S'More S'More Cupcakes, Please!

Hubby's birthday was quickly approaching, and I asked him what type of cupcakes he'd like for his birthday dinner.  He quickly said s'mores.  I think he'd been thinking about it for awhile.  I sent him several recipes, graham cake, chocolate cake, etc.

As we all know, the three essential ingredients for the all-american s'more include the following:
- graham crackers
- toasted marshmallow
- chocolate.

Three of my favorite!

And for whatever reason, graham crackers, crushed up and mixed with melted butter, taste oh, that much better!

I use this handy tasting glass from a Beer Fest long ago when I make cupcake crusts.  It works great!

So, I forgot to mention one of the best parts of a s'more is the melted chocolate.  So my cupcakes had to have a bit of melted chocolate, right?

(Melted chocolate on top of the graham cracker crust, soon to be topped with chocolate cupcake batter, more melted chocolate, and more graham!)

And you simply can not have a s'more without marshmallow.  How's some homemade sound?

Come on baby, light my fire!  Oh yeah!  This kitchen torch was the most fun, and I let hubby do the honors!

Add some decorations and voila! Beautiful cupcakes.

*Eat with caution.  After my boss ate these she told me to quit my job.  You just lose all rational thought!

Cupakes with Cakepops

I love to bake.  You know that.  But guess who loves it even more than me?  My hubby.  He loves to eat the treats of my labor.  He's a chocoholic from way back. 

When his birthday came up this year, I really wanted to do something special for him.  He had supported me through yet another job change, and I had a good idea of what I wanted to do.

A cakepop, on top of a cupcake!  How perfect is that?

I searched and searched on the internet and couldn't really find any examples of this.  So I decided to wing it!  I used my intoxicated cupcakes recipe book to find a "chocolate stout" cupcake recipe.  Steve loves beer.  He probably loves beer more than he loves my baking!

I got really busy around the time I made these, and I never was able to blog them.  So, here are a few of the amazing picture of my cupcake/cakepop tower!!!!

Bourbon Ball Cupcakes

My good friend was celebrating a birthday, and I've never made him cupcakes before.  I decided on Bourbon Ball Cupcakes!

My friend is a gin lover, but I really didn't think gin cupcakes would be good on any level, so I searched through my "Intoxicated Cupcakes" recipe book.  I used this same book last summer to make hubby's chocolate stout birthday cupcakes.  They were amazing:

When I saw "Bourbon Ball" cupcakes, and read through the recipe, I knew it was a must-try!!

Step one: make the bourbon balls!

Step two: sift the cake flour with the amazing spice combination of All Spice, Nutmeg & Cinnamon!

Step three: amazing butter, and dark brown sugar. 

Step four: one scoop of dough, drop one bourbon ball in each, another scoop of dough & bake.

Step five - try not to eat the cupcakes before you've frosted them.  The smells were amazing.

Step six: make amazing frosting with melted chocolate, butter, sugar & bourbon.  Yummmmmm.

Step seven: Now you can enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Cupcakes

My friends are awesome.  Every month we have a potluck.  We rotate houses, and the hosts cook the main course & choose the theme.  In February, the hostess wavered between Mardi Gras (ultimately the holiday fell too early this year) and Oscar Movies, but ended up going Italian.  Although I was dying to sign up for salad-in-a-bag or garlic bread (something easy since I was working on a huge conference for my day job and needed something easy), I got stuck with dessert.  Well, I wasn't going to make tiramisu!!!  So I started looking for an Italian Cupcake recipe.  I'm always willing to try something new, something different.  :)

I found this recipe from food network, and Giada*. I don't watch Food Network (except for Cupcake Wars of course) nor am I a huge fan of cooking shows (only Martha Bakes).  But I watched this little video and made these little cupcakes, and if I do say so myself, they turned out AMAZING.  Super delish!  A must-try!!!

Delicious Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Cupcakes!

Ran out of mini choc chips for the tops, so I used pretty, pretty sprinkles.

Amazingly delish!

*There is a great food podcast out there called "Dining with Doug & Karen."  One of those hosts, Doug Benson, is my favorite comic of all time.  But I am quickly falling in love with Karen Anderson, the other host.  On a recent episode, she asked a guest if they liked Giada.  Karen said that she didn't like Giada, and it was because she always tries to make words "all Italianey."  I laughed out loud because in the video for this cupcake recipe, she pronounces mascarpone "all Italianey."  It's hilarious.  I <3 you, Karen!  Thanks for making me laugh on my drive to and from work.  And you, too, Doug. 

Flower Cake Pops

I have been itching to use up the leftover flower cake balls that have been stored in my freezer ever since I made the Hawaiian Cake Pops.  I keep looking online for ideas, and dreaming about what to make.  Along came the Labor Day holiday, and I used the whole day to make cake pops!  After my frustrating attempt at Hello Kitty I have really wanted to redeem myself.  I have been researching different techniques and tips and ideas, and they turned out okay, but still not what I was hoping for.

 So, Bakerella, the inventor of the Cake Pop, recommends this brand of candy melts. 

 Here they are - ready to be melted in the microwave!  Bakerella says that she never has to add a thinning agent and melts them on 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring each time.  Yeah, whatever.  I still had to thin mine - I might as well go back to the cheap kind you can get from craft stores. 

 These flowers are so cute! 

 I love these candy coated sunflower seeds - the colors are so natural. 

 Getting the colored sugar all lined up and ready.

 This is a little trick I've used before but forgotten.  It's from Bakerella.

 I thought these super cute tiny tweezers from Target would help me, but they didn't.

 The colors of these melts were pretty and vibrant, but still not perfect.

 Done dipping the flower pops, getting ready to do the spheres.

 I added some chocolate - yummers!

 I would rather do sphere cake pops any day of the week.  They are low-maintenance (relatively anyway) and I just love that about them.

 I made some flowers with the sunflower seeds on the tops of some of the cake pop spheres.

 Here I am using the corn syrup to "paint" a design on the pop.

 Sprinkling the sugar.

 And voila!

 A mixture of vibrant, beautiful cake pops.

 They still didn't turn out the way I envisioned in my mind, and I still want to conquer this difficult hobby/business that I enjoy so much.

I will keep trying when I get free time like this lovely Labor Day Holiday!