Chocolate KitKat Birthday Cake Tutorial!

I say Tutorial; this is really more of a Vague General Guide.

What To Buy:
packet of M&Ms
13 (approx) four-finger KitKats
2 boxes Greens Chocolate Cake mix (or whatever brand you prefer)
eggs
milk
butter (get a large size)
vanilla essence
cocoa powder
icing sugar mixture
(use the cake mix packet and Icing recipe for ingredient quantities)

My boy became unwell on his 7th Birthday last week, and is still sick now. We had to cancel his Party, and he hasn't been able to eat any of his Birthday Cake, but he did manage to blow the candles out today. So here's the cake anyway. He wanted a KitKat and M&Ms cake again, but this year I thought I'd make a '7' shape on the top instead of covering the whole thing in M&Ms. This cake is already super rich, it really doesn't need five million M&Ms on top.

The cake is really easy to make, especially since it uses pre-mix. Beginners and inexperienced bakers would definitely be able to give this a go and get impressive results. I used two boxes of Greens (you could use White Wings or any cake mix) Chocolate Cake mix from the supermarket and made the cakes together in one large bowl, as per packet instructions. Because you're doing a double mix it really has to be a large bowl though, because you're mixing together twice as many eggs, twice as much milk etc. I never use a mixer as I can't be stuffed getting it out of the cupboard.

Once it's mixed, divide the cake batter evenly between two identical round cake tins and bake until a skewer comes out clean. Then once they are completely cooled down, cut the most uneven one straight across horizontally with a large serrated knife, and put aside the top (it's now scraps, but you can eat it later with the leftover icing).

Chocolate Icing

I decided to use this Chocolate Icing recipe again, since my son loves it so much. It's seriously the most fluffy, mousse-like icing I've ever made. I'm pretty sure this is because it's mostly butter, so it whips up like nobody's business. It's a little bit fiddly to make, but totally worth it. It makes a fair bit, and each time I make it, I have leftovers.

Time to get acquainted with the 13 KitKats you bought. At this point, I open them all up and carefully snap them all in half so I'm left with a whole bunch of two-finger pieces. Make sure they are all intact when you buy them or they could be broken in the wrong place! You will be sick to death of KitKats once this cake is finished, trust me.

I then put the bottom half of the cake on whatever I'll be serving it on and ice the cut top, then stick the whole other cake on top. It you want, you could easily have cut that one in half as well and do more layers, but I couldn't be stuffed. Once that's on, ice the top and all around the sides, so everything is covered in delicious fluffy icing and no cake is exposed.

Then arrange the M&Ms on top in the shape of a 7 (YAY a nice easy number!). Arrange the two finger KitKat pieces around the edges of the cake, pressing gently so they adhere to the icing, and you are done! 

Now go grab that leftover cake top, slather it in leftover icing, make a cup of tea and put your feet up for half an hour. You deserve it!

Three Layers of Chocolatey Goodness!

The finished product!

Twice a year I'll actually go to some effort to bake a nice cake; once for my Dad's Birthday and the other time for my son's Birthday. On the weekend, I baked this Chocolate Birthday Cake for my Dad. I combined four different recipes (all from the Taste website), because I don't like to make things easy for myself. I made the Icing that goes with this Chocolate Layer Cake because the comments underneath were positive (I always read the comments from people who've made the dishes, they're rife with useful nuggets of information).

Chocolate Mousse-like Icing. So yummy!

The white chocolate-dipped strawberry idea came from this Double-Choc Strawberries recipe, but I couldn't be arsed double dipping, and I thought white chocolate alone would complement the cake better anyway.

These were a big hit!

The Chocolate Ganache scared me to be honest, and I'm amazed I didn't screw it up. This is where reading the tips/comments under each recipe comes in handy, for I already had a quick fix for if the mixture curdled! Apparently, whisking through more cold cream will smooth out curdled ganache. Thank Christ it didn't come to that. Although I probably waited too long to ice the top, because the ganache was starting to set towards the end and it became difficult to spread, forcing me to be super-speedy!

Straight after I'd dipped the strawberries in melted white chocolate I had the genius idea to kind of drizzle the leftover chocolate over the top of the cake. I'm so glad I did this! It made the cake look way more professional and 'finished' and the contrasting colour lightened it up aesthetically. I didn't pipe it or anything, I just used a teaspoon to drizzle it from side to side. You have to work fairly quickly, because it doesn't take long for melted chocolate to set, rendering it completely useless!

Err, yeah. You can tell I didn't pipe it!

My cakes (yes, I baked two) didn't rise enough for four layers, so I happily settled for three. The cake is very rich and definitely needs to be served with cream or icecream. I'm so happy everyone loved it. It took me an entire anxiety-filled day to make, but it was worth it.

A slice of heaven!

What a poser

Happy Birthday Dad :)