The Girl Scouts of America have a new cookie baker for some parts of the country and, in a business move stupider than New Coke, have renamed some of their best-sellers (Though, as some of our readers kindly point out , other parts of the country have the "new" names for ages). In my neck of the woods, Samoas are now "Caramel DeLites," which sounds like the name of a dietetic candy old ladies buy at the Dollar Tree. Tagalongs are now "Peanut Butter Patties, Do-Si-Dohs are "Peanut Butter Sandwiches" and Trefoils are "Shortbread," names which suggest either a wildly subversive anti-consumerist campaign a la No Logo (Declare Independence from Corporate Cookie! We Don't Need No Name-Brand Baked Goods!) or a newly minted Robotic Cookie Namer down at Girl Scout HQ. All-Abouts (which was a weird name, I admit) are now "Thanks-a-Lots." Try saying that un-sarcastically.
In honor of my favorite GS cookie, I created this Samoa Cake - layers of génoise cake brushed with caramel simple syrup and spread them with alternating layers of chocolate caramel ganache frosting and soft salty caramel, then iced with more chocolate caramel ganache blanketed in toasted coconut flakes. It's tall, rich and incredibly sweet, half-cake, half-candy bar. Take that, Caramel DeLite!
Read on for the recipe.
Samoa Cake
Génoise cake:
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons melted butter
12 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour 2 springform pans.
Sift together cake flour and 1/2 cup of the sugar and return to sifter.
Melt butter in a small saucepan.
Whisk eggs and remaining sugar in large heatproof bowl. Set bowl in a skillet of barely simmering water and whisk until warm to the touch. Remove from heat and beat on high speed until mixture is pale yellow, tripled in volume and falls of a spoon in thick, smooth ribbons. Sift flour into egg mixture in 3 additions, folding gently with a spatula. Add 1 1/2 cups of egg mixture into hot butter and mix along with vanilla. Return to the rest of the mix and fold.
Pour into pans and bake until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then cool completely on rack.
Chocolate caramel ganache icing:
1 pound dark chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 pound of butter, softened and cut into squares
Heat 1/4 cup of water along with sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan over high heat until mixture reaches a light golden (don't wait for full caramel color - it'll continue to cook after removal from heat. I burned it three times, so I know).
In another pan, boil cream.
When caramel reaches light golden remove from heat and rest for 1 minute, then add hot cream. Stir and cool for 5 minutes.
Put chocolate in bowl of electric mixer and pour caramel over it. Rest for 1 minute then stir to melt.
Attach bowl to mixer and beat on low until cool. Add butter at medium speed until smooth. Refrigerate for half an hour, then beat again until thick and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Soft caramel:
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
Cook butter, salt and cream over medium heat until butter is melted. Set aside.
Cook sugar, water and corn syrup over high heat until it reaches a medium golden color. Add cream mixture and stir.
Pour into a heatproof bowl and cool in fridge until thicker, but still spreadable, about 1 1/2 hours.
Caramel simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup ice water
Cook sugar and 1/4 cup water over high heat until it reaches a medium golden color. Add ice water immediately to stop cooking process, stir to melt any lumps.
Assembly:
Slice each cake into three layers.
Toast 1 bag of sweetened shredded coconut until golden (about 6-8 minutes at 350 degrees). Cool coconut. Mix 1 1/2 cups ganache with a handful of coconut, set aside.
Layer cake like this: ganache/caramel/ganache with coconut/caramel/ganache, brushing each layer with caramel simple syrup as you go. Spread with remaining ganache, press in remaining coconut for "snowball" effect.
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