Many years ago I had an idea for a dessert-only restaurant called Mongo’s Cake Bar. I had conceived/imagined of a number of menu items…The Dessert Breakfast, The Cup Cake, Chocolate Cake Mignon, the Grilled Cookie, and the Chocolate Frankenstein Cake.
In its original derivation it was a 7-layer cake where each layer was a different type of chocolate cake (devil’s food, angel food, pound, short, etc.) with a different chocolate filling layer in between (fudge, frosting, pudding, custard, etc.); a spun sugar lightning bolt atop the served piece (a block of cake) as a garnish.
That was the idea. It never went much further than that. But basically, evoking the idea that the Frankenstein monster was made of bits and pieces of different corpses, so would the namesake cake be made of varied cakes.
And then my friend Craig sent me a link to Charles Phoenix’s Cherpumple “Monster” Pie Cake, “the dessert version of the Turducken…a three layer cake with pie stuffed in each layer.” And the idea for the Chocolate Frankestein Cake was, pun intended, brought to life once again…only this time, rather than varieties of chocolate cake/filling, I’d fuse together multiple desserts to create one single dessert beast.
Originally I imagined a brownie topped by cake topped by a pie, all chocolate with different fillings. But as I worked out the logistics and processes in my head, and decided cookies should be in the mix as well, the final version came together. So, here now, the process of how brownie + glaze + cookies + custard + cake + pudding + cake + frosting came to equal Chocolate Frankenstein Cake…and the vanilla counterpart: Bride of Frankenstein Cake:
The bottom layer for both cakes was the brownie layer.
The brownies each got a glaze over them.
That glaze was topped by a cookie crust made from chocolate-chocolate and vanilla-vanilla sandwich cookies.
Those crusts were topped by layers of custard.
Atop the custard went the layer cakes…
…which were separated by layers of pudding.
Which led to a pre-frosted cake whose cross-sections looked like this:
Chocolate
Vanilla
I straightened the edges and cleaned things up and then frosted them both, chocolate and vanilla, respectively:
I thought of other ideas…chocolate and white sprinkles…shaved fudge over top each…ganache drizzles…
And not everything came out how I wanted it to…I’d have liked a firmer custard layer…and for the glazes to have more presence…
Certainly there are possibilities. But as it stands, these cakes were powerhouses…seriously intense…downright headache inducing for myself. But they went over well with those assembled for All-Hallows’ Giving, so I’m calling it a success.
Success! It was delicious.