Dessert Mashup: Phish Food Cake (Chocolate, Caramel, and Marshmallow Layer Cake)

Looking for a show-stopping dessert for your party table! Try this decadent chocolate, caramel and marshmallow layer cake: the Phish Food gateau!

I like to take inspiration from unusual places, and this time it's from a flavour of ice-cream! Phish Food flavoured Ben and Jerry's is a chocolate ice-cream with little chocolate fishies, a marshmallowy swirl, and a caramelly swirl. I thought it'd be great to interpret his in cake form.

This cake was a big hit at the opening of the play my husband was in this week, and was devoured in minutes. I wish I had got some better pictures, but maybe I'll make another one of these in the future to get better pictures.

 

INGREDIMENTS

For the cake

7½ ounces (210 grammes) white spelt flour, or gluten free flour
1½ ounces (40 grammes) cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda
3 medium eggs
9 ounces (250 grammes) caster sugar, divided in two
3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) sunflower oil
3 ounces (85 grammes) butter, at room temperature, or margarine
6 fluid ounces (180 millilitres) buttermilk, or milk alternative mixed with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar; or dairy-free yoghurt thinned down with water to buttermilk consistency
2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence

For the filling

3 ounces (85 grammes) dulce de leche, homemade or shop bought

1½ ounces (40 grammes) salted butter

For the marshmallow topping

1 egg white

1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) water

1 ounce (30 grammes) glucose syrup, or white corn syrup

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

A few drops of lemon juice

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

For the choco fudge icing

8 ounces (225 grammes) plain chocolate, about 45-50% cocoa

4 ounces (115 grammes) salted butter

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) whole milk

2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) evaporated milk, or just use all whole milk instead

8 ounces (225 grammes) caster sugar

METHOD

• Bake the cake according to these directions.
• Make the filling by beating the caramel and butter together. Set aside
• Make the choco fudge icing by boiling the milks and sugar together for about 5 minutes or until it reaches 105C (220F) on a sugar thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate and butter until smooth and melted. Allow to cool for about an hour, or until spreadable.
• Make the marshmallow topping: mix all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl. Gently heat over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and it’s hot to the touch. Take it off the heat and whip it with an electric hand mixer for a full 7 minutes, until it is marshmallowy light and cool to the touch. For extra accuracy, you can use a thermometer to check the temperature of the egg white syrup, which should reach 70C (160F) before whipping.
• Trim the cake dome, slice in half and sandwich with the caramel filling. Ice the sides with the choco fudge icing, and pipe a decorative border around the edge of the top.
• Either pipe or dollop the marshmallow icing onto the top of the cake, keeping within the border.
• As an extra touch, you can dust some cocoa powder on the top through a fish shaped stencil. I made one out of the cardboard from a cereal box.

"Jacob's Mikado" Cupcakes: Coconut, Raspberry, and Marshmallows

Mikadoo, doo, doo, push Pineapple shake the tree.... 

Y’all know I love Mikado biscuits. I don’t think I’ve ever done a Mikado recipe on this blog before, but I’ve probably enthused about this all-Irish treat at some point on some blog post in the past. A Mikado, produced by a company called Jacob’s, is a small rectangular biscuit topped with two parallel rows of pink marshmallow, between which is a row of tangy raspberry jam; the whole confection is dusted with desiccated coconut. Although they are available all year round, they are especially popular at Christmas time, where they’re sold in massive plastic tubs to make sure you have enough for all the guests you’ll be entertaining throughout the Christmas season. 

Mikados are just one biscuit in a range of marshmallow biscuits produced by Jacob’s: there are Coconut Creams, which are round plain biscuits topped with a splodge of coconut sprinkled marshmallow (which are either pink or white); and there are Kimberleys, which are a sandwich biscuit made of gingerbread and marshmallow, the exposed edges of which are encrusted with coarse white sugar crystals. And all of these, of course, come in a chocolate coated variety for greater indulgence at special occasions (there’s even a triple chocolate Kimberley, where the biscuit and the marshmallow within the chocolate coating are also cocoa flavour. It’s sinfully delicious). 

This simple combination of plain, buttery biscuit, jam, marshmallow and coconut is easily adapted to all sorts of baked goods, including these here cupcakes! These are a nice vanilla almond cake (a flavour which is commonly referred to as “birthday cake” flavour in the States, sans the sprinkles) filled with seedless raspberry jam and topped with pillowy 7-minute frosting, before being dunked in desiccated coconut. The whole thing is then crowned with a Mikado. 

I make 7-minute frosting by mixing 2 egg whites, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 8 ounces of caster sugar in a heatproof bowl. I then gently heat this over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and it’s warm to the touch. I take it off the heat and whip it with an electric hand mixer for a full 7 minutes, until it is marshmallowy light and cool to the touch. This is easily flavoured and coloured: in hindsight, I should have coloured mine pink to mirror the biscuits, but the white it also pretty; I flavoured mine with vanilla. 

