Ingredients as Art

Cooking and baking is definitely an art form, but the art is usually the finished product. In this book, Homemade is Best, the ingredients are laid out in a most creative fashion on a page with the finished product displayed on the  next.Why didn't I think of this?

Images via Ikea Homemade is Best

S'mores Brownie Experiment

So I decided to go the easy route for the first round of s'mores cupcake experimenting and I used brownie mix instead of making chocolate cake. I created a bunch of variations using brownie mix, graham cracker crust and, of course, marshmallows. Here is how it went...

Some of them had a graham cracker crust bottom. A few had a marshmallow.

For the ones on the left, I mixed the brownie mix and graham cracker crust together. The ones on the right had brownie mix with a marshmallow center.

To top them off, I either put graham cracker crust crumbles or brownie mix, depending on what the other layers were. 

And once they were close to being done, I melted a marshmallow on the top of some. 

 

The results? Well I had my house-mates all try them (including 2 four year olds who always say exactly what they think) and the winning combination is....

Graham cracker crust on the bottom, then a layer of brownie with a marshmallow in the center and topped off with another marshmallow.

Yummy!

Who Needs a Campfire for S'mores?

With a family member who works for a baking supply company, we have a lot of cupcake wrappers in our kitchen. I've been meaning to collect some fun new cupcake and muffin recipes to try out and today I figured out where to begin... Design Crush featured adorable chocolate cupcakes with a single marshmallow on top and they got me thinking about s'mores cupcakes!

I'd never had one or seen one, so I began thinking of the tastiest way to make them and I came up with an idea - A graham cracker cupcake with chocolate chips and this toasty marshmallow on top. But then I Googled "s'mores cupcakes" and found these scrumptious looking goodies...

This recipe from Bakerella suggests baking a cupcake with half graham cracker batter, half chocolate batter and a marshmallow center. Then the cupcake is topped with more chocolate and another marshmallow.  This gooey dessert would be sure to satisfy even the strongest sweet tooth.

In these two recipes, you bake chocolate cupcakes with graham cracker crust at the bottom. Then you top each cupcake with a whipped marshmallow frosting which gets toasted with a torch. How pretty do they look!

Image from Beantown Baker

Image from Martha Stewart

 So many ideas and combinations to play with... I'll just have to start baking and let you know what I come up with!