S'mores cupcakes

My birthday was a few days ago.  I had the week off from work and I had a low-key day.  One thing I didn't have?  A cupcake or a slice of cake!  That was despite the fact that a good portion of the birthday wishes I got on Facebook said things like: "I know you're always baking up a storm, but I hope someone else baked you a cake for your birthday, too;" "I hope that someone is baking you something special today;" and "I hope someone makes you a nice cake." 

But, alas, I was the one who did the baking (just not on my actual birthday).  This weekend I'm getting together with friends for drinks, and decided to bring some cupcakes.  The only problem was that I didn't know what type of cupcakes to make.  I wanted something that I hadn't yet featured on the blog and something that would hopefully stand up to the heat (as, weather depending, we'll be outside).  At least one recipe had to be nut and peanut free, as my cousin is allergic to both, and she'll be there.
First up were S'mores cupcakes.  I changed the original recipe a little - instead of coating the graham cupcake with a semisweet chocolate ganache glaze, I filled it with a milk chocolate ganache.  S'mores are, at least in my recollection, made with Hershey's milk chocolate, so I couldn't rationalize using semisweet chocolate over milk chocolate (but shhhh!, I didn't use Hershey's).  Oh, and after much debate, I made them mini.  For once, it wasn't an automatic reaction to make minis....but ultimately minis won out for one reason only...some of my favorite cupcake liners are mini, and I wanted to use those!  I'll have to make some full-sized cupcakes soon with some of my other favorite cupcake liners :)

 Just so that you know, I halved the recipe.  The HALVED recipe made 47 mini cupcakes.  It probably would've made a few more, except I overfilled the cups a little in the first batch that I made, and a bunch of them rose a lot and overflowed.  I used a scooper made for mini muffin tins and it was too much.  The second and third batches that I made I used a heaping tablespoon of batter and they just rose to a few millimeters below the top of the cupcake liner.  That was fine for me, since I planned to inject some milk chocolate ganache into the center of the cupcakes, and I knew that that would make them rise a little.

It's kind of hard to see on the picture on the right, but the ganache filling is peeking out

I ended up using a different icing for one reason - my thermometer doesn't reach the necessary temperature AND I couldn't find my thermometer.

***I found graham flour at Whole Foods.  It's also available online from places like King Arthur Flour (I just placed an order from them for another cupcake-related product for an idea I have) and Bob's Red Mill (the brand they had at Whole Foods).***

Graham Cupcakes
(These amounts are for the FULL recipe)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups graham flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
10 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
6 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line muffin tins with paper liners.
Whisk together both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter, brown sugar, and honey until pale and fluffy.
Reduce speed to medium.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Place the batter in the lined cups.  Use 1 Tbsp for mini cupcakes
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 10-12 minutes for minis.
Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored up to 1 day at room temperature, or frozen up to 1 month.
Milk Chocolate Ganache Filling

Ingredients:

6 oz milk chocolate, chopped
2 oz cream

Directions:

Boil cream
Pour over chocolate
Mix until all chocolate is melted (I used a whisk)
Let cool slightly

Place into a pastry bag fitted with a thin small tip.
"Inject" a small amount of ganache into center of each cupcake.

Cloud Frosting (otherwise known as Martha Stewart's Seven Minute Frosting) - It's said to be a cross between whipped cream and marshmallow
Slightly modified by moi

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sugar
6 egg whites, room temperature (oops, didn't read that part until later)
1/2 cup water (I used less since I wasn't using cream of tartar)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (I left this out)
1 Tbsp vanilla

Directions:

Combine sugar, egg whites, water, and cream of tartar in bowl of an electric mixer and mix until foamy.  As I stated above, I didn't use the cream of tartar and decreased the water (I ended up using just under a quarter of a cup).
Set pan over a pot of slightly simmering water (makeshift double boiler) and whisk until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch.
Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer and whisk on high until stiff peaks can be formed, about 12-16 minutes (mine took less, maybe because of the changes I made?)
Add vanilla and beat until incorporated (I must confess, I added the vanilla when I switched it to the stand mixer)

Pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

I topped them with a small sliver of milk chocolate.