On Saturday, I celebrated my 26.2nd birthday the best way a runner can… by running a marathon!! There were no official races this weekend, so I did this by walking out my door and running 26.2 miles across Minneapolis. This included running around 5 different lakes, passing a few landmarks. My family took turns running with me for different segments, and drove my car around to provide pit stops and fueling. (When I started, humidity was 97%, so I easily consumed over a gallon of water just from my water backpack… the pit stops were essential.) It was a family affair, and felt like a birthday party! At least… it was a day where I was the center of focus, so that’s a birthday!

And a birthday means cake! In this case, Chocolate Ovaltine Cake! I had the idea to try and run a 26.2nd birthday marathon near the start of the year, when it hit me that I’d be turning 26, and I knew I wanted to ramp up my running. I started cooking up the idea and the training plan, and naturally that meant I had to think up a reward. What better way to celebrate (and thank my family for the race day support system) than baking a bodacious chocolate cake?

It wasn’t my sole motivation, but I can say that the thought of it waiting at the end did give me a boost a few times during the marathon.

Running a marathon has been a vague bucket list item for me ever since I started running. I ran a half marathon about two years after I started running, when I was just 15. That felt like a pretty big deal at the time, but it was also… kind of easy. It was very achievable – I’d run 7 miles for cross country training, and that’s over half of a half. A marathon ~~has~~ had always felt rather insurmountable though. At least, it always seemed more than twice as difficult as a half! (And I can confirm, it was more than twice as difficult, at least to me.)

So deciding I would try and do it this year felt like a pretty big goal! But it felt like the time to try – 10 years after my first half, and just in time to turn 26.2… There’s a pretty hard deadline for being able to run a marathon by the time you turn 26.2, which led to the mantra for the cake. And I may not always be one for goal setting and achieving, but I can work towards a deadline.

This may come as a shocker, but running a marathon was not easy! My legs got pretty tired around mile 15. My longest training run was 20 miles, and I definitely felt the difference in soreness between a 20 and a 26.2 mile run.

But the biggest difference on marathon day was having my family running with me – when I was on my 20 mile training runs, I lost the mental battle and found it difficult to distract myself from the pain enough to keep a good attitude, or even keep running. At 18+ miles, it really is all mental, so having people around you to help keep your spirits up is crucial! It makes sense that people have better runs on race days – whether you’re doing an official race with a cheering audience, or a run like mine, with a cheer squad running with you.

Running eventually becomes a team sport, as the pro ultrarunners make clear. I’m nowhere near that level, but when you have to think through all your fueling and pit stops without an official race infrastructure, you do learn how much goes in to running that far!

I will say though, as I write this the day after and still find it difficult to walk… I am not in a huge rush to run another marathon. I certainly won’t rule it out, and I probably will eventually go for an official race, but it is a pretty all-consuming process. When you’re a slow runner, a 20 mile run on a Saturday eats up 5 hours, and then you’re sore for the whole weekend. I was constantly thinking about my sleep schedule and fueling. I’ve been building my weekends around long runs for the whole year. Which, obviously there’s worse habits to build your life around, but it does eat up quite a bit of your life and brain power and energy.

But I also can’t help but think… I’m at a point where running 15 miles doesn’t feel daunting any more. It just sounds like some Saturday morning plans. So while I’m in no rush to run another marathon, I don’t want to lose this endurance! As my brother and I have talked about, when you do a “Couch to 5K,” then you can just start running 5Ks consistently. The same does not quite feel the same for marathons, but I may try and keep 15 mile runs in my back pocket. We’ll see.

For now, I’ll just celebrate feeling proud of being a Marathoner, and enjoy this cake while I rest for a few days.

Chocolate Ovaltine Cake

Author: Audrey

Description

A cake fit for a marathon!

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4-cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strong black coffee
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Ovaltine Chocolate Caramel

1/2 cup sugar (divided)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup Rich Chocolate Ovaltine powder
1 1/2tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Chocolate Crumb

53 g flour
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
50 g sugar
33 g cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 Tablespoons butter, melted

Chocolate Buttercream

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoons whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup Rich Chocolate Ovaltine powder

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Prepare the chocolate crumb: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a sheet pan with either parchment or a Silpat liner.
Combine the dry ingredients in a mixer with the paddle attachment on low. Slowly add in the butter and mix until the mixture is fairly evenly moistened. Spread out onto your pan in an even layer. Bake for about 15 minutes. Pull out from the oven and let it cool.
Prepare the Ovaltine caramel: Measure all ingredients beforehand and have them ready, because this recipe moves quickly. Make a dry caramel: In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, cook ¼ cup of the sugar over medium-high heat. As soon as the sugar starts to melt, use a heat-resistant spatula to move it constantly around the pan—you want it all to melt and caramelize evenly to a gorgeous amber color. Once the first amount of sugar has taken on color, add the second ¼ cup sugar to the existing caramel in the pan, repeating the previous steps—cook and stir, cook and stir, until the mixture is once again a gorgeous amber color.
Remove pan from heat and stir in the unsalted butter until melted. Next, carefully and slowly stream in the heavy cream, whisking all the while. The mixture will sputter and bubble and produce a ton of steam so watch your hands.
Add chocolate chips and stir until melted. Finally, add in Ovaltine, cocoa powder, and salt and whisk until smooth.
Transfer caramel to an airtight container and chill for at least an hour, or until thick and glossy, before assembling the cake.
Make the cake: Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans and set aside. (Grease and flour a sheet pan or tube pan or line muffin tin with cupcake papers if using.)
In a large bowl stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a large measuring cup whisk together eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil, and vanilla.
Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until smooth and flossy, about 2 minutes. Batter will be thin – that’s right.
Divide batter between the prepared pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes (18 minutes or so for cupcakes) (35-45 minutes for a bundt cake) or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before running a butterknife around the edges and inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting: Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
In a 2 cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour half of the cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream. Stop the mister scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add remaining cream mixture or until you’ve reached your desired consistency. Beat until soft and creamy, about 1 minute.
Assemble the cake by placing one cake circle on your plate. Top with a thin layer of frosting, a thicker layer of the Ovaltine caramel, and most or all of the crumb. Place the second cake circle on top, and frost with the rest of the frosting.