Pastry School Diaries: Gimmie S'more Cake

Now that is a cake.

No, it's THE cake.

If I never bake another cake for the rest of my life I think I'd be okay...so long as I could keep making this one.

This is called THE S'more cake. 7 layers. Yep, 7. 2 brownie, 2 cheesecake, 2 cookie dough, and 1 graham cracker. Layered with marshmallow frosting inside, chocolate frosting outside. You know it's gonna be good when it won't even fit in the fridge.

One thing about blogging is you must always pay credit when credit is do. So hands down to the creator of this cake, Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body. She also made this 'moutain of fun' for her husband, I think for their anniversary...sweet.

I tested this recipe for my hubby's 30th birthday. Big cake for a big day. My tough guy even had trouble cutting into this one, which was fun to watch. Look at that face...

As you may know my husband doesn't have the same caliber of sweet tooth as moi, but this cake pulled him over to the dark, sweet, side. Really how could anyone not like something so lovable? And tall. And f'ing fantastic if I do so say myself.

One of the changes I made to the original recipe is I opted to use a cookie dough layer instead of a baked cookie layer. I thought we might prefer the softness of the cookie dough verses the crispy cookie.  With that said, this cake is pretty versatile. If you have a favorite brownie or cookie recipe that you'd prefer then give it a try. Bake what makes you happy and never feel too constricted to any recipe.

But please, don't look at this picture and think 'oh God I could never make something like that' because that is exactly what I said the first time I saw the recipe.  But once the cake was complete and we cut out a slice you should have seen me doing a happy dance. I swear I did, right in my kitchen. My husband was very excited about this too...big cake, happy wife, lots of happy dancing, was really a great birthday.

However if you are still skeptical, let's review...

Can you bake brownies? Yes, of course you can.

Can you make a 5-ingredient cheesecake...with no crust, come on!

Cake you prepare cookie dough...not sure? Yes, you can don't worry. This part is easier than baking chocolate chip cookies.

Can you whip up pretty frosting? OK here is where I would say NO. I am horrible with frosting. I always over-beat and it separates and then I have my meltdown. This is every time without fail. BUT, this frosting is my new BFF because it's fool (and Gina) proof. So you can do it too.

See, so far we're good. We can make all the components of this cake no problem. All you have to do is layer up everything you already know to make. Then we happy-dance.

Ultimate S'mores Cake
printable version

For the brownie layers
Ingredients:
1 cup (8 oz.) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa (I used Hershey's Dark)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate, your preference)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 round cake pans. Line with waxed paper and grease the paper.  Or you can line the pans with aluminum foil as shown below. This step made the brownies super easy to pull out once they cooled and also made clean up a breeze.

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla till smooth.

Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

Divide the batter into the pans and check the weight to make sure they're equal (if you have a kitchen scale).

Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Wrap the cooled brownies in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to assemble. If you're planning to leave them for a few days in the freezer wrap with aluminum foil to guarantee freshness.

For the cheesecake layers
Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds cream cheese (20 oz.), room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese on medium until fluffy, scraping down side of bowl.

Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down side of bowl after each addition. Beat in sour cream.

Use the exact same pans you used to bake the brownies and either grease (and line the bottom with parchment) or line with aluminum foil. Pour half of the filling in each pan (weigh again to make sure they're equal!) Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven temp down to 325 and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

Remove pan from oven, let cool 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of the pans to loosen from the sides; let cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to use.

For the cookie dough layers
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup (8oz.) butter, melted
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips
6 tablespoons whole milk

Directions:
Line your pans with aluminium foil (using the same pans from before).

In the bowl of a stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, salt, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Add butter and vanilla. Mix until a dry dough forms.

Add chocolate chips and mix on lowest speed.

Once the chips are thoroughly mixed into the dough, add whole milk 1 tablespoon at a time with the machine on the lowest speed.

Using a kitchen scale (or carefully eye-ball!) equally divide the dough into the two prepared pans. Place dough in the refrigerator until ready to use. If you're not going to be layering the cake right away. let the dough harden up in the fridge, then wrap with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until ready to use.

For the Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
1 pound (16oz.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons dutch-process cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups/12oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

Directions:
Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, about 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the cocoa powder and boiling water in a small bowl; stir until the cocoa is dissolved.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, confectioners' sugar and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.

Add the melted chocolate; beat on low speed until combined, 1-2 minutes.

Beat in the cocoa mixture until well blended. (Note: My frosting was still a bit runny for decorating at this point. I let it cool longer before frosting the cake so it could firm up slightly.

For the Marshmallow Frosting
Ingredients:
1 jar (17 oz.) marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup (4 oz.) butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Beat together the marshmallow fluff and butter on medium speed until the mixture is fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat an additional minute. Increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes until it's light and fluffy. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Assembly:

Remove all 6 layers from the freezer. Don't they look amazing already?!

Divide your marshmallow frosting into 4 equal portions. Weigh the portions if you have a kitchen scale. This will guarantee you will have even layers of frosting throughout your cake.

Have your cake stand close by. I bought a disposable cake board to use under the cake. This is helpful if you plan to frost the cake on a revolving cake stand then transfer to a pretty one for display. If you don't own a revolving one but do frost a lot of cakes I highly recommend buying yourself one. They make frosting a cake a snap.

Place a brownie layer on your cake stand (with the cake board underneath if you're using one) and spread on the marshmallow frosting.

Top with a cookie dough layer and cover with another layer of the marshmallow frosting.

Top with a cheesecake layer and then top with the chocolate frosting.

Layer graham crackers on top of the chocolate. You'll need to break them around the edges to fully cover the cake in an even layer. Don't worry about what it looks like, no one will ever see and it won't make one bit that they are in tiny little pieces.

Cover the graham crackers with another layer of the chocolate frosting. Then repeat the same layers as before, but this time going backwards.

After the chocolate, layer with the other cheesecake layer, then a layer of marshmallow. Then another layer of cookie dough, marshmallow, and finally the remaining brownie layer. PHEW!

Cover with the remaining chocolate frosting. Work from the top of the cake and then slowly down the sides. Don't try to frost the sides in one big schmear. I worked two layers at a time then moved down. Refrigerate until ready to serve.