No cake at lake, so bake - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Last year on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we said we were going to the lake.

But, really, we went to Heber Springs for the cake.

The Ding Dong Cake at homey, happening Mack's Fish House. We had sampled the fabulous and nostalgic chocolatey creation ($4.99 slice/$35 whole) earlier in the summer with family, and we wanted to relive the carbohydrates.

After a day on the water, we toweled off, ball-capped up and headed to Mack's early to beat the evening rush.

We beat the rush all right. There was no one there.

Cue "Holiday Road." Our one-day vacation took a Griswold-ian turn.

We dingbats hadn't bothered to check the restaurant's hours. So no cake for us. Mack's was -- lip quiver -- closed on Sundays. So long, Ding Dong.

Now, the restaurant is open year-round. But because we'll not likely get there until it's warm, I recently used the occasion of a birthday to attempt baking one.

In no way is the two-layer cake that I made -- with a recipe found on the blog I Am Baker (iambaker.net/ding-dong-cake) -- as magnificent as the four-layer masterpiece at Mack's, where assistant manager Annie Mefford says they have served the popular made-in-house cake ("[People] love it; it's one of our biggest sellers") since the restaurant opened in 2006.

But, my Ding Dong Cake turned out pretty dang delicious too. (And cute. While the chocolate-cloaked Ding Dong snack cakes wear no adornment, I couldn't resist adding a white Hostess-esque squiggle.)

It will tide us over until our next Mack's Ding Dong Cake wing-ding.

Ding Dong Cake

Cake:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Non-stick cooking spray

Filling:

1 cup whole milk

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

Ganache:

16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine

1 cup heavy cream

To make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into bowl of a stand mixer. In another medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry until combined with mixer on slow speed. While mixing, slowly add the coffee until combined, scraping bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Evenly pour batter into two 9-inch cake pans sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely.

To make the filling: Pour milk into a small saucepan. Whisk in flour so no lumps remain. Turn heat on to medium and cook until mixture is thick like a roux, stirring the whole time. Remove pan from heat, stir in vanilla and let cool completely.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed, until fluffy, about 8 minutes. Add in the milk mixture and beat until mixture resembles whipped cream.

To make the ganache: Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat heavy cream in microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until it begins to simmer. Be careful not to allow the cream to boil over. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and allow to stand for two minutes before stirring. Allow ganache to cool.

To assemble cake: Place one cake layer on a plate. Top with filling, using an offset spatula and spreading to cake edge. Top filling with second cake layer. Pour ganache over cake, spreading with an offset spatula over top and sides. Allow ganache to set before serving.

Jennifer's notes: On the filling, I was ready to call my butter and sugar combined after about 8 seconds, but read again, it says 8 whole minutes! Do it. The filling must be hefty enough to adequately hold that second cake layer.

On the ganache, I was not careful and allowed the cream to boil over ... all over the microwave turntable, the sides, the top. All over. There's no use crying over spilled milk,or splattered cream.

Having read online reviews of the recipe, which originally called for 16 ounces of heavy cream, I opted to use only half that amount to avoid runniness. And it was just enough to get a thin coating that perfectly hugged the cake.

Want to add a little white icing squiggle? I got that tip from a different Ding Dong Cake recipe from Brit + Co (brit.co): In a small bowl, mix 1 cup of sifted powdered sugar with 2 teaspoons of whole milk and 2 teaspoons of light corn syrup (mine was too stiff so I added a tiny bit more milk and syrup). Add mixture to a pastry bag with a round tip and draw design on set ganache. Practice squiggles on a plate before attempting on the cake will ensure that -- ding, ding! -- we have a winner!

Serves 12

Recipe adapted from the I Am Baker blog

Mack's Fish House is at 559 Wilburn Road in Heber Springs. The website is macksfishhouse.net. Don't be like us -- call ahead for hours at (501) 362-6225 (the last four digits spell "MACK").