s'mores cupcakes please

I have a big appreciation for S'mores. Being an import to the US I've only gotten to know the beauty of a s'more in the last 10 years and of course I am a fan. I've been craving s'mores this summer but since I don't have a bonfire to go to on a regular basis I found another way to get the taste of gooey marshmallow, buttery grahams and decadent chocolate. This recipe is adapted from one that was on Martha Stewart but I used cake mix and soda to try and cut the calories a little. 

Recipe makes 24 full size cupcakes.

Heat your oven to 350F and line 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners. 

Part 1 - Graham Cracker Base

2 packets of graham crackers (not two boxes I mean the packages inside the box. 

1/4 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of melted butter

Smash up the graham crackers and then mix in the melted butter and sugar. Once combined put about 2 tablespoons of crumbs into each cupcake. Then take a small glass and even out the crumbs about 1/4 inch thick). Save a little to sprinkle on the cupcakes at the end. 

Part 2 - Chocolate Shavings

2 7oz bars of premium chocolate. 

Using a small knife finely chop the chocolate and put about 1 tablespoon in each cupcake on top of the graham layer. Save a little chocolate to sprinkle on top of the finished cakes. 

Bake the graham cracker bases with the chocolate on top for about 6 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. The chocolate on top will just be softened slightly - that's okay. Take these out of the oven then start on the cake part of the cupcake leaving the graham crackers with a chance to cool. 

Part 3 - Cake mix

1 box of cake mix

1 can of soda

I used the old soda trick to cut the calories in these cupckaes. It's actually the first time i have done this and the only difference i noticed was that the next day the cupcakes seemed to shrink away from the paper. So if you are using this recipe and want these to be ultra presentable make them the day of. 

Add the cake mix on top of the base and fill holes to about 3/4 full. 

Part 4 - Frosting

1 7oz jar of Marshmallow Fluff

3/4 - 1 cup of powdered sugar

1 cup of butter

Mix it all up and while it's nice and soft pipe it onto the top of your cupcakes. Garnish cupcakes with leftover crumbs and chocolate. 

Part 5 - EAT!

PARTY ON  - LINK PARTIES!!

double the love

Yesterday was my birthday and Sunday was Mother's Day so I've been feeling very loved. On Saturday we went for lunch and stopped into an antique shop and finally found what I've been looking for. Add some cupcakes and it couldn't be more perfect. Hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day.

Pintrest Recipes

I am sure we are all the same, surfing pintrest, choosing recipes that we think sound and look really great, pinning them and then....nothing.

This week I decided to actually have a go at some of the recipes I found and let you know how it went. I'm going to use an extremely simple rating system I've devised - Make it or Skip it. Of course these are only my opinions and I'm a long way from the "Oprah Effect".

                                                                     Source: tablefortwoblog.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

Honey Bourbon Chicken 

We all really enjoyed this and I would recommend it. I used 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts although the recipe calls for chicken thighs. The breasts stayed moist and melted in your mouth so you can use either. I also like this because the cooking time is 3-4 hours on low in a slow cooker. This works well for me because I usually only think about dinner after lunch so sometimes I just don't have the time to make other slow cooker recipes. This is a Make it!

Source: doctoroz.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest 

Hungry Girl EZ Cheesy Lasagna

I needed to adapt a lot of this recipe. It says that you only need 2 sheets of lasagna. I have to say this seems impossible to me. It's a make for 2 recipe but the thing I like about Lasagna is it's freezability (new word?). It's a good idea using the eggplant as a layer but there are better low fat lasagna recipes out there. Skip it. 

Source: dashingdish.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

Low Carb Chicken Enchilada Bake

This is really excellent. The genius part of this recipe is the fact that instead of cream or sour cream you use blended cottage cheese. I have never even thought of that before but it is a perfect cream substitute. It's just the right amount of spicy and you can add or remove the amount of cheese on top. I had seconds - Make it!

Cucumber Feta Rolls 

Hope you enjoyed this post. If nothing else it has helped me learn how to spell recepie, reciepe, recipe.

I'm sharing this post at some cool link parties - check them out.  

I was going to a girlfriend's house for dinner so I thought I would bring these along as a healthy appetizer. It's hard to slice the cucumber to look this pretty and in the time it took to drive there (30mins) the filling and the water from the cucumbers created a soupy mix in the bottom of the dish. This made them look just a little less appetizing than this photo. Skip it.

