This year Ryan let me pick what I made for his birthday cake. After talking about smores candy corn, more smores sounded amazing and wanted to see if I could make it into a cake. So, I went to the store to buy marshmallow fluff for the icing and I had this conversation with the woman at the checkout. I think it illustrates some cultural food differences.
Checkout woman (in reference to marshmallow fluff): What do you do with this? Put it on toast? I bought some and I don’t know how to use it.
Me: I’m going to use it for a cake. But, it’s good with a spoon straight from the jar.
Checkout woman says nothing and gives me weird look.
Me: You could also use it to make something like a smore with a digestive biscuit and piece of chocolate.
Checkout woman: Healthy.
And then I felt awkward like I had said something wildly inappropriate (and super American). But here’s the cultural difference part. Her go-to idea for marshmallow fluff was to put it on toast, and that is pretty English. Cheesy toast, beans on toast, boiled egg and soldiers – these are all ways the English use toast. I don’t have that many uses for toast. Obviously you can put it on toast, but I had never considered that before (but maybe I will now). And for me, I felt super American because it never occurred to me that a person wouldn’t know how to use fluff. Also, a spoon seems like a perfectly legit means of eating fluff. And why should a treat be healthy? Smores are an amazing American treat and great when turned into a cake.
For Ryan’s birthday I made Ryan a steak and mashed potato dinner and then we followed it up with this cake. In making the cake, I did almost set off the smoke alarm. Here’s what happened: I tried to toast the mini marshmallows using the broiler. I put them in the oven and then after about a minute I looked at them and they weren’t even brown yet so I put them back in. I went to melt the marshmallow fluff and checked back in the oven. The marshmallows were puffed up, dark brown, and starting to smoke. I pulled them out, we fanned the smoke, and then threw them out. Oops. Accidents happen.
I had more marshmallows, I didn’t toast them, and the cake cake out really nicely. I lit candles, I sang, he made a wish, then we ate cake. And then we finished the whole cake in three days, because that’s how good smores flavors are. The chocolate cake is very dark and rich, so it’s nice as a loaf because you can indulge without having a huge slice. And the top is all smores with fluff, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, and graham crackers (or in this case digestive biscuits). This cake ticks all the boxes for indulgent dessert because it’s rich, gooey, crunchy, chocolaty, and very sweet.
The cake recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen and the idea for the smores part comes from Kraft.
Messy level: This cake is pretty easy to put together, the messy part comes from the decoration. Marshmallow fluff is sticky and gets everywhere, so that’s the messiest bit.
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ of a tub (8oz) marshmallow fluff
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- about 4 digestive biscuits (or 2-3 sheets of graham crackers)
- Preheat the oven to 325/165°.
- Butter and lightly flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth.
- Add the sugars to the butter and beat until fluffy. This takes about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and beat well.
- Then mix in the buttermilk and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together.
- Slowly add the flour into the wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cake from its pan. Use the back of a wooden spoon and poke a few holes gently in the top of the cake.
- Put the marshmallow fluff in a bowl and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
- Remove the marshmallow fluff from the microwave and spread over the top of cake. Make sure you fill in the holes so the marshmallow drips into the center of the cake. Use the tip of the knife to encourage some of the fluff to drip tantalizingly down the side.
- Sprinkle the top of the cake with the mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to crush up the biscuits/graham crackers. Crush them into some small crumbs and larger cookie shards. Sprinkle/arrange the cookies over the top of the cake. It should look a little messy but indulgent and amazing.
