumbs & Brown Sugar Together.
2.  Pour melted butter onto the Crumbs. Stir until combined.

Add some graham cracker crumbs to the bottom of your cupcake liner for a magical surprise. you can even add some edible sparkles to the bottom of the liner like I did in my pictures above ♥

Pour a little bit of graham cracker cake batter into the bottom of your baking cup. Then sprinkle the magical sinful delicious graham cracker/brown sugar/butter mixture very lightly over the first layer of cake batter.

Place a mini marshmallow on top and then cover the marshmallow with the chocolate cake batter until it is about 3/4 full. It was very hard restraining myself from just eating everything out of the liners before it was baked at this point!

Sprinkle with more graham cracker/butter/brown sugar sinful-ness.

Warning: These cupcakes will ooze out marshmallow goodness while baking! Don't be afraid of the bubbly hot delicousness.
Right after the cupcakes are done baking, poke a hole in the center of your cupcake & insert a marshmallow half (or a whole marshmallow if you want it to be really ooey gooey!) The warmth of the cupcake will melt the marshmallow. Soon the marshmallow will falter & become cupcake goo.

Let cool. Then have fun dipping in chocolate ganache or adding swirls of marshmallow fluff frosting, adding sparklettes & Hershey barlettes! You can also stuff into jars or turn into cake pops ♥


Amanda Cupcake Topping Recipes:

Recipe for Marshmallow Fluff Frosting (Marshmallow fluff as the base--customized just for this marshmallowy s'mores recipe)

7 oz Marsmallow Fluff
4 Sticks of Unsalted Butter-softened and cut into little 1" pieces.
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Box (16 oz) Powdered Sugar

1.  Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into your large mixing bowl and beat on low until somewhat fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
2.Gradually add the little butter squares.
3. Add the teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Add the 1/2 tsp salt (this helps take away the sweetness so that the frosting is more dreamy instead of tooth achingly sweet).
5.  Gradually add the powdered sugar. You can add more or less depending on how thick you want your frosting to be.



Shiny Chocolate Disco Ganache
9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

1.  Heat the heavy cream in a small pan on the stove. Heat up to the boiling point..
2.  Remove immediately and pour over chocolate.
3.  Continue stirring until completely melted, shiny and smooth.
Let this sit for about 1/2 hr before dipping and dripping!
You can also poke a hole in your cupcakes and fill with this delicious-ness to make it even more ooey and gooey!

My Little S'more Sparklette is a Celebrity!

Something very exciting happened to me today.
The week before the weekend of my birthday!!!!!
Happy Birthday to me.

Something I have been waiting for for a very long time!

Anyone ever heard of Cupcakes Take The Cake?
I have been following this blog since before I started my cupcake business.
My friend and I used to look on their website for inspiration whenever I would receive a cupcake order, or even want to make cupcakes on the side for some friends in the office.

It was my dream for them to blog about me someday.

And it happened today!

Cupcakes Take The Cake blogged about my S'mores cupcake and this is one of my most favorite things that they said:  "How much would I love to be taking a gooey, messy, delicious bite of this glittery, gorgeous s'mores cupcake right now? I would fight for it."

Here's the link to the blog:  I would fight for this glittery cupcake oozing with chocolate marshmallow goodness!

And since I have received a few requests for the recipe, I will be posting a separate blog a bit later with the recipe! So keep your eyes peeled! It will be early next week, so that you can have time to make some in time for the 4th of July ♥ The absolute best time for a S'more, I think!

Until then, a few yummy teasers.....

S'more Cupcakes Pretty Please?

One thing I love about summer.
The smell of busy grills barbequing in sweet little neighborhoods.
Families gathered together in the back yard grilling and goofing off together.

At the end of the night after a big BBQ, the sparkles of a bonfire escaping into the midnight breeze.

Friends sitting around the fire with marshmallows on sticks, ready to be sandwiched in between 2 hunks of chocolate bars & graham crackers.  Some like the marshmallow burnt, almost black and crispy with a gooey center. I am one of the people who like my marshmallows slightly brown and puffy.

I bonded my nostalgia of a S'more with a cupcake the other night, and sold them to the world the next morning.  I tried a little spoonful of the batter while conducting my cupcake chemistry, and it tasted exactly like a graham cracker and a marshmallow. I was in heaven, and just wanted to eat all the batter out of the bowl.

 But I didn't, so fate took over and I baked a S'more into a cupcake.


 

The S'more Cupcakes I created aren't neat and tidy.  They are an indulgent, gooey, melty yummy mess.  Exactly how S'mores should be!

This is how the S'more cupcake looked before I covered it with more goodness.  And also after I took a bite out of it..  White cake, Chocolate Cake, Marshmallows, Buttery Graham Crackers in one cupcake liner.

I added chocolate ganache, and edible sparkles. Like the sparkles that escape from your bonfire.

Puffy Marshmallow trying to escape its fate of becoming yummy cupcake goo.

If we lived in a world where our daily horizons looked like this, I think we would all be much happier.