More Birthdays & Baking

Last Friday was of course National Pull Out Your 311 Albums from 7th Grade and Listen to Them Day. Perhaps, equally important, it was also Anna's birthday!

Anna on top of a mountain.

For this momentous occasion, I attempted to make some really over the top cupcakes. And over the top they were. They were kind of the s@&* if I do say so myself. I had an idea for a S'more cupcake, loosely "inspired" by the s'more bars I made for our Christmas party. I did some very serious research on the internets and came up with several recipes from different sources, all of which seemed to be based in some fashion on the Martha Stewart Recipe. I basically cherry picked all the parts I liked and combined them into one cupcake.

• I took the graham cracker crust from Annie's Eats.
• The marshmallow and brown sugar & graham cracker crumb topping, and chocolate ganache drizzle from Bakarella.
• The marshamallow topping and toasting technique from Homemaker's Habitat.

Nearly all the recipes stated how to make the cake from scratch, but I wasn't in the mood to sift every little thing going into the cake, so I opted to take Homemaker's Habitat's tip and use Pillsbury Fudge Brownie mix. I went ahead and make them the brownie way rather than the cake way (with an extra egg). I ended up with cupcakes that weighed a ton (seriously, they were like little baseballs), but they tasted AMAZING. So dense and fudgy. Using the brownie mix was clutch, I don't think they would have been quite as delicious otherwise. Most of the receipes suggested using a kitchen torch to toast the marshmallow topping like you would use for creme brulee. As much as I was dying to go out and purchase another kitchen gadget, I restrained myself and made do with the broiler. It worked perfectly. A little tip though: much like when you are toasting marshmallows over a fire they go from nothing to charred the second you look away. Just turn on your oven light and sit there and watch them...or you will end up with charred cupcakes. :( After I toasted the marshmallow fluff on the cupcakes, I made some ganache using Bakerella's recipe, and then used a spoon to drizzle the ganache over the cupcakes for some extra nonsense. This ganache recipe by the way is a keeper. Actually it may not so much be the recipe as the technique. I've always made it by melting the chocolate into the cream and you have to be so super careful with it. In her technique, you bring the cream and butter to near boiling and pour it over the chocolate which is waiting in a bowl. Genius! And fool-proof. Four ounces of chocolate, a stick of butter and half a cup of cream makes a lot of ganache, so I saved the leftovers for another creation, but that is a story for another night. So the finished product was DELISH. I can usually make do with one cupcake, I ate two. And so did just about eveyone else at Tallula that night. Deliiiiiiish.