S'more Cake!

I have always been a huge fan of s'mores, but not a huge fan of camping. Actually, I hate camping. In recent years, I have taken to going to the campground just for a s'more and then heading home. Well friends, my camping days may have officially ended with the discovery of this s'more cake. It is delicious! Two layers of graham cracker cake with marshmallow fluff and chocolate glaze. Yum!

Step-by-Step Instructions for S'more Cake:

S'more Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, separated

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

For the filling:

Marshmallow Fluff

For the chocolate glaze:

8 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped (I used chocolate chips)

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

For decoration:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup marshmallow fluff

3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons heavy cream or milk

Chocolate chips

Crushed graham crackers

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. You will then need to line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, you will also need to grease and flour the sides of the pans. Set them aside.
In a medium bowl add all of the dry ingredients (graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt), stir to combine and then set aside.

2. Beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment to your electric mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form (see below).

Okay, I over beat them just a little bit but this is an idea of what your egg whites should look like. When you lift your beaters from the bowl the batter should follow it and form a slight peak, but since it is a soft peak it will fall over a bit. A stiff peak will continue to stand straight up. Transfer your egg whites to a different bowl and set aside.

3. Now cream together the butter and sugar for about two minutes or until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks. Once they are well integrated, stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Begin adding the other ingredients alternating between the dry ingredients and the milk. Fold in
a portion of the egg whites using a rubber spatula. This will lighten the batter. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. Your batter should look something like the above picture.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan. If you have a wire rack you can transfer the cakes to it at this time in order to finish cooling. I found that this was a delicate cake, so be careful with the transferring.

6. Once the cake has cooled, transfer to a cardboard cake circle or just place on the serving platter. Spread the marshmallow fluff over the cake. Believe it or not this is a bit difficult. The fluff is super sticky and the cake is really delicate. A pastry bag works well, but is a lot of trouble. Either way you need to leave at least 1/2 inch of space between the fluff and the edge of the cake (the cake is heavy so the fluff will spread out). Add the top layer to the cake and put the whole thing in the fridge for about 1 hour.

7. Now it is time for the chocolate glaze. The best way to do this is to set a heatproof bowl on top of a pot of simmering water, this way the chocolate will not scorch. Add the chocolate, cream, butter, and corn syrup to the bowl. Heat until the chocolate has melted. Then whisk the ingredients together until smooth. Pour glaze over the top of the cake. It is okay if it runs down the sides in some places (it makes it look more s'more like).

8. It's time to decorate! Obviously, this is just how I did it. Matt did not want anything super fancy since we were feeding it to his friends. So I decided to make it look a bit messy and delicious looking. To make the marshmallow icing combine the butter and marshmallow fluff and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar. Stir in the cream or milk to make the icing more fluid. If you need more liquid you can add it. Transfer the icing to a pastry bag (if you don't have one just use a ziplock baggy and cut off a tiny bit of one corner). I then drizzled it all over the cake. I covered it with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. I then did another layer of marshmallow icing. I finished the cake by sprinkling it with graham cracker crumbs!

*If I had a kitchen torch, I would have just covered the top with mini marshmallows and browned them. So you still had the look/taste of a real s'more. I am going to try it someday.

Source: Adapted from Annie's Eats