S'mores cupcakes

I made these S'mores cupcakes a while ago for my gathering with some friends (the same one where I made the crab rangoon pastry spoon shells). I had cleared out the refrigerator and used the leftover graham cracker cookie dough and was thinking of incorporating them into a dessert. Thus, the S'mores cupcakes were born.

 S'mores cupcakes

I used a regular chocolate cake recipe I had used a couple of times before (you can use your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe), and basically, these were done in no time at all. One thing I would change is perhaps the marshmallow frosting recipe. It kinda split and had a really obvious sort of egg-whitey taste. Doh. I think if I made these again, I'll use like Italian meringue buttercream or something.

S'mores cupcakes (adapted from Annie's Eats and Bakingdom)
(makes 15 small-medium cupcakes)

Graham cracker base
120g homemade graham crackers (recipe here)
2 tsp sugar
45g melted butter

Place the graham crackers in a disposable ziplock bag, use a rolling pin and crush finely to crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a bowl, add the sugar and melted butter. Stir well to combine. Add two tsp of the mixture into cupcake liners and press down to line the bottom. Bake 5 minutes at 175C. Set aside.

Chocolate cupcakes
100g plain flour
180g sugar
42g Valrhona cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any, so I used regular milk instead)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used corn oil)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup hot coffee

Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk the milk, oil, egg and vanilla in a big bowl.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet batter, whisking constantly.
Slowly add the hot coffee into the batter and whisk till just combined. Divide the batter equally among the cupcake liners.
Bake for 25 minutes (or till when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean) at 175C.
Leave to cool.

Marshmallow topping
1 egg white, room temperature
35g sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl set over a pot filled with a couple of inches of barely simmering water.
Whisk the mixture frequently to prevent the egg whites from cooking. Continue whisking until the mixture reaches 160 degrees.
Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk the mixture on high until it is shiny and stiff peaks form, then stir in vanilla extract.

Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. Brown with a kitchen torch and garnish with chocolate chunks.