Over the weekend, Meredith, her sister Jacqueline and I went camping to celebrate Meredith’s 27th birthday. While I drank coffee and baked a cake, they biked the 50ish miles from Philly to the campsite. My job was to transport all the stuff in the Lum – a car that is quite possibly older than all of us and has been a sort of cornerstone of our friendship since 2005. The Lum’s AC stopped working…a while ago, so it was a bit of a sweaty drive, but given that my 3ish mile bike ride the previous weekend made my butt hurt until about Thursday, I was happy to forego the ride and be the sweaty pack mule instead.
Birthday camping needed a birthday cake, of course. The goal was to bake a cake that could travel well, wouldn’t need refrigeration, and was campfire-inspired. Even though we also had real s’mores, we decided a s’mores cake was the only way to go. Graham cracker cake, swirls of marshmallow fluff, completely covered with a milk chocolate marshmallow fudgey frosting and baked in a lidded pan that went easily from oven to car to picnic table. I stuck to traditional birthday sprinkles, but would probably opt for mini-marshmallows to decorate this cake in a non-birthday setting.
The marshmallow swirls pretty much melts into the cake, except on the very top, which gets covered in frosting, but you’ll know those swirls are there! The result is an extra moist cake, that is unbelievably easy to cut and serve with just a knife, a real perk at a campsite. I kept the frosted cake in the fridge until I was ready to head out and in an insulated bag until dessert time, but even the next morning when we pulled out the leftovers for breakfast dessert, the frosting hadn’t totally melted all over. It was just warm and gooey and delicious. Success!
traveling s’mores cake
graham cracker cake with marshmallow swirl
adapted from smitten kitchen
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups graham cracker crumbs, from about 12 rectangular crackers
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (115 grams or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cups marshmallow fluff
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well shaken
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
- In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers until they are a fine powder. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add a third of the dry ingredients to the mixture, then one cup of buttermilk, followed by another third of dry ingredients, one cup of buttermilk, and finally the remaining dry ingredients. Mix each addition until just incorporated.
- Warm the marshmallow fluff slightly (about 10 seconds in the microwave ought to do it). Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Drizzle ½ of the fluff over the batter and, using a knife, swirl the marshmallow into the batter. Pour the remaining batter on top and repeat with the remaining fluff.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 60-65 minutes, rotating pan halfway through the baking time, until the cake beings to pull away from the edges of the pan and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean of batter (some marshmallow is okay!).
- Let cool completely before frosting.
milk chocolate marshmallow fudgey frosting
adapted from Maya Klein via food52
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup marshmallow fluff
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I used 42%)
¼ tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and in 16 chunks
- Bring an inch of water to simmer in a wide skillet. Put cream, fluff, chocolate and salt in a stainless steel bowl (or saucepan) and place in the water. Turn the heat off.
- Let the cream and chocolate rest for about 15 minutes (only moving the bowl to make sure the chocolate and fluff are submerged in the cream).
- When the chocolate has melted, whisk together until smooth.
- Add the butter and let rest another 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth.
- Chill the frosting in the fridge until it reaches a spreading consistency, about 20-30 minutes.
- Spread in an even layer over the cake. Store any extra in the fridge or slather it on your extra graham crackers!
Happy 27th, Meredith! So happy you were born.