Cake #15: S'mores

I am officially halfway to my 30 cakes in a year goal. If I were really on track, I'd have reached this point a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty dang close, and that feels good.

You know what doesn't feel good? Trying to bake a fairly complicated cake before company arrives while your husband is at a church meeting and your kids keep waking up from naps with a) nightmares or b) insatiable hunger. This was probably my least favorite cake to bake thus far, but it was more about the circumstances surrounding the baking than the actual cake itself.

It's not your fault, you tasty thing you.

I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did, honestly. The middle layer cracked right in half when I put it on the bottom one, so I had to try to glue it all together with ganache that refused to set up because my kitchen was too dang hot. I tried to hold it in place with the outside of a springform pan and stuck it in the freezer, hoping for the best. (It sort of worked.) Then I decided to make the 7-minute marshmallow stuff from the Ding Dong cake recipe instead of the stuff this recipe calls for, which would have taken much longer and for which, at that point, I just didn't have the patience. Well that didn't go well; it started separating and getting gloppy before I was able to spread it on the cake. WHICH, by the way, is not how it was supposed to go on. The cake is supposed to be frosted in ganache and then have a giant mound of toasted marshmallow frosting on top. But when my cake kept falling apart and the ganache stayed drippy, I had to improvise.

Good enough.

Moral of the story? This is not a cake for the fainthearted. If you're in a rush or trying to multitask, just throw together some cookies or something and save yourself the trouble. Even the flavor is kind of hard core--I was defeated before finishing my first piece, and that's saying a lot--but it's worth the effort if you're looking to impress someone. Or, you know, if you're just a masochistic amateur baker like me.

S'mores Cake
from Heather Christo


Brown Butter Graham Cracker Crust
18 large grahams (the rectangle)
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
12 Tbs butter

Melt the butter and cook on low until the butter is a golden brown. In a food processor (Iused my blender) pulse the graham crackers with the sugar and the salt until the crumbs are really fine. Pour the crumbs into a medium bowl. Pour the butter over the graham crackers and gently mix together until it is a uniform damp crumb.

Prepare three 8″ or 9" rounds with parchment paper rounds and non-stick baking spray. Divide the graham cracker crumbs between two of the three prepared pans, pressing them down firmly with a spatula. Set aside

Dark Chocolate Cake
2 cups boiling water
1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup soft unsalted butter
2-1/4 cup white sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbs vanilla
2-3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the cocoa powder in a small bowl and pour the boiling water on top of it. Whisk the water and coco together until smooth, and then set aside until cooled.

In a mixing bowl or standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time until they are completely combined. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Gently add half of the dry ingredients and half of the chocolate to the batter. Mix to combine. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth batter.

Divide the batter evenly between the three pans. (Two of them, remember, have graham crust already in them.) Bake the cake layers about 25 minutes, but keep a close eye on them because every cake is different. Let the cake layers cool.

Chocolate Ganache
2 cups heavy cream
1lb dark chocolate pieces

In a small pot, bring the cream to a simmer. Pour the cream over the chocolate pieces and let sit about 5 minutes.Whisk the ganache until smooth and shiny. Set aside.

Marshmallow Frosting
3 egg whites at room temperature
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup karo corn syrup
2 Tbs water
1 TBS vanilla bean paste

In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the eggs and salt until pale and frothy. Meanwhile, heat the sugar, corn syrup, water and vanilla paste over medium flame until the sugar is dissolved and just simmering (about 5 minutes). With the mixer on medium speed, add a tiny bit of the hot sugar mixture to the egg whites at a time. (Temper the eggs; don’t scramble them!) Slowly pour in the rest of the sugar mixture and turn the mixer up to high. Beat on high for about 5 minutes or until very stiff and shiny.

Assembly
Cover a cake plate in a few strips of parchment or wax paper.  Turn out one of the cake rounds with the graham crust onto the parchment covered cake plate, graham layer up. Put a large dollop of ganache on top of the grahams and spread evenly. Follow with another layer. Top with the third layer (which should be the one without grahams). Refrigerate, at least 15-20 minutes.

While the marshmallow frosting is mixing, frost the cake. (Take it out of the fridge first!) With the remaining ganache, which should be stiff and the texture of a glossy frosting, frost the cake in a smooth, even layer. Then remove the parchment, revealing a nice clean cake plate! Ideally, pipe a layer of the marshmallow frosting on the top of the cake and then glop the rest on top in a big mound. (I had to cover up the fact that my cake was barely keeping itself together, so I frosted the whole thing in marshmallow. You do what you gotta do.) Using a kitchen torch, brown the marshmallow frosting.

Slice and serve.