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. ;) 

White Vs. Yellow; What's the Diff?

When I first started baking, I thought white cake and yellow cake were the same thing - and even today, I'll use yellow cake in place of white cake because they're kind of interchangeable.

But it's come to my attention that a lot of people don't know the difference. So, I've decided to break it down for you:

Egg yolks.

Yellow cake gets its trademark "yellow" color from the amount of egg yolks in the batter. My yellow cake has 4 whole eggs in one small cake, which makes for a lot of yolks, though the batter turns out surprisingly light. It still has an obviously yellow tint. The yellow ingredients in cake - eggs and butter - will also make your cake more dense and moist.

A typical white cake will have almost twice as much egg white and no egg yolk at all. This makes the batter much lighter in color (thus the "white" name) and when the whites are beaten, can make the cake lighter and more airy.

Personally, I prefer the dense cake and rich flavor that egg yolks bring to the table, but if you're in the mood for something a little lighter, white is always a good option. ;)