Chocolate Smores Cheesecake

I made this larger version of my smores (smore?) cheesecake cupcakes for a manager's birthday at work. What makes it different is a layer of graham crumbs and marshmallows in its middle. When the cake was cooked, set and cooled the marshmallows didn't keep to their layer, but blended in with the rest of the cake, leaving behind a thin layer of graham crumbs. This is probably what made this cake extra creamy, I was told by its indulgers. In fact, most thought it was a chocolate mouse cake! Far from an insult in my opinion, however I would still like to perfect a white, puffy center.

Filling:
4 pkg cream cheese
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tbsp. vanilla
1/2 cup graham crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup mini white marshmallows

Crust:
1 cup graham crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted

Topping:

Broiled marshmallows

Dulce de leche

Shaved dark chocolate

For the crust, mix all of the ingredients into a large bowl until the crumbs absorb all of the butter. Press firmly to the bottom of your spring form pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Set aside in the fridge when it's finished.

While the crust is cooling/baking blend the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla in a food processor. This is double the regular recipe so there's a lot of it, you may need to stop and scrape the sides. I recommend creaming the cheese and sugar for about two minutes.

In a pan on the stove heat up a half cup of butter. Once its melted remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa until it's all absorbed. Add this to the processor and blend until all of the contents have turned brown.
Before you add the filling to the pan, wrap the spring form in tin foil up to its rim. We're going to bathe the cake while it's baking.

Once you've done this pour half of the filling on top of the crust. If you have extra crust mixture left over make a thin layer of it on top of the filling you just added. If you don't have extra, simply make some more the same as you did for the crust. I recommend approximately a 1/2 cup of crumbs. Then sprinkle your desired amount of marshmallows, I used 1 cups worth.

Next simply pour the rest of the filling on top of the marshmallows, just make sure the filling gets to the rim of the pan so you have a full shaped cake.

We will be baking the cake as the pan sits in a deep roasting pan filled with water. This will make the cake creamier and it will set very evenly on its surface. Make sure you select a roasting pan that is deep enough so we can submerge half of the cake in water. I recommend putting the cake and the roasting pan in the oven, then filling it up with water.

Bake it like this at 350 for about an hour. If the top starts to cook too fast by bubbling or browning, turn it down to 325 after 30 minutes. After the cake has been in the oven for one hour turn the oven off but let the cake remain inside for another 30 minutes. Remove and let it cool on the counter before letting it cool int he fridge.

As for the topping, on a greased baking sheet make a circular mound of marshmallows and broil in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 seconds, or until they brown to your desire. Keep the oven open and watch closely, they will burn fast. The hard part is transferring them onto the cake. If it makes a mess or your having trouble, transfer them on the cake, then add some more on top and broil quickly again. However, you don't want the top of the cake to broil so make it quick.

I also added dulce de leche and shaved dark chocolate as extra garnish.