The love child of S'mores and Better than Sex Cake, this chocolate cake is doused in caramel syrup and sweetened condensed milk, topped with marshmallows, toffee bits, and a graham cracker cookie slice this cake is sure to be a favorite.
I belong to a church that loves committees, and meetings, and lessons, and more meetings, followed by a "munch and mingle" and planning sessions after that. The amount of time that can be taken up by my chuch meetings is at times, rather unsettling. They want Mondays for family meetings, Tuesdays for extra spiritual education meetings, Wednesdays for some committee that changes its name more often than Prince, and then Sunday, which my God wants to be a day of rest, had church with a meeting before and after. You think that's all, but then there is this system, like a phone tree, where we all check in with each other once a month, to make sure all the members of our congregation are doing okay, and that person always wants to have a meeting.
I have had to come up with my own compromises to this system. Sundays, God wins. He asked for that day directly, and I'm not going to haggle. Monday is for Butchie, in DC she is my family. Tuesdays is for trivia and our own brand of educational lessons with a group of my friends from the church. But Wednesdays....I am on the committee that I'm never sure what to call. After a year it's a bit hilarious I'm still saying "um ya know, that committee, the Wednesday night ladies activity thingy club?" I'm being facetious. I know it's name: It's the Additional Meeting Committee. I just refuse to call it that. How less interesting can an activity sound? Additional Meetings? Nobody wants to attend them. They had me send out the invites for our December meeting. At no points in time did I use the words, additional, committee, meeting, or any derivation thereof. If I'm doing the invites, it will be a party. No ifs, ands, or additional meeting buts about it.
More often than not, my assignment is snackfoods (I'd like to think with good reason). S'more Sex cake is easily not one you saw coming for a church setting. From a food blogger who just spent two paragraphs on church and who doesn't curse saying "s-e-x" on my blog may come as a bit-o-a-shocker (Hi Mom). That is the point. In all my kitschy taste this cake was made for our last Additional Meeting Committee night, a Women's Health Night. My sense of humor is not for everyone, so in the event that an exceptionally pious church lady felt the need to boycott my hussy dessert I also provided homemade ice cream. To each their own, but I had the cake. I had to do it. I simply had to. Having a very clinical discussion about uncomfortable topics (for some people, not me) at an additional meeting just needed something with a little more comedic.
Besides, really, who couldn't use a little s'more sex anyway? So here it is, the love child of two great desserts, a better than sex cake and a s'more.
S'more Sex Cake
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3 cups white sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
6 ounces caramel ice cream topping
3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered toffee, chopped
three cups mini marshmallows
four sheets of graham cracker cookies
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a Jelly Roll pan with parchment paper. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes minimum, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
In a saucepan over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the top of the warm cake, letting it sink into the slits; then sprinkle the crushed chocolate toffee bars and mini marshmallows liberally across the entire cake while still warm.
Turn oven to broil, and toast the marshmallows for two minutes, or using a crème brulee torch roast the tops of the mini marshmallows. Allow to cool.
Garnish with graham cracker cookies before serving.
