For the third recipe in my Memory Lane series, I most humbly present to you “Fudge Mallow Cake”. And I mean humbly because I have had to jump through quite a few hoops just to offer you this gooey, messy picture of a really incredible cake. What in the heck happened, you ask? Thank you for your concern, but I shall not trouble you with my tales of cooking woe. Oh, except for one thing. I will tell you this so that you can laugh and then at least partly understand why the cake in that picture looks a bit…um…free-spirited.
When I finally got the cake all put together (only took three days–loooooooong story), I took the bottle of chocolate syrup out of the fridge to drizzle the syrup on the top of the cake. However, the syrup was cold and stiff, so I put the bottle in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften things up. At about 20 seconds I heard a soft high pitched sound which I recognized to be pressure being released from the bottle.
I sort of was scared to open the microwave because I didn’t want chocolate syrup to explode all over me, so I just stood there across the kitchen staring at the microwave as if it would suck me into a vortex of cooking insanity. Then the timer went off and I continued to stare at the foreboding microwave, fearful of what lay behind door #1. After a few moments I finally worked up the courage to walk across the kitchen and face my fate.
Resigned to having to clean up a chocolate disaster of monumental proportions, I opened the microwave door. Unbelievable! White interior with no exploding chocolate despite the fact that the bottle was bulging and misshapen from the hot chocolate syrup within it. I carefully removed the bottle, with the lid facing away from me, and walked over to the kitchen sink. I covered the lid with a pot holder and pulled the flip top up. I truly expected a chocolate volcano to erupt out of the end of the bottle, but there wasn’t even so much as a phtt!
I gently shook things around a bit to see if the chocolate was a liquid or a curdled solid. I could tell that the syrup had softened up quite a bit and felt that it was actually just right for adding swirls to the top of the cake. As you can see, I was wrong. Mostly it was just right for making a big runny chocolate mess on my beautiful cake. And what did I do…why I took pictures of the whole thing, focusing on the most interesting parts of the chocolate drips over the edge of the cake. As much as I wanted to only present perfectly cooked food on this blog, life isn’t always perfect. So welcome to real life.
This is the first cake I remember eating as a child, except that my mom’s cake looked considerably better. I think I was about 4 years old and I can still remember how my mother looked from behind as she stood at the kitchen counter making this cake for a family reunion. I know that’s probably an odd little memory, but there’s no accounting for the randomness of images that the brain chooses to keep. Perhaps that particular memory has stayed with me because I was so intrigued by the different elements that this cake contains. It’s like a German chocolate cake that decided to play dress-up in movie star clothes. Aside from its humble beginnings with a boxed cake mix, this cake gets all decked out with a luscious caramel-style topping, layers of marshmallow cream frosting, and swirls of chocolate syrup. What more could a cake ask for?
Fudge Mallow Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 boxed German Chocolate Cake Mix
Frosting #1
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 egg yolks (room temperature) Save the egg whites. They will be used in frosting #2.
Frostings #2
- 2 egg whites (room temperature)
- 1½ cups white sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow cream
Finishing
- ½ cup bottled chocolate syrup
Instructions
For the Cake
- Mix and bake the cake mix according to package directions for a 9" x 13" pan. Allow to cool completely.
For Frosting #1
- Combine all of the frosting #1 ingredients in a small saucepot. Stirring frequently, cook over low heat until thickened to the consistency of pudding. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely. Frost cake with cooled mixture.
Frosting #2
- Mix egg whites, sugar, water, cream of tartar, and corn syrup in the bowl portion of a double boiler. Place over boiling water. Beat ingredients with an electric hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Remove from heat.
- Add marshmallow cream. Beat to spreading consistency, then frost cake on top of frosting #1.
Finishing
- Using a spatula, add swirls with chocolate syrup. Alternatively, the chocolate syrup can be drizzled across the top of each cake piece before serving.
Nutrition
Okay, how can I rationalize making this cake…because I really want to…maybe a holiday in the near future…?
Oh, well, um…well…when does rationalization ever apply to making a cake? Now EATING the cake, THAT may require some rationalizing.
And PS–this cake is mega rich. So rich, in fact, that one or two forksful may be all that you need. Seriously.