messy marshmallow cupcakes...ooey-gooey!

ok, so i was all excited about spending the evening in the kitchen. i'd stocked up at the local supermarket and was ready to prepare my entry for the cupcake-hero event hosted by quirky cupcake. her chosen ingredient this month was marshmallow and i'd been thinking about what to do. i was dreaming of a marshmallow-filled chocolate cupcake and marshmallow frosting.

WARNING #1 - MARSHMALLOWS ARE HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE WHEN BAKED IN THE OVEN!

i used a devil's food recipe that i have used umpteen times before and really like and then placed two mini-marshmallow in the middle and topped with more batter. the cupcakes were half full (even with the marshmallows) and i figured i'd end up with a lovely gooey marshmallow in the middle of my cupcake at the end....oh....SO WRONG! the marshmallows rose to the top of the cupcake and volcanically erupted out the top and then proceeded to make my devil's food batter ooze out everywhere...yikes! when i finally rescued them from anymore disaster in the oven, they looked....rather hideous!

my mum offered to taste one (brave lady!) and she said they were fine...but just that there was no more marshmallow left. ok, i figured i could hide the ugliness with a nice marshmallow frosting. i'd found a recipe on the internet that seemed fail safe. oh...SO WRONG AGAIN! (twice in one evening - i was beginning to feel like the evening was jinxed!

WARNING #2 - MARSHMALLOW FROSTING IS NOT AS EASY AS ONE MIGHT INITIALLY THINK!

this was the recipe...

GRANDMA ZORA'S MARSHMALLOW FROSTING

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar

2 egg whites, unbeaten

1 dozen large marshmallows

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp water

1. Cut marshmallows into pieces. Set aside. Place other ingredients in top of double boiler.

2. Cook and stir quickly until sugar is dissolved and mixture turns white.

3. Remove from heat and add marshmallows.

4. When marshmallows become soft, place back over boiling water and heat until mixture stands in peaks.

5. Spread immediately on cake while still hot and let cool.

and what happened...well, my frosting didn't thicken...it just kinda ooey-gooey'd around the bowl and never developed soft peaks...even after frantic beating that frankly has made my right arm look rather like arnie schwarzenegger's during the body building years! what a mess! even after i left it to cool for what seemed like the good part of a century, the stuff was still ooey-gooey. hmph! well, i didn't feel like wasting it and on tasting didn't seem so bad, so i just spooned it on and am hoping that by tomorrow it will have set a little.

so ho-hum to my dreams of a gorgeus spiky-frosted cupcake that would have looked like sid vicious (it was gonna be called the 'sid marshmallow-icious cupcake') and instead i was left with a flat, shiny, baldy cupcake (who is famously bald that i can name it after?) but i shall not be deterred...i will succeed in making the 'sid marshmallow-icious cupcake' if i have to make every darn marshmallow frosting i lay my hands on from here to eternity. i will succeed. 'sid, you will have your moment! i promise!'