S’mores Birthday Cake

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A few years ago I was introduced to s’mores brownies.   These were game changers.   Thick, chocolatey brownies topped with graham crackers and toasted marshmallows?   They are totally amazing and I make them often, especially when someone asks me to bring dessert to their house.

A few weeks ago my instructional assistant was having a birthday.   Since I am the dessert queen I knew I had to make her a cake.   The problem with this is that she isn’t a huge fan of frosting.   Craziness right?   That’s my favorite part of the cake but she usually scrapes hers off or eats around it.   Since I wasn’t about to make a cake or cupcakes minus the frosting I had to come up with another plan.

The good news is that she loves chocolate.   I figured I could bake a cake and top it with ganache or something similar, but since I don’t like over the top chocolate desserts I nixed that as well.  Then I thought of my s’mores brownies and realized I could probably use the same topping idea on a chocolate cake.   No frosting but the top would be covered in graham crackers and toasted marshmallows.   It was a win-win idea for everyone!

I just went with a basic chocolate cake recipe.   Initially I was going to make a double layer but then I didn’t know what to fill it with so I simply made a single layer cake.   When it was finished I topped it with graham crackers and mini marshmallows and put it under the broiler until they browned.   Once out of the oven I pressed Hershey Bar pieces onto it.   When it cooled it was a delicious sight.

I took it in to my friend the next day and she was thrilled!   She loved the idea of topping the cake with the s’mores toppings instead of frosting.   I won’t tell you how much cake we ate but lets just say that throughout the day we both had more then a few nibbles of cake…and we may not have shared with anyone else!   This is a fun and super rich cake that both kids and adults will love.

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S’mores Birthday Cake

Yield: serves 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Chocolate cake topped with torched marshmallows, graham crackers bites, and chocolate bar pieces.

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Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 3/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 5 T. butter, softened
• 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1/4 c. boiling water
• 1/4 c. chocolate chips

For the toppings:

• 5 graham cracker sheets, broken into pieces
• 3/4 c. mini marshmallows
• 3 large Hershey bars, broken into squares

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
3. Mix the butter and sugars together until the are well combined. Then add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Add in half of the dry ingredients, then the milk, and the remaining dry ingredients. Stir well.
5. Slowly mix in the boiling water until the batter is thin. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake for 5 minutes then run a knife around the edges of the pan. Invert the cake and cool for 20 minutes.
8. Turn the broil on high in your oven. Move the oven rack to 6-8 inches below the broiler.
9. Spread the mini marshmallows over top of the cake. Then sprinkle the broken graham cracker pieces on top.
10. Place in the oven, watching constantly, until the marshmallows become brown and toasted (but not too brown or they will catch on fire!)
11. Remove from oven and immediately press chocolate pieces into the marshmallow. Cook completely.

Notes

A Hezzi-D Original Recipe