S'mores Cake

Let me start by explaining this picture. What you're looking at is rich chocolate cake, layered with toasted marshmallow filling and topped with graham cracker buttercream. It's a perfect version of indoor s'mores.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m completely obsessed with s’mores recipes. This will come as no surprise to the people who follow me on Pinterest. It doesn’t help that Pinterest has provided me with an even bigger opportunity to collect s’mores recipes.

The thing about s’mores recipes is that only about one in every ten really turns out to be any good. I did finally find an awesome s’mores cookie recipe a couple weeks ago. I’ve also experimented with s’mores cakes and cupcakes before, without a lot of success. Most of these used a graham cracker cake, which never seemed to turn out very flavorful. About a week ago on Pinterest, I found a cupcake recipe that used chocolate cake and incorporated the graham crackers with a graham cracker buttercream. I decided to try this approach.

The cupcakes that I got this idea from are located here. I also used their chocolate cake recipe, which turned out excellent. The cupcake recipe used a cream cheese frosting. I’m more a fan of traditional buttercream than cream cheese based frostings, so I used the concept of the graham crackers with a different buttercream recipe. I also changed the marshmallow filling, which I’ll explain in a minute.

I started with the chocolate cakes. I was working with three round 9 inch cake pans. NOTE: You will need to use 1.5 times this recipe to get three cakes. I made the recipe as is and baked two cakes, then made a half batch for my third cake.

Chocolate Cakes
Cake from Your Cup of Cake

1 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Grease two 9 inch round cake pans. Mix sugar, brown sugar and oil for about 3 minutes. Add sour cream and vanilla extract and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and mix only until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients and boiling water to sugar mixture alternating between the two. Pour into pans and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until cake passes the toothpick test.

Note: I had really liked how the marshmallow bits had turned out in the cookies. I made one extra cake with marshmallow bits swirled through the batter, but didn’t like how it turned out. The bits didn’t add much flavor or color.

Once the cakes were cool, I began the marshmallow filling. My base was my go-to recipe for vanilla buttercream, only with vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean paste. Instead of marshmallow crème, which is typical in marshmallow frosting recipes, I decided to try for a real toasted marshmallow taste.

Toasted Marshmallow Buttercream

1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
15 large marshmallows

Mix cream, vanilla and salt together in a small bowl. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until completely combined. Add the cream mixture and beat for 3 or 4 minutes until fluffy and smooth.

Put marshmallows on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place marshmallows under oven broiler for approximately two minutes, or until they just start to brown. Watch these carefully, as they will brown quickly.

Let marshmallows cool for a couple minutes, then beat into frosting mixture. (If marshmallows are too hot, they will melt the sugar in the frosting and it will lose its fluff.) NOTE: I would double this recipe next time. I would have liked a thicker marshmallow layer, but the marshmallows were a last minute idea and I didn’t have enough of them.

Spread marshmallow mixture on top of two of the cake rounds and assemble the cake.

See those tiny light brown flecks? Don't worry, those are just pieces of the real toasted marshmallow flavor.

Now it is ready to frost.

I used the same vanilla buttercream recipe for the graham cracker buttercream. First, I took some graham crackers and placed them in a Ziploc bag. I ran a rolling pin over the bag until the crumbs were very fine.

Graham Cracker Buttercream

2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4-1 cup graham cracker crumbs

Mix cream, vanilla and salt together in a small bowl. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar until completely combined. Add the cream mixture and beat for 3 or 4 minutes until fluffy and smooth. Add in graham cracker crumbs and beat for another minute to combine.

Once the graham cracker frosting was spread on the cakes, I used some marshmallow bits to decorate the top. I also added some chocolate shavings for a little color.

I will definitely be making this cake again, only with a little more marshmallow next time.

S'mores Cookies

So, I’ve finally found a really good s’mores cookie recipe. It’s taken a lot of searching and failed attempts. For all the s’mores recipes I’ve discovered, it can be unusual to find one that actually works out.

One of the biggest issues with s’mores cookies is the marshmallows. Lots of cookie recipes tell you to throw in some mini marshmallows. The problem is that when these cook, they melt and get super sticky and chewy. Usually they just end up stuck to the pan.

What intrigued me about this recipe is that it used marshmallow bits. Here’s a picture so you know what I’m talking about.

The only place I’ve found these so far is Target, but please let me know if you’ve seen them elsewhere. They work so well in these cookies. Take a look at this:

I really don’t have a lot else to say about this recipe than MAKE THESE COOKIES. You won’t regret it. They may not be the prettiest cookies you’ll ever see, but they taste incredible. Besides, real s’mores are far more messy than pretty.

