Some friends of mine started a hot cocoa blog, Hot Cocoalicious, where they rate the best hot chocolates around Cleveland. To accompany their quest for great hot cocoa, they hosted a little Creating + Cocoa party last weekend, bringing together people to share chocolately drinks and sweets while getting crafty with paper, paints, pencils, tape, and glue.

Before we start crafting, we each ladle homemade hot cocoa from the host’s crockpot into fancy mugs. The spread of toppings spans homemade whipped cream, strawberry and vanilla flavored heart-shaped marshmallows, Junior Mints, caramel Junior Mints, butterscotch chips, lavender and a kaleidoscope of sprinkles.

Looking for a hot cocoa inspired cupcake recipe, I found these S’more Cupcakes that I tweaked to fit the party theme. I doubled Rachel’s original recipe to make 18, and added some hot cocoa mix to the chocolate buttercream frosting to top off these cinnamon graham cracker cupcakes stuffed with gooey homemade marshmallow filling.

The Cupcakes: S’more Cupcakes with Marshmallow Filling and Hot Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup graham cracker crumbs (about 4 graham crackers)
¾ cup milk

Marshmallow Filling:

2 egg whites
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup cocoa powder (I had just less than ½ cup left, so I filled up the measuring cup the rest of the way with 2 packages of hot cocoa mix. I used a slotted spoon to “strain” out the mini marshmallows, which I saved for the topping.)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, mixing well. Slowly add in milk, mixing just until batter is smooth. Scoop batter into prepared cupcake liners with a cookie scoop, filling ¾ full. Bake for 18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Situate a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water so the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Whisk together egg white, sugar and cream of tartar until sugar dissolves. Continue whisking in your makeshift double boiler until the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from heat and take a mixer to it, beating several minutes until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla in the last 30 seconds.

Hollow out the centers of the cooled cupcakes using a knife, or – much easier – using a nifty cupcake corer like this one my mom gave me. Note: cupcake balls can be used to appease hungry boyfriend so he doesn’t eat the real cupcakes before the party!

Transfer marshmallow cream to a large plastic Ziplock bag with the corner snipped off, and pipe into the hollow cupcakes.

In a large bowl, cream the butter for frosting. Mix in powdered sugar and cocoa powder (which may have some hot cocoa mix added). Mix in vanilla and milk. I like to add milk and powdered sugar alternately to find the perfect consistency. I ended up using less than the 5 cups of powdered sugar the original doubled recipe called for, and I still had frosting left over.

Transfer frosting to another Ziplock bag with a snipped corner, and pipe onto cupcakes. The piped chocolate frosting started looking a little poopy to me, and I had plenty of marshmallow cream left over, so I piped an extra dollop on top of the buttercream. On top of that, I sprinkled the mini marshmallows I’d saved from the hot cocoa packets. You can also buy these mini marshmallow garnishes in bulk at some grocery stores. They’re the perfect finishing touch for these yummy s’more hot chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow filling.

The Craft:

In between sips of sweet hot cocoa and nibbles of marshmallow-filled cupcakes, we each painted very different projects. Our hosts picked three crafts to inspire us for the day: tape painting geometric shapes, glue painting organic shapes, or modge podging any shapes onto painted wood blocks.

Intrigued by the stained glass appearance of the first project, I decided to create some geometric shapes with straight tape lines. I started with a 12×12 canvas board, and started cutting masking tape in half to make thinner lines. I experimented cutting various widths, but it became a tedious task. I’d recommend buying various widths of tape – but only if it’s cheap enough you don’t mind painting over it and then pitching it. Another crafter used decorative Washi tape that she left on the painting, so you could experiment with that, too.

In the spaces created by my tape lines, I painted blocks of acrylic paint in red, dark blue, light blue, green, and a purple I made by mixing red and dark blue. In the lower right corner, I toyed with the idea of incorporating a “b” stencil. Then, at the last minute, instead of painting in the “b,” I decided to use the negative space around the “b” instead to block out the shapes more subtley. This is what it looked like before I removed the tape – and before I decided how to handle the corner.

After letting the paint dry, I carefully peeled off the tape to reveal white lines between my color blocks. The edges weren’t totally precise and there was some bleeding, but the lines are pretty consistent. (I didn’t leave the tape on my “b” corner as long, and I noticed the paint bled more noticeably here.) If you had more time, it would be fun to paint a base color, tape over that, paint darker colors around it, and then peel the tape to reveal colored lines.

This would be a great project for varied age groups. I could see a child making very simple lines and shapes, while a more experienced artist could get intricate with various line widths, curves and detail. You can always go back over it and add in finer details, too. Here’s what my finished project looked like:

While I was waiting for my paint to dry, I quickly experimented with the second craft. I slapped some orange acrylic paint on a scrap of watercolor paper, then leafed through the host’s stash of paper collage pieces. I grabbed a cut-out rose cardstock, and two scraps of peachy-pink paper. I layered these on top of my orange background with a gluestick, and then traced the lines of the rose petals with clear-drying tacky glue.

The project seems unfinished to me, so I might experiment with watercolor on top of it, although I’m not sure how receptive the cardstock will be to watercolors.  I also realized after it dried that I should have sprinkled some gold glitter onto the glue to really distinguish the lines.

But I’m just happy I didn’t drip marshmallow filling or hot cocoa spatters onto my artwork!