I picked up a Nordicware Cupcake cookbook the other day because there was a wonderful sounding S'mores Cupcake recipe in there. Well, I made it and it flopped. The centres sunk and the edges were crispy. My oven is calibrated correctly, so it wasn't that. I thought maybe there was a typo somewhere but couldn't find a copy of the recipe anywhere online to cross check.

I've posted the recipe below if anyone has any thoughts on why it didn't work. The cupcakes get topped with chocolate ganache and a marshmallow frosting. I'd like to try again and "fix" whatever is wrong because the cupcakes taste AMAZING and I don't even have the chocolate on there yet.

Any thoughts?

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/3 graham cracker crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt (I used sea salt - would this make a difference?)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
6 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract.

So you mix the dry ingredients, cream the butter, sugar eggs etc and add dry ingredients at the end. Typical recipe that way.

It seems like a lot of butter, for one thing. I found a similar recipe on Bon Appetit and their proportions for a number of ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, etc.) are very different. http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/01/smores_cupcakes

I wondered about the butter - as they were baking they looked kind of "greasy", but they turned out tasting okay - they just look bad. I will definitely try the Bon Appetite recipe next time. Thank you!

Most come-with-the-pan recipes (and heck, even off brand cookbook recipes) are crap. Take their IDEA and tweak your tried and true base recipes to make it.

There are so many places on the web that offer reviews that you don't need to start with just any recipe. Look for a top rated recipe if you want to skip the disasters.

Don't know if you need it, but I found the following marshmallow frosting online (don't recall where) when I was trying to create my own S'mores cupcakes. Like you, I used a graham cracker cake, chocolate ganache filling, and the MM topping. What's really great is that you can use a brûlée torch to toast the MM frosting and it will brown and crisp just like a s'more.

MARSHMALLOW FROSTING   

1 3/4 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 c. water

Combine and cook until syrup forms a firm ball in cold water. beat 3 egg whites until stiff. Pour hot syrup slowly over whites while beating at medium speed. As soon as all syrup is added, drop in 12 marshmallows, cut in halves, and beat at fast speed until marshmallows are dissolved. When cool, frosting will spread over 3 layers.

If the cakes rise initially then fall in the middle, it's usually because there's too much raising agent - did you use self-raising flour plus all that baking powder? Also, over beating can cause this as too much air is incorporated. If the cake never rose at all it's probably something wrong with ratio of ingredients

Martha, since the recipe is from Nordicware, you can contact them and ask them about the recipe. http://www.nordicware.com/contact They should have staff who can help you.

I forgot to mention that I too do not have this recipe yet. If I did, I would have shared it.

I would like to add that an Italian meringue frosting, not IMBC, will taste just like a marshmallow and will brown with a kitchen torch. I use Martha Stewart's, but all will work. Again, look for the 5 star rated.

If you have a gas stove, a real marshmallow over the flames is perfect on top of the cupcake.

I have about half of this recipe done, but I'm stuck on the actual cake too.

For the topper, I coated one rectangle of a graham cracker with chocolate and stuck it on top in the meringue.

Hope this helped a little. Susan

Last week I visited my granddaughter and bought her a S'Mores cupcake from Wegmans (incredible regional supermarket in the northeast). A simple yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream. But on top they stuck a large whole marshmallow, a large piece of graham cracker, and a large rectangle of Hershey chocolate. Although not what I would have imagined as representative of a S'mores product, it was attractive and my granddaughter loved it.