S'mores Cake!

"First you take the graham, you stick the chocolate on the graham. Then you roast the 'mallow. When the 'mallows flaming... you stick it on the chocolate. Then cover with the other end. Then you scarf. Kind of messy, but good!" - The Sandlot

Some of my favorite food memories [besides my mom's lasagna every year for my birthday] as a child revolve around a campfire with flaming marshmallows and hershey's chocolate melting all over my hands. My family used to go camping almost every summer when i was little and, besides fishing and mosquito bites, s'mores make a camping trip. So in my quest for delicious desserts, I took the childhood classic and turned it into a layered cake! I will admit, this is kind of a lengthy recipe, having 3 parts to it: cake, ganache, and meringue. And although it is a bit of a process, it is definitely WELL worth the effort! In order to try and reincarnate a s'more into a cake I made sure to incorporate  graham crackers [as the cake], marshmallows [in the form of a fluffy meringue] and chocolate [ a smoked chocolate ganache finishes out the dessert by adding chocolate and that campfire flavor]

Graham Cracker Cake

Butter - 1 C

Brown Sugar - 2 C

Eggs - 6 ea [SEPARATED]

Honey - 2 TBSP

Graham Crackers - 4 C [ ground up into crumbs - 1 entire box]

Flour - 1/2 C

Baking Powder - 4 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Heavy Cream - 2 C

1. Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy

2. whisk together the egg yolks and honey and add to the sugar/butter

3. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl [graham crackers/flour/bpowder/salt] and alternate adding to the batter with the cream.

4. With clean beaters, whip up your eggs whites to stiff peaks and then fold into the batter. [go slowly, because the batter is very thick to begin with]

Bake at 350 F for 20-30 minutes

Smoked Chocolate Ganache
Heavy Cream - 250 g
Dark Chocolate - 400 g
Butter - 50 g
Charcoal, wood chips, tin foil, and a large pan/plate

1. Place your charcoal on the stove and heat over a flame until red hot and place on one end of a large pan or plate. on the other end place your chocolate [chopped up preferably]. Sprinkle the wood chips over the charcoal and cover the entire pan with foil. poke a single hole in it to allow ventilation. Allow to smoke for 5-10 minutes
2.  Bring heavy cream to a boil.
3. Place chocolate in a bowl and pour the cream on top. Stir until all homogenous.
4. Stir in your butter and set aside until ready to use.

Swiss Meringue
Egg Whites - 5 oz
Sugar - 10 oz

1. Combine whites and sugar in your mixing bowl and  place on top of a pot of boiling water.
2. Heat until 140 F, then place on the mixer and whip until completely cool and stiff peaks.

Now assemble any way you like. I layered: cake, ganache, meringue, cake, etc. But you can also simply fill the cake with the meringue and glaze the entire cake with ganache. or the opposite: fill with ganache and frost with the meringue!
I ended up decorating my cake, just for fun :]