This is best eaten within three days, as after three days the icing turns all dusty as the sugar re-crystalises. To avoid this, you can replace up to a third of the sugar with glucose syrup. 

Kitchen Experiment: Wagon Wheels (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

And so, the first week of September begins: children and young people return to school and college, Limerick begins to get busier again as everyone returns from their holidays in Kilkee, and at last the shroud of boredom lifts from my work in the community centre. However, it will be some time before routine filters into my brain and wakes it out of the summertime haze of boredom and lethargy.

Having said that, this weekend I decided to do something a little experimental. On Friday I did make some toffee, but I forgot to photograph it and thus there was no recipe write up; I hope to rectify that this coming Friday. But yesterday, I tried my hand at making a household favourite: wagon wheels!

For my readers across the Atlantic, a 'Wagon Wheel' is exactly the same thing as a 'Moon Pie': two plain biscuits, sandwiched with fluffy marshmallow, enrobed in that mysteriously titled 'chocolate flavoured coating' stuff. Mine were a little different, using chocolate biscuits for sandwiching, and real dark chocolate for coating.

About two years ago, I tried my hand at sandwiching biscuits with marshmallow for the first time: I made some dinosaur shaped Kimberley biscuits (again, for those who don't live in Ireland, a Kimberley is two small gingerbread rounds, sandwiched with marshmallow, the sides of which have been dipped in coarse white sugar), and they were great. In hindsight, thinner biscuit would have been preferable, to have the appropriate biscuit to marshmallow ratio for optimum enjoyment.

This time, I again made the same mistake: I made my chocolate biscuits too thick, meaning the wagon wheels are far too big, which isn't an issue for people like me who have a significantly large sweet tooth (which makes finding gum shields that fit well an issue), but to normal folk would make them more of a dessert than a snack.

Another issue, which I will keep in mind for my next marshmallow adventure, is that I didn't use enough gelatine in the marshmallows and they were too soft, more like a melted marshmallow texture. In my mind, the biscuit should be soft, and the marshmallow firm.

If I make these again, I will do a full write up and recipe, but seeing as this was just an experiment, I will give you a log of how I made them.

To make these, I used a fairly standard biscuit recipe: I mixed 6 ounces (170 grammes) white spelt flour, 1 ounce (30 grammes) each of cornflour and cocoa powder, and a teaspoon (5 millilitres) of baking powder with 4 ounces (115 grammes) melted butter (or margarine for a dairy free option), 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar, and enough milk to bind into a sticky dough. I then wrapped it in clingfilm, flattened it into a disc, and chilled for about 30 to 45 minutes. I rolled it out to just under half inch (about 1 centimetre) thickness and cut out rounds. If I were to do it again, the biscuit would be thicker, and contain more sugar and an egg for softness. I baked them for 15 minutes at 180*C, and let them cool before pairing them up with each other for sandwiching.

For the filling, I bloomed 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of gelatine (by 'bloomed' I mean I soaked it in cold water to make it spongy) in a cup; I also put 1 egg white at room temperature into a large mixing bowl. I cooked 8 ounces (225 grammes) of caster sugar, 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) of water, and a few drops of lime juice (for acidity) to the firm ball stage, removed from the heat and stirred in the bloomed gelatine to melt. I whipped the egg white to soft peaks, then gradually added the syrup; in retrospect I could have done it a little more gradually, as the finished marshmallow didn't whip up as much as I'd have liked.

Once I'd made the marshmallow, I put it into a greased disposable piping bag, fitted with a greased large round piping nozzle. For each biscuit, I piped a big dollop of marshmallow into the middle of one biscuit, then sandwiched the other on top, squeezing gently to push the filling out to just short of the edges.

I let them sit for two hours before enrobing in chocolate, just to make sure the filling was mostly set. I melted 5 ounces (140 grammes) of dark chocolate with a rounded teaspoonful (about 5 or 10 millilitres) of coconut oil (to improve the flow for dipping) in a cereal bowl. I dipped each biscuit, flipping to cover both sides, shook off the excess coating then placed them on some lightly greased foil; I would have used baking paper, but I'd run out. I let them set overnight because I was doing this in the evening, but an additional 2 hours would suffice if you were doing them during the day.

I made the mistake of scraping the leftover chocolate onto the tops of the biscuits, and this cause the chocolate to cloud; this was a rookie mistake. So, my wonderful companion - who had already solved two previous culinary problems during the day - suggested that I dust them with icing sugar to hide the clouding. I did, and I also dusted some with cocoa powder for visual interest.

All in all, for a first attempt they turned out very well! Again, as aforementioned, I would make the filling firmer and the biscuits softer, and also make them thinner. I will try another batch and let you all know the results...

THIS TIME IN 2014: Hazelnut Chocolate Gateau (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: Gingerbread Men (Gluten-, Dairy-, Yeast-, Egg Free)