Monday, August 6, 2012

Gimme S'more; a caking adventure

I've been super inspired by a thousand recipes I've seen out there on these amazing blogs and so many more. 
These bakers and food bloggers are so exquisitely creative in their food inventions, I decided I wanted to follow in their footsteps and create something of my own – not just an adaptation.

Also, just so we're all on the same page, this is a flavor adventure. Next time I'll try and make it look pretty, I promise. So for my project I sought out no recipes. I took what I knew about cake batter and frostings/fillings and I applied it to transform one of my absolute favorite desserts (even to this day); S’MORES. 
I thought long and hard about the best way to create a s’mores cake, but this plan was the winner:

Chocolate cake with chunks of graham cracker mixed in (mostly for aesthetics) with marshmallow filling, frosting, graham cracker pieces and crumbs between the layers, with toasted marshmallows and graham crackers on top. 


Big chunks of graham cracker. :)
Once I baked the cake and mixed the frosting, putting it together was easy.

I let the cake show through the sides because I knew I would cover it later.
Then I covered it with marshmallows
Grabbed my trusty propane tank and sparker from the garage
 Lit the marshmallows on fire and threw on a TON of crushed graham cracker

...but as I was "toasting" the marshmallows with my trusty propane torch, something happened that I hadn't foreseen - the frosting started to melt... a lot. There was a little too much heat coming from the torch, but I couldn't dial it back or else the marshmallows wouldn't have enough "toastyness". 

Though not perfect, I think it still came out looking pretty cool and, most importantly, delicious. If I want to put the 'mallows on the outside of the cake next time I will have to find a more mellow toasting technique - maybe just slower so there's less heat on the cake at one time, or maybe I'll try toasting them before I even put them on the cake. Either way, lesson learned. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about my caking adventure. This recipe still needs some tweaking, but I am excited for it to be perfect. Soon I will be able to add it to our flavor repertoire you can order one for yourself... and the outside of yours does not have to be covered in melted frosting and toasted marshmallows... unless, of course, you want it to. ;)