Chocolate Marshmallow Peanut Butter Cupcake

Graham Cracker Crust

5-6 tablespoons of butter, melted

1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons of sugar (25 grams)

Mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together. Spoon about one tablespoon of the mixture into 24 paper-lined cupcake pans. Pat the crust down to flatten.

You will have some graham cracker mixture left. Set the mixture aside, for when you are going to top the cupcakes before they go into the oven.

Bake the crusts for about 5-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on cooling racks.

Cake Batter

3 cups of flour

2¾ cups of sugar

¾ of a cup of canola or safflower oil

3 eggs, room temperature

1½ cups of buttermilk, room temperature

1¼ cups of boiling water

1½ teaspoons of baking soda

½ teaspoon of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large stand-up mixer, sift all of your dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Add sugar and whisk to fully combined. Set mixture aside.

Mix together buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla in large measuring cup. In a heavy bottom medium-sized pot, add the water and heat on your stove over high heat to boil.

Place the boiling water in a separate measuring cup for a moment while you get your batter ready. Place dry ingredients into mixer bowl, mix on low speed with the paddle attachment. Gradually add your buttermilk mixture.

Once the buttermilk mixture has been added, scrape the bowl and mix on medium speed for about a minute, or until the batter is fairly smooth and thick. Still on medium, slowly add your boiling water.

When all of the water is added, scrape the bowl and mix on medium speed again for a few seconds, just to make sure that the batter is mixed evenly.

Pour the batter into the cupcake papers lined with graham cracker crusts. Sprinkle the rest of the graham cracker crumbs over the cupcakes and the mini chocolate chips.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until a few moist crumbs show on the tester. Let the cupcakes set in the pans for 5 minutes. Then, remove from the pan onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before you decorate them.

Peanut Butter Frosting

3 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature

3 cups of powdered sugar

½ cup of creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon of kosher salt

Chocolate Ganache

4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips, 60-70% cocoa

½ cup of heavy cream

1 tablespoon of light corn syrup

In a small sauce pan, heat cream and corn syrup over medium high heat. Heat the cream mixture until it starts to steam and bubble around the sides of the pan.

While cream is heating up, place chocolate into a bowl and set it to the side. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Whisk the ganache until it is smooth and glossy. Place the ganache into a small piping bag and set it to the side until ready to use.

Meringue topping

3 egg whites, room temperature

¾ cup of sugar

¾ teaspoons of vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar

Fill a medium-sized heavy bottom sauce pan halfway with water. Heat the water over medium high heat until simmering. In your mixing bowl, add eggs, sugar, cream of tartar and whisk to combine.

Place the bowl over the pot with the simmering water and whisk mixture for about 3-5 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch.

When the mix is ready, place the bowl onto mixer base with the whisk attachment on for around 5-7 minutes on medium high speed. The mixture should look like marshmallow fluff when it is ready.

Add vanilla and then place the meringue into a piping bag.

Use this mixture right away.