Cupcake Challenge Winner: S'more Cupcake

By
ABC News
June 4, 2006, 6:19 AM ET
2 min read

June 3, 2006 — -- Denine Shern, a 33-year-old mother of two, beat out all the competition to take home the golden cupcake trophy with her recipe for "s'more" cupcakes. She said the idea simply came from her love of the camping staple, s'mores.

S'MORE CUPCAKES

10 tablespoons butter

1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

6 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tin with cupcake wrappers

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan over low heat until smooth.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale yellow (about 3 minutes). Pour chocolate mixture into egg mixture and stir until combined.

Pour chocolate batter into prepared muffin tins until quite full (almost to the top of each tin). Bake for 14 minutes. Let cool.

FROSTING

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 egg whites

1/3 cup water

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 graham cracker sticks

24 chocolate pocky sticks

Put all ingredients except the vanilla in a large metal bowl and beat with electric mixer until ingredients are just incorporated (about 15 seconds). Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water), and beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 4 minutes. Increase speed to high and beat for an additional 3 minutes until mixture is very thick. Remove bowl from simmering water. Add vanilla extract and continue beating for another 5 minutes.

Fill pastry bag fitted with large tip with marshmallow frosting. Pipe a generous amount of marshmallow onto each cupcake. Stick one graham cracker stick and two pocky sticks through the frosting and into the cupcake. Using a culinary torch, carefully brown the marshmallow quickly and evenly, being careful not to catch fire (the sugar burns easily!). This step can also be done under the broiler -- but don't put the graham cracker sticks or pocky sticks in the cupcakes until after they come out of the broiler.

Makes 12 cupcakes