Rocky Road Cupcakes

Further inspired by a delicious flavor of ice cream, I have been dreaming up the perfect Rocky Road Cupcake recipe for days. After many debates about how to construct it, I decided to do a simple but delicious chocolate cupcake therefore allowing the frosting to fulfill the role of "Rocky Road."

Marshmallows are pretty amazing and are incorporated into some really awesome desserts out there, but I'm not the kind of person you'll find eating Peeps. I have limits. Rocky Road ice cream might be my favorite way to enjoy marshmallows, but I am always game to snack on a rice crispy treat, gobble down a fireside s'more, or scatter mini marshmallows on top of my sweet potato casserole. So it's with this recipe that I'm trying to find a way to put the marshmallows to good use, without them being an overwhelming flavor.

I used my standard chocolate buttercream frosting as a base. For each half a cup of butter, I use 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and about 1/4 cup cocoa powder. After creaming the frosting with a little bit of vanilla and milk, I added in mini marshmallows and toasted almonds, both chopped up a little. I let it chill in the fridge, unlike when I usually pipe frosting in which case I let it sit out to soften enough to manipulate. After the cupcakes had cooled, I was able to scoop the chilled frosting with a cookie dough scoop which made the perfect sized ice cream-looking toppings.

My only changes would be to not toast the almonds as it changed the flavor a bit, and I think the raw almond taste is more appropriate. As well, the frosting to cupcake ratio was a bit more than I like. Overall though, the flavor did capture the classic combo.