Is there actually a better way to spend your birthday week than cold plunging into a freezing Eastern Sierra lake after a brutal uphill hike? This past late August, I decided to “celebrate” turning forty-six years young and still adventurous—even if a few of my body parts have begun submitting formal complaints—by camping in the Eastern Sierra and planning hikes on some of the steepest, highest-elevation trails I could find in 
California. Because apparently when normal people turn forty-six, they book a massage. I, however, wake up before dawn, strap on my hiking boots and voluntarily march uphill for hours until I’m sweaty, filthy and questioning several of my life choices. And after many miles of this so-called vacation, there comes a moment when a woman simply needs to shove S’mores Ice Cream Cake at her face. But first, margaritas. And preferably a quick plunge into a freezing creek to wash away that special dirty-hiker perfume of sunscreen, dust and fifteen miles of outdoor adventuring decisions.
Birthday Calories Don’t Count Above 9,000 Feet
Oh, and did I mention it’s my birthday week? Because “It’s my birthday” is basically a legally binding excuse to prepare multiple no-bake cakes in one camping trip. If it’s my birthday, you better believe you’ll find me trekking through the mountains, cold plunging into icy alpine lakes and eventually sitting outside the motorhome with a margarita and a giant slice of S’mores Ice Cream Cake. This is vacation. There may be no spa robes, room service or poolside cabanas involved, but there are mountains, cold lakes, cocktails and toasted marshmallows, so frankly I think I’m winning at forty-six.
And if you have a camping vacation coming up, S’mores Ice Cream Cake is exactly the kind of dessert you want to make ahead of time. Trust me; It’s worth making room for this ice cream cake in your motorhome freezer. I love traditional s’mores as much as the next sticky-fingered camper, but after getting up at dawn and spending the day hiking fifteen miles because apparently I have completely misunderstood the concept of “relaxation,” I don’t necessarily want another culinary project around the campfire. I don’t want to hunt down sticks, supervise flaming marshmallows or discover melted chocolate permanently attached to my camping chair in the a.m. light. By evening, the only food preparation I’m interested in is slicing into a S’mores Ice Cream Cake, adding more ice to my margarita and soaking my exhausted hiker feet in the creek. Let the freezer do the work. I already climbed the mountain.
Forty-Six, Filthy & Ready for S’mores Ice Cream Cake
Marshmallow fluff will toast nicely too, but because it is already soft and gooey, it can start melting and sliding around once you hit it with heat. That is great if you are going for a fancy toasted-meringue look, but not necessarily ideal when your dessert is sitting on top of frozen ice cream and you are trying not to create a marshmallow avalanche.
I like to pack the mini marshmallows fairly tightly over the top of the cake, then use the kitchen torch right before serving. Keep the flame moving so you toast the marshmallows without melting half the cake underneath. We are making dessert here, not performing a controlled burn.
Of course, before you start having fun with kitchen fire, scatter a few broken graham cracker pieces and chocolate chunks between the marshmallows before torching. It looks fantastic, photographs beautifully, and gives you that full campfire-dessert effect without having to wrestle a marshmallow off a dirty stick in the woods while your dog tries to “Help”
So yes, for this No Bake S’mores Ice Cream Cake, mini marshmallows win. They are prettier, easier to torch and much more appropriate for a summertime camping dessert. Marshmallow fluff says Small Town Bakery Drama and you can read all about that here. Toasted mini marshmallows say, “I brought a kitchen torch camping because when you ‘ glamp ‘ in a 34-foot motorhome, you are allowed to bring everything and no one can judge you” Said the Food Blogger who always packs her Donald Trump inner tube.
No-Bake S’mores Ice Cream Cake: The Lazy Camper’s Greatest Achievement
3/4 cups of cottage cheese
1/2 cup of honey
3 teaspoons of Hershey’s cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup of Cool Whip or whipped cream
Store-bought graham cracker crust or 1 cup of graham crackers mixed with 3 teaspoons of melted butter, smashed into a pie pan, and baked at 35
0 for ten minutes
1 cup of mini marshmallows
1/4 cup broken up graham cracker bits
1/8 cup mini chocolate chips
In your Ganiza Blender, mix the cottage cheese, the honey, vanilla, Hershey’s powder and the mascarpone cheese. Move this batter to a mixing bowl. Fold in the Cool Whip or whipped cream. Add the chocolate mixture to your cooled pie crust. Add your mini marshmallows to the top. Freeze this pie for three hours. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle your graham cracker bits on top, as well as your mini chocolate chips. Now you are ready to light up those marshmallows with this awesome Kitchen Torch, like this awesome one, to crisp up the marshmallows just until singed.
