Recipe: Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

One day during the summer holidays my son asked if we could bake a cake. I usually have a store-cupboard of ingredients to make a batch or two of basic buns or a Victoria Sponge, but the boy wanted chocolate cake. Looking into my cupboard and I had just enough cocoa powder to make a cake, but what could I fill it with? I spied a jar of marshmallow fluff, I put two and two together and made a delicious Chocolate Marshmallow Cake.

The Chocolate Marshmallow Cake is pretty much a Victoria Sponge cake with a chocolate marshmallow twist. It was everything you’d want a chocolate marshmallow cake to be – chocolately and gooey and rich and lovely. I’m now keeping a jar of marshmallow fluff in my cupboard for chocolate marshmallow cake emergencies!

Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

Ingredients:
600 g caster sugar
600 g softened butter or margarine (I use Stork)
6 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp milk
200 g self-raising flour
7550g Dark cocoa powder
1 heaped tsp of baking powder

For the icing and filling:
1 jar of Marshmallow Fluff
100g Softened unsalted butter
100g sifted icing sugar
50g dark cocoa powder
Splash of milk
Half a pack of mini marshmallows

Method:
Heat your fan oven to 190c. Grease three 20cm sandwich tins, I also lined the bottom of each tin with a circle of baking parchment. In a large bowl, beat your butter and sugar together until fluffy (I used a hand mixer). Add the eggs, milk, cocoa powder and vanilla and combine, then add the flour and baking powder and mix together until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the mixture equally between the tins. You can weigh them to make sure they’re fairly equal if you’d like. Bake in your pre-heated oven for around 20 mins until cooked through. Remove from the tins and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Once the cakes are cool, place the bottom layer on a serving plate and spoon about half a jar of marshmallow fluff into the middle. It should relax and even out by itself. While it’s doing this, make your chocolate frosting.

Using a hand mixer, work the butter until it is light and fluffy. Carefully add the icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix it in until the frosting is smooth. Add a splash or two of milk if you feel it needs it. It needs to be spreadable but not runny.

Take the middle layer of the cake and place it on top of the marshmallow. Put the rest of the marshmallow fluff on top and smooth it out a little with a knife. It will form a soft layer which will run down the sides of the cake, but I like the sticky, drippy effect.

Take  top layer of cake and put it on top of the marshmallow. Get your chocolate frosting and put it on the top of the cake, smooth it out with a knife. I like smooth ripples of frosting, but do what you feel best. Take a few handfuls of mini marshmallows and pile them up on the top of the cake.

You can store it in a cake tin for a few days, but the gooey marshmallow layer will likely ooze out entirely. It’s best to gobble the cake up quickly, or leave assembling it until the last moment.

It’s a great cake, it’s fun, it’s frivolous and it’s just the thing to make with a small boy who wants nothing more than a chocolatey spoon to lick and a big piece of chocolate cake for pudding.