S'mores Cupcakes

It is never good when something you are baking totally flops.  What is just as bad, if not worse, is when something comes out of the oven looking delicious, but tastes completely bland.  That’s what happened to me on my last recipe attempt. 

I have a slight obsession with s’mores.  It there is a s’mores version of something, I have to buy it.  If I find a s’more recipe, I have to try it.  You get the picture.  Cooking and baking blogs have opened up a whole new opportunity for me because the recipes are usually accompanied by pictures, so I can see what I’m getting myself into.  These recipes are also usually more representative of actual s’mores.  If you were to do a quick search on google or yahoo for s’mores dessert recipes, you’d probably find a million where someone had made a pan of brownies and dumped mini marshmallows & some crushed graham crackers on top.  For true s'mores fanatics, that just doesn’t cut it. 

Due to my other new obsession with cooking blogs, I have amassed a healthy collection of s’mores recipes. (Ok, so “healthy” is probably not an appropriate word to use when discussing s’mores.)  This includes a subset of s’mores cupcake recipes.  Yesterday, I decided to try the one that appealed to me the most.  This recipe began with a graham cracker cupcake that had a marshmallow filling and chocolate sauce and meringue topping.

I had the best of feelings as I poured the batter into the cupcake tin.  My first hint that something was wrong probably should have been when my cupcakes took quite a bit longer to cook than the recipe.  The actual cake part on the recipe post looked so nice and fluffy, yet mine looked so dense.  Apparently I hadn’t done the best job of following the recipe precisely.  The filling was thick and sticky enough to be a little difficult to pipe in.

After assembling these, I was a little more optimistic.  They looked great.  The chocolate sauce was slightly runny, which created that perfect messy s’mores look.  The meringue worked great with my Pampered Chef decorator.  (You’ll have to excuse the fact I forgot to toast the tops before I took the pictures.)

So, here I was with a bunch of delicious looking s’mores cupcakes sitting before me.  I then took a big bite of one, only to discover that there wasn’t much there.  It was completely bland.  How disappointing is that?  The recipe I was using had won at least one cupcake contest award, so I’m guessing I’m missing something in the preparation.  I also missed the crunch that is usually there with a true s’more, so that would have to be incorporated in some way if I messed with this recipe again. 

I do have another s’mores recipe I can’t wait to try, but first I have to get my hands on some 3”x2” cake rings.  Stay tuned.