S'mores Love- Smitten Kitchen's S'mores Layer Cake

I’ve admitted it to you before that I’m not a big sweets eater.  I have my dad’s taste buds, and we just don’t like a whole lot of sugar and sweet.  However, my husband is a man who loves sweets, and our taste buds really vary on what we call tasty. 

His birthday falls on Valentine’s Day, so we ignore the said Hallmark holiday (what boy/man wants his birthday to be filled with hearts and pink?) and celebrate the importance of the day: his birthday!  And while it might seem easy to decide upon a cake for his birthday since we have known each other since we were both 15 years old, I found myself trying to find a unique cake that would actually be eaten in this house.  

Disclaimer: Cakes are not my forte… I believe in making them myself to show my love through baking, but bear in mind that my twice a year cakes will look just like that, made more with love than precision. 

If I truly respected his taste buds and made the cake of my husband’s dreams, I would make, nay, buy, a horrifically orange sherbet cake from the store.  Yes, the man loves sherbet. And, don’t try and fancy it up by offering him sorbet… He likes the neon orange, pink, and yellow of disgusting, repulsive sherbet.  You can deduce my feelings about sherbet, yes? 

With only two adults and one small child, whom I fear is showing that he has his father’s taste buds and loves anything and everything with sugar, including horrifying sherbet, I refused to have a cake of that repulsiveness in the house, and a birthday cannot change that.

My husband’s second choice would be a chocolate cake filled with chocolate, drenched in more chocolate.  I grew up being told by my father that men do not eat chocolate.  Seriously, for years, I thought this, and then I started dating my husband.  My whole world turned upside-down when I discovered that the man liked chocolate far more than I did (perhaps exaggerating a bit, but I was shocked all the same).  All the same, I again decided against that as you can really only take three bites of a cake like that before you declare yourself sick, and the rest of the cake remains there, looking pretty but promising an aching tooth.  Back to the drawing board. 

And then, it hit me… We keep talking about taking The Boy camping and discovering the joy of the wilderness, hiking, waking up to see your breath in the tent, happily eating instant oatmeal out of the pot once the water has finally boiled, and yes, the magic of roasting s’mores over the fire.  And so, it had to be a S’Mores Cake.  Graham cake, layered with chocolate, topped with a marshmallow-esque icing (seriously, it takes just like marshmallows), and finally, set aflame. 

Smitten Kitchen hits the bull’s-eye again with this recipe, and hey, you get to use a kitchen torch, a fact that only added to my excitement of presenting this delicious number to the birthday boy.  Everyone was happy, my husband made no complaints about the lack of sherbet, and a week later, this cake is just as delicious, especially when slightly warmed for a gooey chocolate center. 

 S'mores Layer Cake (Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 16 tbs unsalted butter, softened, plus a bit more for greasing pan
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups honey graham crackers (not cinnamon graham crackers), finely processed into a powder
• 2 teas baking powder
• ¾ teas baking soda
• ¾ teas salt
• ½ teas ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temp
• 2 cups buttermilk, well shaken

Filling:

• ½ lbs milk chocolate, finely chopped
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• Pinch of salt

Frosting:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teas cream of tartar
• 1 teas vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 9” round cake pans and flour every inch to prevent sticking.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the flour mix alternating with the buttermilk in three additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is mixed.

Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and tops are nice and golden, about 30-35 minutes. Cool in pan on rack until safe to handle, then turn out on the wire rack to cool completely.

Combine the cream and salt in a medium heavy saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the chocolate and let sit for a minute. Stir until smooth and let cool until thickened but still spreadable.

Top the bottom layer with the chocolate and spread evenly. Top with the remaining cake layer and prep the frosting.

For the frosting place egg whites, granulated sugar, and cream of tartar in a clean heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set over a saucepan with simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and whites are warm to the touch, about 3 minutes. Transfer the bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat, starting low and gradually increasing to high, until stiff glossy peaks form, 4 to 7 minutes. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Frost the cake right away.

Crumb coat your cake and place in fridge for 5 to 10 minutes to firm up. Then generously frost the rest of the cake, using a plastic bag or pastry bag to make dollops on top.  Torch away!

Time to fly,

Liz