HERE’S THE LINK FOR THE GOOEY S’MORES COOKIES RECIPE. Since I made these directly from the Kevin & Amanda blog, I’ll just direct you there. (The only difference being that I used regular graham crackers instead of cinnamon, and I used a Ziploc & a rolling pin to make the crumbs instead of a food processor.) I noticed some of comments mention making them as bars, which I guess I’ll have to try next time.

S'mores in a Jar

Everybody knows that s’mores are delicious. Now imagine this: you’re making a s’more, but instead of a piece of chocolate bar, there’s a molten chocolate lava cake in the center. Yep, that really just happened. This is the perfect union of s’mores and lava cake. Trust me, it’s as good as it sounds.

I absolutely love s’mores recipes. I probably save most of them that I come across. This s’mores in a jar recipe from How Sweet It Is really caught my eye. Not only was it a version of one of my favorite desserts, but I thought the mason jar idea was brilliant. In fact, I liked it so much that I had to go out and purchase mason jars just to make it.

I knew this easily portable version of s’mores would also work great for our weekend plans, which included visiting family members that were camping at the lake. (You’ll notice I said visiting other people who were camping. As much as I love s’mores, camping is not something I would choose to do voluntarily.)

I will warn you that this s’mores creation is still a bit of a work in progress. I may still try a few more variables. In my first batch I tried big marshmallows, but found they did not want to completely puff up and melt quite enough. As a kid, I seem to remember one marshmallow taking as little as 20 seconds to expand to approximately the size of the entire microwave, so I’m not sure why this wasn’t working. Anyway, I tried marshmallow crème the second batch, which had a better consistency but was way too sweet. The marshmallow topping will still require some experimentation. It may be something as simple as roasting four big marshmallows and sticking them on top before digging into all the s’mores goodness. These were also so sweet that I would consider making them in half pint jars next time.

The concept for this recipe comes from How Sweet It Is, which is one of my favorite food blogs to follow. That version uses a different recipe for the cake part. I was curious about using lava cake, since that would replicate the gooey quality of melted chocolate in s’mores. My lava cake recipe is from Taste Junction.

S’mores in a Jar:
4- 16 oz jars

Graham Cracker Bottom:
• 1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs
• ½ stick melted butter
• dash of salt

Put graham crackers into gallon Ziploc bag and use rolling pin to crush. Mix graham crumbs with melted butter. Spray each jar with non-stick cooking spray. Put approximately 6-7 tbsp of the graham cracker mix in the bottom of each jar. I used an ice cream scoop to press it down evenly.

Lava Cake Center:
•4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
•1/3 cup granulated sugar
•3 large eggs
•1/3 cup all-purpose flour
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1 tsp vanilla extract
•6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted & cooled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Beat in flour and salt just until combined, then beat in melted chocolate just until combined. The chocolate can be melted in the microwave if you stir every 30 seconds until smooth. I used semi-sweet since that is what I had in my cabinet. I prefer this recipe with bittersweet, but semi-sweet may seem closer to the milk chocolate of traditional s’mores.

Scoop batter into the jars until they are about half full. I used a ¼ measuring cup and this turned out to be approximately ¾ cup batter for me. Place jars in a baking pan with 1 ½ cups of water in the bottom. Bake until the top of the cake is just set. I baked mine about 15 minutes, but mine was still too gooey. I’m guessing 20-25 minutes would be closer.

Once jars are out of the oven, fill in some marshmallow crème or marshmallows. Place under the broiler for about 1-2 minutes until top starts to brown. For my second attempt, we used marshmallow crème, but placed a couple marshmallows on top just for the appearance.

My biggest concern about this recipe was baking in the glass jars. The last thing I needed was a shattered glass mess in my oven. The first time I tried these, I used a recipe that called for 350 degrees. That worked fine, but then I was still a little hesitant about the lava cake recipe that baked at 400. After doing a little research online, it appeared that lots of people have recipes for cakes or pies in jars.

The Helpers were in curious mode the day I made these. Helper #1 impatiently waited for me to move the jars out of their box so she could commandeer it.

Helper #2 impatiently waited for someone to drop some buttery smelling crumbs within her reach.

Stayed tuned for more versions of this recipe. My husband has suggested a version where the layers are alternated more frequently. For example, there'd be small layers of graham cracker, chocolate cake, mini marshmallows, graham cracker, cake, marshmallows, etc. If any of you have some suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

S'mores Bars

I’d promised earlier that there would be lots more posts about s’mores recipes.  Well, I’ve finally gotten around to posting a second one. 

