Copycat Homemade Ding Dongs

These copycat homemade Ding Dongs are a chocolate lover's dream. They are made with a rich chocolate cake filled with marshmallow crème covered with a dark chocolate ganache. 

The cake for these Ding Dongs is pretty much the tastiest chocolate cake I've ever made. It's rich, intensely chocolate, and super moist. I could not stop tasting the leftover scraps. 

The cake itself has a pretty low flour to chocolate ratio, making this a totally chocolatey cake. The cake is airy and not brownie-like, which is unexpected, at least for me. 

Making these copycat Ding Dongs was a total adventure. For my participation in Halloween Treats Week, I received a cool cookbook from Dixie Crystals Sugar, which featured this recipe. 

I definitely needed to try making these. 

How to make homemade copycat Ding Dongs:

First, you combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, an egg, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla.

After that, you slowly add some hot water to the mixture in three increments, while whisking constantly. The goal is to dissove the chocolate while not scrambling the egg. 

Pour the batter into two 8 inch cake pans and bake for about 25 minutes. Once the layers have cooled, turn them out onto parchment paper and cut them with biscuit cutter into 2 1/2 inch rounds. 

After that, cut out some of the cake from the middle and fill it with the marshmallow filling. Trim the cut out and place it over the marshmallow filling. 

Finally, cover the filled mini-cakes with the ganache and let them cool in the refrigerator. 

This was a fun and delicious project. However, in the future, I just might make one big Ding Dong. There is a lot of work to make these, plus you have a lot of extra cake scraps. Granted, you can make trifles with the scraps.. or freeze them. 

If you want to make one big Ding Dong, place the first layer onto a cake plate. Spread the marshmallow crème over the layer and top it with the second layer. After that, pour the chocolate ganache over the entire cake. 

This is what I'm going to do next time because it's so much easier.

Let's just say that a lot of cake and ganache was sacrificed out of frustration to make these Ding Dongs! 

These copycat Ding Dongs are so rich and delicious. You may never go back to store bought Ding Dongs. 

Welcome to #Choctoberfest 2020! This year, a bunch of us have joined together for a week of chocolate recipe goodness. Plus, we've pooled our resources to give you a chance to win a KitchenAid stand mixer. It's one of my favorite kitchen tools. In fact, I have two! I use them both at least twice a week. 

Learn more about the giveaway and enter to win on my chocolate round up post. I've love it if one of my readers won!

Copycat Homemade Ding Dongs

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Yield: 10 to 12 servings (or 16 if you make it into a layer cake)

Author: Karen Kerr

These copycat homemade Ding Dongs are a chocolate lover's dream. They are made with a rich chocolate cake filled with marshmallow crème covered with a dark chocolate ganache.

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 7/8 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 7 ounces marshmallow crème

For the Ganache

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 6 ounces 70 percent dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces and placed in a bowl
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

To make the Ding Dong Cakes

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. 
2. Spray two 8 inch cake pans with spray oil and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baing soda, and sugar together and set aside. 
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk until combined. Add the oil, vanilla, and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. 
6. Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 25 minutes. 
7. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. 
8. Turn the pans out onto a parchment or plastic lined sheet pan. 
9. Using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter, cut as many rounds as you can from the cakes. With a sharp knife, cut a cone out of each cake. Be sure not to cut all of the way through to the bottom. Slice off all but 1/4 inch of the cake from the cone. 
10. Add about 2 teaspoons of the marshmallow crème to the cavity in the cake. Top with the 1/4 inch slice of the cone. 
11. Cover a cookie sheet with plastic wrap. Prepare the ganache. With the cakes on the edge of thin spatula over the bowl of ganache, ladle the ganache over the cakes until the top and sides are coated. Place the cakes on the cookie sheet. 
12. Keep refrigerated until serving. 

To Make the Ganache

1. Bring the cream and sugar in a small saucepan to a boil. Pour the boiling cream mixture over the chocolate and whisk until the chocolate has melted. 
2. Add the butter. 
3. If necessary, thin it with a tablespoon or two of boiling cream. 

Notes:

Can be made into a layer cake. Skip cutting the cakes into smaller rounds. Instead, top one layer with marshmallow crème, place the second layer over the crème, and ladle the ganache over the cake for one large Ding Dong.

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2020/10/copycat-homemade-ding-dongs.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

Ding Dongs, Chocolate

Dessert, copycat

American

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