Thursday, October 7, 2010

Mission: Perfect Cake, Part 3 Chocolate 'Smores Cake


Man, another busy week of school, what a drag. This time it was a 25 minute patient case presentation on Monday, lead a class discussion about one of the landmark diabetes clinical journal articles Wednesday, a quiz today, and the worst part is next week is shaping up to be even worse. Eight months from now couldn't come quick enough (when I'm finally done with all classroom learning forever). Anyway even if I don't find time to write about it, I always do make time to cook, or bake, whatever the case may be.
This time around, in my mission to make the perfect cake, I made some edits to my chocolate cake recipe, and the results were much better. This time the chocolate cake was a 'smores cake. I got the idea for the 'smores part of the cake when I saw this recipe for smores semifreddo, on Food52. Who knew that you can broil marshmallow fluff and it turns into a toasted marshmallow, a better idea may have never been thought up. Once I saw that toasted fluff I knew I needed to try it so I figured why not use the toasted marshmallow fluff as my middle layer of frosting, instead of my normal buttercream. Then I lined the top and bottom of the middle layer with a very thin layer of vanilla buttercream. On the outside I made a chocolate buttercream and crushed up graham crackers and sprinkled those over the entire outside, as well. A better 'smore has never been created. Even though the cake part of this isn't perfect yet, everything else combined to make something absolutely unbelievable. I've never had anything like this before, and can't wait to do it again, everyone who had some couldn't believe how good it was either(which helps to prove my early cake theory about how the frosting makes the cake and not the cake itself), this is a must try. If you still aren't confident in my cake recipe yet, use a boxed cake, or your own recipe, but definitely make it a 'smores cake.
Now to the problem list (after I tell you to make this cake I list problems with it, real convincing I know). I think the chocolate flavor isn't as strong as I want it. I think it might be because I only use milk chocolate, so next time I think I will go with a half and half mixture of milk and semi-sweet chocolates. The cake also fell in again. I'm not really sure how to fix this problem, but I will try to figure it out, so I guess other than that I think it will just be tweaking the measurements of the flour, baking soda and baking powder to get it to the right density and fluffiness, which hopefully might in turn have something to do with the cake falling in.


Chocolate 'Smores Cake
2 8" rounds
1 stick of butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c heavy cream
12 oz. milk chocolate
1 tub of marshmallow fluff, for the toasted marshmallow middle layer


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place a bowl over top a pot with boiling water and melt the chocolate and butter together. When it is fully melted set aside and allow to cool.

As the chocolate and butter is cooling mix together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.

In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugars together, until the color lightens and it gets a fluffiness to it. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla.

When the chocolate is cool mix it in with the creamed sugar and butter and egg mixture, and whisk well to fully incorporate. Then add the heavy cream to this, and again whisk well to combine.

Finally add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir well to fully incorporate them together, but be sure not to over mix it, a few lumps never hurt anyone.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.


For the Toasted Marshmallow Fluff:


Preheat the broiler to high.

Simply put parchment paper down on a baking tray and wipe with a stick of butter.

Spread the fluff in an even layer on the baking tray. After about a minute (maybe sooner, it will burn fast so keep a sharp eye on it) or so the fluff should all be toasted on the top. With a spatula stir the fluff around so the toasted layer is incorporated into the rest of the fluff.

Broil the fluff again to get another layer of toasted marshmallow, allow to cool a little bit and enjoy. Use for the cake, or anything else you could imagine, this stuff is crazy good (you'll never need a campfire again).




Eat well, Live well

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