Okay, so I hadn't completely lost faith in cupcakes, but in the past year, I've eaten more that are mediocre rather than magnificent. Granted, some of those cupcakes were made by yours truly, but the larger point is that I had begun to doubt the cupcake's capacity to thrill me. A cupcake might be tasty, a cupcake might be comforting, but a cupcake was not, as the kids says, going to rock my socks.

Wrong again, O'Leary. Among the bevy of baked goods I recently tasted from Ooh La La Bakery was their Tuesday special, the S'mores Cupcake. This cupcake certainly isn't the only good thing on Ooh La La's menu (more details on that in an upcoming post), but by God, it really very extremely terrific. You'll need another picture to understand why:

"S'mores" isn't a particularly novel theme for a cupcake and from the exterior, Ooh La La's version appears to follow an appetizing albeit fairly predictable format: a moist chocolate cake base, a crown of buttery milk chocolate frosting, a cute decoration of graham crackers, chocolate chunks, and toast miniature marshmallows. If you simply bite or nibble your way through the cupcake, you will gradually encounter a find a few surprises.

Or, if you're like me, you will bisect your baked good from the get-go in the off-chance something amazing lies inside. Joyous day! There's so much more.

As you can observe from the photograph (and, I hope, you will yourself one day taste), is (1) those graham crackers you assumed were just surface garnish actually penetrate halfway through the interior to provide a lovely sweet grain crunch that contrast with the (2) creamy sticky marshmallow filling that in turn wonderfully complements (3) two additional layers of cocoa cake followed by graham cracker crumbs.

This confection perfectly encapsulate the spirit of the s'more, but for me, more importantly, demonstrated that the cupcake has the power to successfully seduce my taste buds.

And how fitting that this discovery comes on the eve of National S'Mores Day.