People who like to bake all have a similar problem.  Once you’re done baking and have enjoyed one piece of deliciousness, you realize you have a lot of leftovers.  Even though that might sound great, it’s not so good for your health.  Luckily there is a simple solution for this problem.  You find some unsuspecting victims to unload these leftovers on.  I’m not sure victim is the appropriate word, as most of these people are usually more than willing to help you out.  So when the baking urge hit last week, I decided to go with a s’mores recipe that could be easily transportable the next day. 

The amount of s’mores recipes I have bookmarked is ridiculous.  I could probably keep a blog going for awhile on those recipes alone.  Some are more complex than others, but this s’mores bar recipe is one of the easier ones. 

For those of you that bake, you’ll notice that it’s basically a graham cracker topped with a chocolate chip cookie with mini marshmallows mixed in.  I’m always a little skeptical of recipes that try to add chocolate and marshmallow to something and call it a s’more.  Then I realized something.  So what if it’s basically a graham cracker topped with a chocolate chip cookie with mini marshmallows mixed in?  That sounds delicious. 

For this recipe, I used a recipe from Always with Butter.  First, mix up the cookie dough.

Next, lay out graham crackers on a standard size baking sheet.

Scoop out balls of dough onto the graham crackers.  I use a Pampered Chef cookie scoop.  The directions didn't specify, but I put a scoop per square.

After baking for 5 minutes, press broken up pieces of the Hershey bars into the cookies. (I used 2 instead of 3.)  This also gives you the chance to flatten them out so your cookie won't be so round.  Bake for the remaining time.

 

Once cooled, cut into squares. I was having a horrible time getting good pictures.  It's especially apparent in this picture of the final product.

I think I might try this recipe for regular chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies themselves were fantastic, especially with the cinnamon addition.  For the regular cookies, I’d leave out the marshmallows and use about ½ the cinnamon.  As for the s’mores bars, the graham cracker adds a nice crunch. The graham cracker does tend to get a little soft if not eaten in the first couple days, but the chance of there still being bars left after a day or so isn’t likely. 

S'mores Cupcakes

It is never good when something you are baking totally flops.  What is just as bad, if not worse, is when something comes out of the oven looking delicious, but tastes completely bland.  That’s what happened to me on my last recipe attempt. 

I have a slight obsession with s’mores.  It there is a s’mores version of something, I have to buy it.  If I find a s’more recipe, I have to try it.  You get the picture.  Cooking and baking blogs have opened up a whole new opportunity for me because the recipes are usually accompanied by pictures, so I can see what I’m getting myself into.  These recipes are also usually more representative of actual s’mores.  If you were to do a quick search on google or yahoo for s’mores dessert recipes, you’d probably find a million where someone had made a pan of brownies and dumped mini marshmallows & some crushed graham crackers on top.  For true s'mores fanatics, that just doesn’t cut it. 

Due to my other new obsession with cooking blogs, I have amassed a healthy collection of s’mores recipes. (Ok, so “healthy” is probably not an appropriate word to use when discussing s’mores.)  This includes a subset of s’mores cupcake recipes.  Yesterday, I decided to try the one that appealed to me the most.  This recipe began with a graham cracker cupcake that had a marshmallow filling and chocolate sauce and meringue topping.

I had the best of feelings as I poured the batter into the cupcake tin.  My first hint that something was wrong probably should have been when my cupcakes took quite a bit longer to cook than the recipe.  The actual cake part on the recipe post looked so nice and fluffy, yet mine looked so dense.  Apparently I hadn’t done the best job of following the recipe precisely.  The filling was thick and sticky enough to be a little difficult to pipe in.

After assembling these, I was a little more optimistic.  They looked great.  The chocolate sauce was slightly runny, which created that perfect messy s’mores look.  The meringue worked great with my Pampered Chef decorator.  (You’ll have to excuse the fact I forgot to toast the tops before I took the pictures.)

So, here I was with a bunch of delicious looking s’mores cupcakes sitting before me.  I then took a big bite of one, only to discover that there wasn’t much there.  It was completely bland.  How disappointing is that?  The recipe I was using had won at least one cupcake contest award, so I’m guessing I’m missing something in the preparation.  I also missed the crunch that is usually there with a true s’more, so that would have to be incorporated in some way if I messed with this recipe again. 

I do have another s’mores recipe I can’t wait to try, but first I have to get my hands on some 3”x2” cake rings.  Stay tuned.