Ding Dong... Who's There? More Cake.

Well. More cake. Hmmm. More chocolate too. Why? To be honest, I don't know why I've been craving so much cake, but I don't mind eating it. However, there was a method to my madness this time. Besides, as far as I'm concerned chocolate is its own reason and never needs an excuse. That must be why I recently made this and this too.

When I was growing up I loved Ding-Dongs. Every now and then, even though I know they are going to be a dry, waxy chocolate disappointment to me now that I've had good cakes, I still have to have one. During our recent hospital stay while Cole was in the NICU I had to "board" in one of the hospital rooms to be near him. Between the NICU and me was a vending machine. There really wasn't that much in it that was good, but when you have been starved for seven months anything sounds good, and I was ravenous. They still weren't what I wished they could be... until now.

Ever since I read this post over at Smitten Kitchen I haven't been able to stop thinking about attempting to make my own Ding-Dongs. Then I could use the good ingredients that the packaged kind were missing and, hopefully, satisfy my craving. I also saw an idea for using your measuring cups for something other than measuring. Baking cakes in them. Since the idea came from Thomas Keller, it seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, now I can't find that post to save my life. Anyway, it was a darling idea and knew I would have to try it.

What you see here is the result of both experiments. Cole is five months old now (3 1/2 months corrected age) and we are planning a family "debut" party for May when we are finally able to leave the house after this dreadful winter. So, I'm testing all kinds of things that could be served for the party and dreaming of summer. See, here's the metod to my madness that I promised (umm, yeah, that's it). Thus, all the cupcakes lately.

You can go to Smitten Kitchen for the original recipes. The only change I made was the pans and, of course, I still had to omit the coffee - I just used hot water - sigh. This is a supermoist cake! While the original made two 10-inch round cakes (that's alot of batter!) I ended up making six measuring cup cakes, 12 regular cupcakes and one 9-inch round, which I froze for later use.

So, here is what I did.

First I took a sheet of parchment paper and placed all 6 measuring cups onto the sheet then traced them and cut them out inside the lines.

Then I buttered the inside of each cup. Then I placed each round into its cup and buttered and floured that as well.

Fill each cup to barely half full with batter (I put in too much and they overflowed and sunk).

Here is a closer picture of the batter.

Here are the cakes. Since they are all different sizes keep an eye on them. The smallest took about 20 minutes at 300 degrees F. The biggest took closer to 50 minutes. Allow them to cool in the pan, then remove to rack to cool completely.

Here are the cakes, over a baking dish to catch the ganache after it is poured over the cake.

Here is the ganache glaze for the cakes. I didn't wait for it to cool very much since I wanted it to pour down the sides.

Then I lifted the cakes with a small spatula and plated them on a platter with some cocoa powder.

Then I piped on the marshmallow frosting.

Let the cakes chill to harden the ganache before serving.