Brain Cake – Got Chocolate on the Brain?

Got chocolate on the brain?  This brain cake bakes up moist, with a rich, chocolaty flavor that’s not too sweet.  We’ve frosted it with a vanilla and lemon buttercream and topped it with marshmallow fondant.  No tricks here, just a decadent and disgusting treat!

Tart, when she’s not hanging out in and/or destroying the kitchen, works in the healthcare biz.  At this writing, she’s been bringing desserts into work for about six months now, with varying levels of enthusiasm from her coworkers.  She really, really wanted to make something good for Halloween.

As we’ll discuss in our next post, the Tart has a sort of ADHD that exclusively affects baking.  She’ll come up with a plan for, let’s use cupcakes for example, then something will catch her eye and distract her.  However, that first idea still wants to be made, so she’ll come up with a plan that might combine both ideas.  This is how the red velvet cupcakes with the truffle filling and the cookies and cream frosting came about.  In this case, she made a plan for a graveyard cake and bought some stuff to make it, then got inspired to make a brain cake, and couldn’t decide. 

The decision was taken out of her hands entirely when one layer of the graveyard stuck in the pan.

That’s messed up, Tart.

Tart here.  Listen.  This brain cake isn’t pretty.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  I’m sorry about that.  And because I wasn’t 100% certain that I was going to make a post devoted entirely to this… thing, there’s none of my normal dessert photos, with a perfect slice on a pretty dessert plate, et cetera, et cetera.  Plus, I was taking the pictures at 10am, on the floor of my front doorway, and I was cold.  There’s no in depth analysis of what I did or why I did it, or how this cake reminds me of that time in 9th grade biology when Belinda… never mind.  It’s just a chocolate layer cake, shaped to make a brain.  

“Ok google, show me pictures of the human brain,” I say to my phone, hands covered in melted marshmallow and powdered sugar.

“And… now you’re on a list,” says the Beard from the couch.

But, it turned out really, really good.  I knew it was tasty, because I was eating the bits of cake that I was cutting when doing the “carving”.  Additionally, once I had scraped the failed cake out of the pan, I combined that and the carved bits with the leftover buttercream and made cakeballs.  The fondant was much easier than I expected, but makes a huge, sugary mess.  Once it reached the right texture, I simply rolled it into snakes and coiled it over the buttercream.

I brought it into work and slipped it into the breakroom.  The cries of “eeeeew” rung out whenever someone came in for their shift, and that made the hour or so of making the wrinkles on the brain worth every sticky minute.

Print

The Tart’s Brain Cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword brain, buttercream, cake, fondant, lemon, marshmallow, raspberry

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup almond milk I used unsweetened vanilla
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot coffee

Vanilla-Lemon Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter slightly softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 1/4 cup milk

Marshmallow Fondant

• 12 oz mini marshmallows
• 2 tbsps water
• 4-6 cups powdered sugar amount used can vary

Instructions

For the cake

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Grease two 8″ round pans, then cut a circular piece of parchment paper to fit and place it in the bottom of the pan.

2. In a large bowl, stir or sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. Stir in coffee; I don’t recommend beating it in because it’ll be thin and fly everywhere.  Pour batter evenly into your prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely before frosting.

For the Buttercream

1. Cream the softened butter until it is smooth, the blend in the vanilla.

2. Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Beat the mixture at medium speed until combined and the powdered sugar has been completely incorporated and there are no lumps.

3. Gradually add the remaining powdered sugar and milk, beating at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, until the frosting is smooth.

Marshmallow Fondant

1. Add the marshmallows and water to a large, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute; the marshmallows should be soft and puffy at this point.

2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are smooth. If 1 minute isn’t enough, you can microwave the marshmallows at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until the mixture is completely smoothed out. 

   Optional:  For a single color of fondant, you can add food coloring in this step.  For multiple colors, see the note at the end.

3. Gradually add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and continue to stir until the sugar has been incorporated and the mixture becomes nearly impossible to stir.

4. Lightly dust your counter (or whatever surface you will be kneading the fondant on).  Scrape the mixture out of the bowl and onto your work surface. The mixture will be very, very sticky, and there may be some lumps of powdered sugar.  It’s normal.  Spray your hands with some nonstick cooking spray and begin to knead your fondant like you would a bread or pizza dough.

5. Knead the fondant until it is smooth and doesn’t stick to every surface of your hands and/or kitchen.  You can sprinkle more powdered sugar on it while you knead if needed, but don’t overdo it.  You want a smooth, easy to work with mixture.  At this point, you can roll it out cover your cake, roll it into “snakes” of about 1/2″ diameter if you want to make a brain like this, or wrap it in plastic wrap for storage.
   

Have you given this recipe a try, or do you have an idea of what could be improved?  Leave us a comment below!  We’d love to hear from you!

– Tart & Beard

The Tart

The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things.  She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.