Like my cake, this post is a bit of a mess. Sometimes I just don’t think linearly. I know, the rich and chocolatey S’mores cake looks just fine, even delicious, BUT it definitely had a rough start. The crazy baker who had gotten up at 5:00am to frost it was still a bit sleepy. She had not had her coffee and she was doing dangerous stunts with the serrated knife and muttering to herself while burning her finger tips on the freshly broiled marshmallows. It may have been the morning of the birthday party. This idiotic baker may not have planned ahead quite as well as she thought.

But looking at this cake, could you ever have guessed it has a golf-ball sized hole in the middle of the first layer, filled in with chocolate malted frosting? Or that it had a cookie monster size “bite” out of the second layer? Seriously, my mouth is NOT that big. I am afraid any male in the vicinity who knows me has fallen of his chair in hysterics. I may…um…talk—alot.

Or, that the only way it looked straight was that if you tilted your head at a 15 degree angle just so and then squinted your eyes? See, tilt and squint, that cake below looks almost straight, right?

But luckily for me and for you, because I am sharing this HUGE piece of baking wisdom, FROSTING IS THE SUPER GLUE that can fix any cake disaster. Don’t ever give up on a crumbling cake. Just make a double batch of super delicious, finger lickingly amazing frosting, and you will be fine. Trust me.

One other little tidbit of information I will share so others can learn from my mistakes…do not leave a Costco sized bottle of vodka on the kitchen table, that was evicted from the fridge to make room for the cake, as kids are arriving for your daughter’s party. Parents start asking funny questions since you are the driver for the Little Tokyo/Downtown L.A. birthday party adventure (It was so fun!).

FYI —Yes, I do own Kettle One and no, I don’t always use the good stuff. I am a hoarder.

This S’mores cake, taken from Sweetapolita and then highlighted on Just a Smidgen, is hot damn delicious. Seriously rich, creamy, unusually toasty and a helluva time consuming cake to make. I think I deserve a medal or a button to wear that says, “I made the Sweetapolita S’mores Cake and lived to tell about it.” Smidge, I will send you a button soon.  We won’t include the photos of the kitchen disaster that ensued.

My daughter requested this superstar of a cake when she saw it on both aforementioned blogs. When it was served after her birthday dinner, all eleven people in my extended family ooooh’d and ahhhh’d. The best praise of all came from my seventeen-year-old son, who is not free wheeling with his compliments, when he asked, “Why didn’t you find this recipe before MY birthday?! This is even better than the peanut butter birthday cake!”

So, apparently this ugly duckling of a cake, actually somehow turned into a swan and impressed the fam.

But note to self: Never, ever, and I mean EVER try to cut two layers into four layers, ever, ever again. I mean really, who did I think I was? Rosie of Sweetapolita, the Kobe Bryant of cake decorating? Tsk, tsk. That is so not me. I have zero decorating skills, zero patience and I am an overall mess of a baker. Keep that in mind next time, Geni, Okey dokey?

Yes, I talk to myself alot. I am not normal.

Chocolate Malted S’mores Cake 

BTW: While I adored this cake and thought it was very worthy of the excessive time, honestly, I prefer my chocolate malt frosting from my Whopper of a Cake post. The chocolate malted frosting I used for the S’mores Cake is definitely a buttercream whereas My Whopper Cake’s frosting is a little lighter and airier. I prefer that but it’s up to you. Both are devastatingly delicious so you can’t go wrong.

For the first time ever, in the history of Sweet and Crumby, I will simply direct you to another site and not give you the 411 with my Geni-isms. Basically, that is because Rosie of Sweetapolita handles the description perfectly, and I really wouldn’t make any adjustments (beyond the frosting) like I usually do to recipes.

My best advice though is to definitely grease your cake pans with butter, place parchment rounds on the greased cake pan bottoms and then grease your parchment as well. Flour the entire pan properly and tap out the excess flour into the sink. I had zero problems getting my cakes out of their pans, but many commentors on Sweetapolita did have trouble with that. Remember that old saying, “A stitch in time, saves nine!”. Grease, parchment, grease again and then flour…you won’t ever be sorry for that.

Oh…one last thing…unless you are exceptionally talented, I don’t see how any normal human makes a six layer cake. You may want to just go for it or make it four like I did and keep in mind that the frosting can and will save the day if necessary.