Frankye's Marshmallow Fudge Cake

Willie is turning 10—double digits. When I asked what cake he wanted to take to his class, he answered as he did last year: that chocolate cake with the marshmallows. My daughter wanted the same when she was small, as did I. My mother preferred to make a pound cake with hard white icing that she could decorate with little pink and pale green rosettes. I put up with that when I was four but when she made it the next year, too, I got under the bed and would not come out for my party. Such is the power of the Marshmallow Fudge Cake.

Marshmallows are not a staple of my pantry, but this weekend we are encountering them twice. After the movie and dinner for Willie's friends, we're building a bonfire in the meadow for the making of S'mores.

The cake is dense, similar to brownies, even though egg whites are beaten stiff, then folded into the batter. Ed likes to demonstrate when the whites are ready by holding the copper bowl upside down over his head. Recently he did that twice. The sides had slicked enough by the second time that the whites slid out all over him and the floor.  Much appreciated by his audience of three!

Marshmallows are studded over the cake.

Then the icing is poured over. It doesn't have to cover the sides because that's just too much of a good thing.

Last year, several third- grade classmates asked my daughter for the recipe! Now that is success in the kitchen!

Here's the recipe. I doubled it this time. Be sure to sift the powdered sugar into a snowy mountain.

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 cup boiling water

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups flour, sifted

1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda

½ cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup milk

Make a paste of the hot water and cocoa. Slightly cool. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the two yolks. Beat the whites in a copper or metal bowl until stiff.  Combine the cocoa mixture and the eggs / sugar and blend well. Add the vanilla.  Beat the flour and milk alternately into the batter, then, when well incorporated, fold in the whites.

Pour into a buttered, parchment-lined 9 x 13 (or slightly larger) pan and bake for 15 minutes if you have a convection oven, or 20 minutes in a normal oven. Don't overbake it! The instant it's firm, take it out. My mother lined her pans with waxed paper.

The original recipe calls for sour milk. I don't ever have that on hand, though I could add a little lemon juice to regular milk—that passes for sour milk. I just use whole milk.

Let the cake cool before turning it out.  When totally cool, stud the top with marshmallows. I use the fancy kind from Whole Foods but never met anything but the regular ones until recently.

Make the icing and pour it over the marshmallows. Let it cool and harden before covering with plastic wrap.

Icing:

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

½ stick butter, melted

Pinch of salt

½ cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Stir the cocoa into the warm butter until all the little lumps are gone. Add the salt, milk, and vanilla. Add a scoop of powered sugar and blend before adding more scoops. The icing should not be too thick to pour. Add a bit more milk if you need to for the proper consistency.

There it is–Frankye's immortality, though she'd prefer, I imagine, that I praise her Lane Cake, Caramel Cake, or Coconut Cake instead. But this is chocolate southern decadence!

If there's an almost ten-year old around to lick the spoon–even better!