This week there were lingering Easter cupcakes, just-for-fun cupcakes, a wide variety of marshmallow cupcakes for the Cupcake Hero challenge (Deadline: tonight by 12mid EST. Don’t miss out!) and Easter candy cupcakes for the Master Baker challenge (Deadline: April 6 by 12mid EST). I am not sure how the hostesses of these 2 challenges will choose. I know I had a hard time just making up the recipe roundup list!

If you find a cupcake blog/website entry during the week 3.28-4.03/08 for next week’s collection or you think *your* cupcake is worthy for my Cupcake Collection, please feel free to email me!

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Rice Crispycakes by Food Snobbery Hobbery

Cherry-filled Diabetic Cupcakes by Cupcake Rehab

Choco-Strawberry Cream Pie Cupcakes by Kitchen Jouissance

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Choco-Cream Cheese Frosting by Quirky Cupcake

Hostess Snowball Cupcakes by Sinfully Sweet Confections
(She also has ice cream cone cupcakes recipe on the same entry. I love 2fors!)

Raspberry Cupcakes w/ Lemon Marshmallow Frosting by Clean Plate Club

Fruit Salad Cupcakes by Prissy Cook

::drum roll please::

(It’s always more suspenseful after the cut right?)

S’murtle. I just like saying the name. S’murtle. S’murtle. S’murtle. Cara from the The Picky Apple has combined 2 of my favorite flavors - s’mores and turles - into a portable cupcake package. How could that be bad right?

Congrats The Picky Apple! You are the Cupcake of the Week!

S’murtle Cupcakes by The Picky Apple

Devil’s Food Cupcake

from 500 Cupcakes, by Fergal Connolloy

* 2 cups self-rising flour
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* 1 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
* 2 separated eggs
* 3 1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 18 paper baking cups into muffin pans. Sift the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream the sugar and buter. Add the egg yolks and beat well. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla, mixing well. Add the flour and milk alternately, beating well with each addition. Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form, and gently fold them into the batter. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake fro 20 minutes. Remove pans from teh oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Marshmallow Filling

Transfer 1 jar of Marshmallow Fluff to piping bag. Once cupcakes have cooled, cut a cone shaped piece out of the center of each cupcake and discard (or eat!). Using the piping bag, fill the hole you’ve created with marshmallow fluff until level with top of cupcake (approximately 1 tbsp. of marshmallow per cupcake).

Chocolate Ganache

* 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
* 10 ounces good semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
* 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Melt butter in a 3-quart saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate and corn syrup, and whisk until chocolate is melted. Refrigerate ganache in bowl, stirring occasionally, until thickened and spreadable, about 1 hour.

Frost each cupcake, making the top flat (or even with a little indention), to allow for the dulce de leche.

Dulce de Leche

from The Pastry Queen, by Rebecca Rather

* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Remove the paper wrapper from the can of sweetened condensed milk. Use a can opener to make two small punctures in the top of the can on opposite sides. Set the can of milk in a medium saucepan, puncture side up. Fill the saucepan with water to reach two-thirds of the way up the sides of the can. Cover the saucepan and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat until the water simmers and simmer about 1 hour. (Picky Apple Note: It usually takes around 2 hours, not 1). Check the sauce pan periodically, adding water to ensure that the level does not drop below halfway. A bit of milk may seep out of the small holes in the can. Cook until the milk pooled on top of the can has turned a deep golden brown. (You may have heard that boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk unopened is a shortcut. Do not attempt this. The milk expands when heated and may erupt with explosive results.)

Allow dulce de leche to cool. Spoon about a tablespoon on top of each cupcake.

Praline Pecans:

adapted from this Southern Living Recipe

* 3/4 cups granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1 tablespoons corn syrup
* 2 1/2 cups toasted pecan halves

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, 7 to 8 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 234°. Remove from heat, and vigorously stir in pecans. Spoon pecan mixture onto wax paper, spreading in an even layer. Let stand 20 minutes or until firm. Break praline-coated pecans apart into pieces.

Chop praline pecan pieces, and sprinkle each cupcake with about a tablespoon of chopped praline pecans.

Toasted Marshmallow Pretzel Sticks

* Pretzel sticks (I used “Old Fashioned Dipping Style” pretzel sticks)
* Mini marshmallow

Toast mini marshmallows on a cookie sheet under the broiler until browned. Working quickly, put a toasted marshmallow or two on the end of each pretzel stick. Insert bare end of pretzel stick into cupcake. (Depending on the length of your pretzel sticks, you may only need half a stick).
Chocolate Dipped Graham Crackers

* at least 3 whole graham crackers
* 2 cups of dipping chocolate (or chocolate chips with a little bit of butter)

Break each graham cracker into 4 pieces. Heat chocolate until runny. Dip each graham cracker in chocolate, and set on a rack to cool and harden. Once the chocolate has cooled and hardened, insert a graham cracker into each cupcake.