Did you know that yesterday was national s’mores day?! Apparently it was, according to all of the chefs and food writers I follow on Instagram (thanks for the heads up, guys!). I didn’t find out until the last minute but when I did I definitely jumped on board to celebrate!
I made this small little nugget of a cake all for myself because 1) my boyfriend and most of my incredibly lovely lady friends have been off island for QUITE some time (a fact that I never let any of them forget) so there’s really no one else around to eat it with me, and 2) it’s the start of my birthday week (a fact that my man candy won’t let me forget) so I wanted to start it off by making myself a personal sized cake anyway.
Generally I don’t consider myself a huge fan of marshmallows but this particular marshmallow frosting is heavenly. The inspiration recipe that I found when researching ideas for a s’mores cake called for decorating the outside of the cake with chocolate fudge icing, but me being me, I decided to add some extra marshmallow frosting on top because let’s be honest - it’s much better that way! And when you find something that works, you work it hard! (That’s actually a paraphrased quote from one of my favorite movies that I just so happened to watch yesterday. Any guesses as to which movie that is? And to what object the character is actually referring to? If no one gets it I’ll post the answer in next week’s blog ;) After that, I had to add my birthday sprinkles mixture on top just for some festivity!
Now, I used to be so madly in love with traditional s’mores that for a brief period after I graduated from pastry school (read: I definitely had the skills to make something fancier, but chose not to) I ate two to three of these babies every night. And not in the traditional campfire toasted marshmallow way. Oh no, I piled all of the ingredients together on a paper plate (sometimes on a paper napkin, depending on how much mess I was willing to deal with that particular evening) and stuck it in the microwave until just before the marshmallow burst from heat. Definitely not my classiest moments, but it was certainly some of the tastiest :D
I’ve also come across a way to enjoy s’mores on a large scale for a group of people. Behold: the s’mores pizza. Now this thing was a showstopper. The bottom is a large cookie that was baked using ground up graham crackers and brown sugar, and it honestly could not have tasted any better. Couple that with the mounds of chocolate and marshmallow that I piled on top and toasted under the broiler before drizzling it with more chocolate and extra crumbled graham crackers and suddenly I had a dessert on my hands that not only brought the dinner conversation to its knees, but also had some of the healthiest, most athletic people at that table taking home extra servings to eat for breakfast the next day #momentofpride
I know that you’re supposed to enjoy s’mores by a campfire, but it’s just so hot here that starting a campfire is practically unimaginable. I actually toasted the outer marshmallow decorations with a lighter since I didn’t have a campfire and my butane cartridge for my blowtorch didn’t make the trip across the ocean. (Nor am I able to ship it here #islandlife)
Here’s my little fun fact for you: We have the Girl Scouts to thank for the invention of s’mores! They are said to have originated from a girl scout troop gathered around a campfire sometime in the 1920’s. So thank you ladies, for yet again creating something that I just cannot stop eating (the other thing being Tagalongs, the peanut butter and chocolate Girl Scout cookie guilty pleasure of mine, which you are welcome to give me a box of since it’s my birthday week and all).
So stay safe if you want to partake in the Girl Scouts tradition and toast your marshmallows around a campfire. Happy eating, y’all!