Midnight Mallow Cake

This chocolate cake gets its deep, dark crumb from melted marshmallows and chocolate blended together before they ever hit the batter. That marshmallow-chocolate base creates a fudgy density that’s completely different from a standard cocoa cake. Sour cream folded in keeps everything impossibly moist.

Beating the eggs with sugar until thick and lemon-colored is where the lift comes from. There’s no butter or oil in this batter, so those whipped eggs are doing all the structural work. Don’t rush this step. You want ribbons of batter falling from the beater.

The marshmallow frosting is a cooked seven-minute style made over a double boiler. Beating the egg whites, sugar, and corn syrup over boiling water cooks them into stiff, glossy peaks. Chopped marshmallows stirred in at the end melt into the hot meringue and give the frosting a stretchy, pillowy texture you can’t get any other way.

Pro Tips

• Cool the chocolate-marshmallow mixture completely before adding to the egg base. Hot chocolate scrambles the eggs.
• Add the dry ingredients in four separate additions and mix gently. Dumping it all in at once leads to a dense, tough cake.
• Keep the water in the double boiler at a rapid simmer for the frosting. Low heat means the egg whites won’t cook through and the frosting stays limp.
• Frost the cake while the frosting is still warm. It sets quickly and becomes difficult to spread once cool.

Variations

• Add a layer of raspberry jam between the cake layers before frosting for a chocolate-berry combination.
• Dust the finished frosted cake with cocoa powder for a dramatic dark-on-white contrast.
• Swap the marshmallow frosting for chocolate ganache if you want full chocolate intensity from top to bottom.