S'mores cupcake and mini-mogador

After living and studying in Paris, its a bit hard to appreciate the cupcake craze that's still going on in the US. What is it about cupcakes? They're not that particularly good, nor complicated, and sometimes they're just covered in so much sugary-sweet frosting goop that they really aren't worth the calories. Maybe it's just a reflection of American consumerism? Really, what kid doesn't want their very own individual cupcake? These pastries pretty much negate the whole concept of 'sharing is caring'.

After going camping, I realized that S'mores are a very American thing. Who ever thought of taking  marshmallow, roasting it and then smashing it between chocolate and graham crackers? I could probably wikipedia it, but at the moment I can't really be bothered by the origin of this sticky campfire treat. However, I did use it as inspiration for a cupcake. For the graham cracker element, I mixed some crushed graham cracker into a my basic brown sugar cupcake recipe. After baking, I filled the cupcakes with chocolate ganache. And the frosting? Italian meringue of course. Though I must note that the Italian meringue doesn't have quite the same flavor as marshmallows.

I quickly browned the meringue in the oven and topped the cupcakes off with some chocolate decor.

I also made mini-mogador cakes with some new baking rings I picked up at the store. Next time I think I'll up the cake to chocolate ratio.