S'mores Cupcakes..

So this weekend I decided to ignore my Lose it! app and pretend it wasn't bathing suit season. I have ALWAYS wanted to make s'mores cupcakes and Sunday turned out to be the perfect day for them.

While I was in Dallas for Ali's graduation I watched Tia Ana make the merengue for the Tres Leches and took serious notes. These cupcakes provided the perfect opportunity for me to practice that recipe.

*CAUTION* these are delicious cupcakes so there will be lots of sugar... and it will be worth it. (I might have had one for breakfast this morning)

makes 24 cupcakes
Components
1. Graham Cracker Bottom (from scratch)
2. Chocolate Cake/Cupcake (from box)
3. Merengue Top (from scratch)

Graham Cracker Bottom 
(I had leftovers of this so next time I'm either making the base thicker or only making half of this recipe)

3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup granulated sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a cupcake pan with baking cups.

In a large bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until evenly coated. Place a tablespoon sized scoop of the mixture in the bottom of each baking cup. Using a glass or bottle the size of the base of the cupcake, press down the graham cracker crumbs until they form a solid crust.

Bake for 5 minutes to allow the base to harden. Cool for 5-10 minutes before filling with cupcake batter.

Cupcake Batter
I went to the grocery store and bought Betty Crocker's Devil's Food Cake Mix and made the batter according to the instructions.

Scoop the batter on top of the graham cracker base and bake for as long as the box tells you to.

Mine was on 325 degrees F for 18-22minutes.

Set aside and let cool once that is done.

Merengue Top

Sugar Part:
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup water
- Boil on med/high heat in a pot
- Until sugar drips off fork slowly (thicker than olive oil but not as thick as honey)

~Meanwhile~

-Place 4-6 egg whites in Kitchen Aide Mixer (Yoli and Tia Ana fight about how many egg whites to use- Tia Ana says 4)
- Put on speed 6
- When REALLY frothy (starbucks frothy..) increase speed to 10 then...
- Pour sugar mix (from above) sloowwlly into kitchen aide
- The bowl will get hot from the warm sugar mix - keep mixing at that speed until bowl had cooled down

*Dad says the secret is to add a pinch of Cream of Tartar during the mixing process too

Oh and I don't have one of those fire torcher things so my cupcakes look like the picture above but without the fire look..

And you're done! Sorry for the delicious temptations that are now on your kitchen counter! I brought some into work today.

Cris