Monday, June 18, 2012

S'mores Cupcakes with Graham Cracker Buttercream

Who doesn't love s'mores??

My niece's 9th birthday was last month, but her party with her friends is tomorrow. She's having a make-your-own-pizza party - how fun!

I offered to make cupcakes for her party to give her mom a little break on the party planning. I had to find something that was gluten-free since she has Celiac Disease, and also nut-free since so many kids have nut allergies. I didn't want to risk something happening with that at all.

I offered her mom a few choices and this was her pick.

I tweaked the original recipe just a bit. I used a box of King Arthur Gluten-Free chocolate cake mix instead of making a from-scratch cake like the recipe called for, along with GF graham crackers. I'd probably do the same thing if I was making a regular cake. The box I used called for 1 1/3 cups of water (plus eggs and oil), but I used only 1/3 cup of water and 1 cup of sour cream. I think the sour cream adds nice moisture to a cake!

The below recipe is how I made it, and the original can be found here at Your Cup of Cake.



Ingredients

Chocolate Cakes:
2-layer box mix of chocolate cake plus ingredients on back minus 1 cup of water
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
Graham cracker crumbs (fine crumbs)

Marshmallow Cream Centers:
4 oz cream cheese
½ cup Fluff (marshmallow cream for you non New Englanders)
1 ½ - 2 cups powdered sugar

Graham Cracker Buttercream:
8 oz cream cheese
½ cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
¾ cup graham cracker crumbs (fine crumbs)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons whipping cream or milk
mini marshmallows and chocolate for decoration

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners (24).
  2. Mix cake mix, ingredients from back of the box and sour cream together in a mixer until fully combined.
  3. Spoon ¾ teaspoon of graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Shake pan to spread evenly.
  4. Fill liners ¾ full and bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  5. Mashmallow Cream Centers: Beat cream cheese, marshmallow cream and powdered sugar. Add more powdered sugar to taste. This mixture should not be thick like a buttercream, because it will be in the center of your cupcake.
  6. When cupcakes are cooled, cut out a small area from the top of the cake and pipe marshmallow cream into each cupcake.
  7. Graham Cracker Buttercream: Beat cream cheese and butter until light and creamy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and graham cracker crumbs. At this point, the buttercream will look like cookie dough. Add heavy cream a little bit at a time until buttercream consistency is reached.
  8. Pipe onto cooled, marshmallow filled cupcakes and top with mini marshmallows and melted chocolate.