Have you ever been conflicted with the decision of cooking cookies or baking a cake? Perhaps you noticed that you don’t have all of the ingredients you need, you don’t feel like going to the store, and food delivery is not in your budget. Well, that’s exactly what happened to me and how I came to create this recipe. This is a perfect dessert for anyone who wants a cake but loves cookies.
My children and I had no idea what to call it. It is a cupcake that tastes like a cookie. It was simple to make and fun for the children to do. As always, I found a way to make it educational. I try to link the fundamentals that my children cover in school to everyday life. This allows them to make connections, form logical thinking, and use both sides of their brains (logic and creativity). Seeing how they can become excited while being independent is a joy for me. Baking with children is not always fun. They make messes, they often find reasons to argue over who’s doing what, they can be a distraction, and someone could get hurt. Nevertheless, I know that the more I allow them to do with me, the less I will have to deal with the negatives.
As the holidays were coming to an end, making yet another store run was not an option for me. Between Christmas and New Year, it seems as though the entire city is grocery shopping and with the incline of COVID, the flu, and strep, I did not want to go. I looked in the refrigerator and cabinets and on a quick observation, I thought I would be able to do a simple pound cake with a chocolate drizzle but much to my surprise I didn’t have nearly what I needed. I mean, I had eggs but only four. I had milk but only 1/4 cup. I had two sticks of butter, plenty of sugar, and vanilla. Keep in mind, I still had to finish dinner and I had no plans on doing a store run or delivery till at least Wednesday.
My youngest son (such a helper in the kitchen) was asking so many questions. I decided to make this a learning lesson. First, I explained to my children the importance of not giving up. I explained to them the same thing my mom explained to me. If you have flour, sugar, vanilla, and eggs, you can make many things. You need to be creative and know the foundation for any dessert. The foundation is sugar, vanilla, and butter. I’m not sure how many people know this but tea cakes, sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and vanilla cakes (just to name a few) all have the same base ingredients.
I started with a stick of softened butter (well actually margarine) and a cup of sugar. My son reminded me that we had a few items left from the smores they had made with their father and my brain kicked into high gear. I felt like experimenting with it and unlike the times before, I wrote down everything I did. I took out the ingredients I knew went together, preheated my oven to 350 degrees, and began creating. We didn’t have much left from the smores so I decided on cupcakes as the smores ingredients could be used as a topping. Since I wanted this to be a teachable moment, I had my children separate everything into separate bowls. This was something my six-year-olds could do. They broke the Hersey’s up into pieces (there are lines on it to make it easy), crushed up the remainder of the graham crackers, and poured the last of the marshmallows into a bowl. I took another bowl and put flour in it. Since my daughter is a little older, I allowed her to do the flour shifting.
In a large mixing bowl, we put in margarine and whisked in the sugar. I added the eggs, cream cheese, and vanilla. The children mixed it with a hand mixer well until it was creamy. Since I wasn’t sure how much flour I would need, I explained to my daughter to shift in half a cup at a time. I knew the texture should be creamy but thick. It should slowly slide off the spoon (same consistency as box cake mix). I let my children do the raw batter taste test and once they approved the flavor, I knew I was off to a great start. I am a firm believer that when you are experimenting with food, it can go from good to awful quickly. Therefore, I didn’t want to add anything else. I also knew that this dessert would have a familiar taste but be a little different. The children put some graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of the cupcake pan, I scooped a spoonful of batter on top, and the children placed a piece of chocolate and marshmallow in the center. They topped it with more graham cracker crumbs. I placed it in the oven at 350 for 12 minutes. I will say this since every oven differs, so I suggest checking it often after the 12-minute mark. It took about 12 minutes for our cupcakes to be done.
What I love the most about these cupcakes is that one, my children were able to do a chuck of the work, and two, they were so good. It wasn’t as sweet as most cakes, but it was as sweet as a cookie. My husband, a person who hates cakes, loved these. We chose not to put any frosting on it since we are not big on that. The frosting would have made it sweeter, and I think a buttercream or cream cheese frosting would pair nicely.
The full Recipe can be found under the tab “Food”.
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