Source: goodlifeeats.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

cocoa nut

So you can see from my last post that I am a fan of chocolate. A big fan. In fact I usually look something like this.

In honor of Lent and my expanding thighs I have given up chocolate. 40 days and 40 nights of misery stretch ahead. I am in to Day 3 now and I have to say I find it most hard at night. My dreams are filled with this....

Source: prettyfoods.tumblr.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

and this...

Source: smittenkitchen.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

and this...

Source: yourcupofcake.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

and I mean, seriously?

Source: hitherandthither.net via Marie Claire on Pinterest

I have to confess this morning I ate one cocoa puff from my son's cereal bowl. It was automatic! As soon as I had crunched the sweet little morsel I realized what I had done! Too late. Oh well, from here on - no more. Wish me luck. And for those of you not silly enough to deprive yourself until Easter.

Source: sprinkleofglitter.blogspot.com via Marie Claire on Pinterest

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

Valentine's Day is always a good excuse to make ridiculously decadent treats! I saw this amazing cupcake and I knew I had to try to recreate it. Instead of making regular size cupcakes I went with small ones. For some reason I thought I would be just able to eat one small one and that would be much less sinful than a full size one. I don't think that mentality quite worked out...these were so yummy I could not stop after one, or two, and I really had to stop after three because then I started to feel a little sick!

Not sure why I didn't think of covering cupcakes in chocolate before. Awesome idea.

I didn't have much time to put these together so I grabbed a box of chocolate cake mix and a tub of whipped frosting. My husband said they were the best cupcakes I ever made. He didn't see the box or tub so all of the credit went to me. Score.

The chocolate coating was made with 12oz of milk chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Melt it in a bowl on top of a saucepan. I made 24 mini cupcakes and I had plenty of chocolate topping left over.

making whoopie......pies

I made some whoopie pies for the first time today and used this recipe. I am attending a kiddie birthday party and I thought these would be the prefect mini-treat to bring along.

 Of course, since these are for children I had to add sprinkles. I also like that the recipe includes whole wheat flour. I suppose that cancels out the high marshmallow fluff content, right?

With the red and green sugar added I thought these would be a perfect treat for a holiday party. Looks like somebody thought they would be a perfect treat right away!

P.S. How much do you love those Santa mugs? I adore them.

Homemade Blackberry Jam

Making Blackberry Jam (without a canner, without sugar and without enough blackberries)

Almost four years ago my Dad planted a blackberry bush in our backyard. This summer brought a bumper crop of blackberries so I need to come up with different ways of using them. My first try was to make some blackberry jam. Here is a little how-to for the improvisers among us. Eat your heart out Bonne Mamon. I plan to give a couple of these away as gifts - there is only so much jam one girl can eat!

1. You really need about 3 pints of fruit for the recipe I used. I had 6 cups of blackberries from our garden but you need to mush up the fruit and then have at least 3 cups as a result. My 6 cups of blackberries were not enough so I had to improvise and added a pint of blueberries that I had in my fridge.


2. I don't have a canner so I boiled the jars in a big pot to sterilize them.

3. I put the mushed fruit and 3/4 cup of water in a medium pot. I wasn't sure which brand of pectin to buy at the store but ended up with SURE-JELL Lower Sugar. This means you can use Splenda in your recipe. I added the whole packet gradually to the fruit.

4. I then brought it to a rolling boil (doesn't stop boiling even when stirred). I kept it boiling for 1 minute and then removed it from heat.

5. Only then do you add the Splenda (1/2 cup)......and your done! Almost.



6. I poured the jam into four jars I had. I don't have a canner but the canning instructions said to put the filled jars back into the canner and boil for 10 mins ensuring that there is 1-2 inches of water above the jar. I figured I could do this in my large pot.

7. To experiment I only boiled 2 jars and put the other two in the fridge. The test to see if the jar has been sealed is to press the top with your finger and see if the metal pops back. Amazingly it seems to have worked. The two in the fridge pop back but the ones I boiled do not. Presumably this means they will keep much longer....or poison the people I gift them to......

I would love to know if anyone that reads this post tries to make the jam or maybe comes up with some cool ways to decorate the jars.