The Best S’mores Cake

This incredibly delicious cake is packed with toasted marshmallow and dark chocolate flavor. Make ahead and impress your guests with the Best S’mores Cake!

Summertime screams S’mores. With the popularity of all things S’mores flavored who wouldn’t want to whip themselves up a deliciously decadent cake? This cake is aptly named The Best S’mores Cake…and for good reason!

Layers of decadent chocolate cake, chocolate ganache and pillows of marshmallows cover this tasty treat that is beautiful, rich, flavorful and utterly to die for!

What You’ll Love About This S’mores Cake

1. It’s an impressive looking layer cake that doesn’t need a lot of expertise to put together. Your friends will be SO impressed by how this cake looks! So if you’re looking to make something beautiful, keep reading.
2. The chocolate cake won’t disappoint. With the darkest chocolate infused into this cake batter, you will have a moist cake that has the deepest chocolate flavor you’ve ever tasted.
3. The frosting balances out the richness of the cake. We use a whipped cream cheese frosting (that acts a lot like whipped cream you buy from the store) to make sure there aren’t too many intense flavors all at once. This frosting serves to keep things from being dry and accent the other flavors.
4. Lastly: ganache. We could elaborate, but I don’t think we need to – ganache is magical and it makes this cake even more spectacular than it was.

There’s so many more factors that we could have talked about with this cake… but we’ll stop here for now.

How To Make Moist Chocolate Cake:

This cake recipe has a few ingredients that make it more moist:

1. First of all, there are just a lot of liquid ingredients – eggs, oil, buttermilk… it’s all there. By the way: fatty things make cake more moist. So buttermilk or egg yolks aid in making the cake delicious!!
2. Also, coffee. Coffee deepens the flavor of the cake (to get that super dark-chocolate flavor) but also adds moisture.
3. And then the last thing that you’ll want to do is make sure you don’t overbake the cake!! We recommend putting the cake in the oven for slightly less time than the recipe says, then checking the cake with a toothpick. Ovens are always different and your cake may cook faster than ours did.

How To Assemble Cake:

You’ll find a detailed list of instructions in the recipe, but here are a few tips to make this process go easily!

1. Refrigerate layers of the cake. If you’re in the process of making this and it’s starting to fall apart on you, stick it in the fridge or freezer under plastic wrap to help the layers firm up. You’ll also want to make sure your ganache is cool before putting it on your cake, so that it won’t melt in the middle.
2. You can melt/roast marshmallows in the oven for decorating the top of the cake. You’ll place them individually on a baking sheet and broil them for literally a minute or MAYBE two. If you keep a careful eye on them, you should have perfectly golden marshmallows to pick up and place on your cake!!
3. Make sure the ganache is melty for the top of the cake. We have you using half of the ganache for the middle and half for the top – but the way you apply the ganache should be much different each time. In the middle of the cake, you’ll want your ganache to be more firm so that it solidifies the cake instead of making it melt apart. For the top, you’ll want it more melty so it drips off of the sides.

How To Roast Marshmallows In The Oven:

More on this topic because it is slightly intimidating. Here’s exactly what we did!

1. Put big marshmallows on a baking sheet, spreading them out some.
2. Put the oven on the LOW broil setting. You can stick the marshmallows before it’s completely hot.
3. Make sure to turn on the oven light so you can watch for burning, but the marshmallows turned brown for us in about 2 minutes.
4. Once the marshmallows are brown on top, take the pan out and immediately place the marshmallows on the cake. We were able to grab the marshmallows with our hands, but you can use a utensil if you want.

That’s it!! This is also something that is optional for your cake – if you want to decorate the top a different way, that’s your decision.

We love this gorgeous wood slice cake plate for featuring this s’mores cake.

The Best S’mores Cake

4.67 from 15 votes

Incredibly delicious s'mores cake that is PACKED with rich chocolate, marshmallow, and amazing chocolate ganache.

Servings 15

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

assemble time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

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Ingredients

 

For the cake:

• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
• 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup hot coffee

For the Frosting:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream

For the ganache:

• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream

For the decorating:

• 6 ounces mini marshmallows
• 4 graham crackers or however many you need to crumble on top
• 1 hershey bar
• 12 giant marshmallows or however many you prefer to decorate the top with

Instructions

 

For the Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round 9-inch cake pans.
• For the cake, put flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix well.
• In a stand mixer, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, vanilla together. Slowly add in the mix of dry ingredients while the mixer is on low. Add the coffee and make sure everything is combined. The batter will be very thin.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack.

For the Frosting:

• Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together cream cheese, powder sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
• Switch to the whisk attachment and slowly add in heavy whipping cream until fully incorporated.
• Beat topping until it thickens and forms soft peaks, about 3-5 minutes.

For the Ganache:

• Heat heavy cream for a minute in the microwave, or until it is warm but not boiling. Stir in the chocolate until all of the chocolate chips are melted.
• Allow the ganache to cool on the counter until the ganache firms up slightly. If your chocolate chips don't melt all the way, microwave the ingredients in 15 second increments until it is fully melted.

To Assemble:

• Put the cooled chocolate cake on a cake plate.
• Spread a thin layer of the whipped frosting on the cake layer, then add half of the ganache. Make sure the ganache is cooled enough to spread without it melting over the cake.
• Add mini marshmallows to the ganache layer, pressing them in gently.
• Spread another layer of whipped frosting on top of the marshmallows.
• Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on top of the frosting.
• Add the second cake layer. If the cake isn't firm, you can stick it in the fridge so that the layers settle together.
• Spread the rest of the whipped frosting around the cake. This recipe makes enough for a thin layer around the cake, but if you want more you can double the recipe.
• Stick the cake in the fridge again to make sure the frosting is firm on the cake.
• Melt the ganache in the microwave again (in 15 second increments) and spread the melted ganache over the top of the cake. We used the rest of the ganache, but you don't have to put as much on.
• Toast the large marshmallows in the oven using the low broil setting. Make sure the marshmallows are spread apart on a baking sheet, and only broil for a minute or two.
• Once the marshmallows are browned, place them on top of the cake. You don't have to wait for the marshmallows to cool.
• Sprinkle graham cracker on top of the layer, and use pieces of the hershey bar to decorate the top.
• Store in the fridge under plastic wrap or cut into pieces and store in an airtight container. Can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for up to a month.

Notes

The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 15 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**

Nutrition

Calories: 654kcal | Carbohydrates: 75g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 112mg | Sodium: 445mg | Potassium: 202mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 54g | Vitamin A: 1016IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 116mg | Iron: 2mg

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Calories 654

Keyword chocolate cake, layer cake

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