Happy National S'mores Day!

What? You didn't know it was a thing either? I'm quickly discovering that there's a national day for just about everything, but in this case, I'm totally on-board with celebrating the summertime staple that is the s'more. And, of course, because I'm me, I had to throw my own touch on it and talk cupcakes -- S'mores cupcakes.

Making these cupcakes is pretty straight-forward. Your key ingredients are going to be your go-to chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream recipes, marshmallow creme, graham crackers, and jumbo-sized marshmallows.

Bake the cupcakes as normal, then core out the middle. There are lots of techniques for doing this, but my favorite is simply using a cupcake corer and pushing down the center of the cake to create a hole. For me, it guarantees I'm not removing the entire cupcake center -- you still want cake on the bottom to ensure the filling doesn't ooze out once the wrapper is removed.

I filled a disposable pastry bag full of marshmallow creme and just piped it into the cupcakes, being sure to fill it all the way to the top.

I added my chocolate buttercream and sprinkled some crushed graham crackers on top.

Now you're ready for the final step. Take your jumbo marshmallows and place on a cookie sheet. You're going to broil the marshmallows for a minute or so, just until they start to turn this golden brown. Be sure to watch the marshmallows (I had my oven light on the whole time); you can't set a timer for this one -- you need to actually monitor them so they don't burn.

Gently place the roasted marshmallows on top of the cupcake and voila! A gorgeous, super yummy cupcake alternative to standard s'mores. Enjoy!

My in-laws recently celebrated their 40th (!) wedding anniversary and my dear father-in-law, one of my favorite people in the world, asked me to make some "coconut cupcakes".

I've made Almond Joy-inspired cupcakes in the past, and while delicious, I wanted the focus to be on his two favorite flavors -- dark chocolate and, of course, coconut. The result was messy deliciousness.

The 40th anniversary is the ruby anniversary, so I used some more of the red fondant hearts I made for the Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie-filled cupcakes my mother-in-law asked me to make. I like the way the red hearts pop on the white coconut marshmallow frosting and coordinate with the teal blue cake liners I chose.

The cupcakes were actually a little frustrating to make -- the frosting, while delicious, was just too runny and ended up spilling over the sides of the cupcakes. As a result, I've altered the recipe and, on my second try, it worked much better.

All in all, a very moist, dense dark chocolate cake that tasted eerily similar to a Snoball.

You can find the recipe here: DARK CHOCOLATE & COCONUT MARSHMALLOW CUPCAKES.

S'mores Cupcakes

40th Wedding Anniversary Part 1: Dark Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow Cupcakes