Two cake recipes in a week? Yes but I had the perfect excuse! Birthdays for me always call for amazing celebration cakes to be made. And a double chocolate cake has to be the most heavenly thing for me and always at the top of my baking list. It was my Sister’s 20th birthday and when I asked what cake she would like, her answer was a chocolate M&M Kit Kat cake. Even though this isn’t really a recipe I still thought it would be cool to share some photos and show you how you can create a showstopper celebration cake for a birthday or special occasion. This cake was amazingly easy to make, I used my most reliable and favourite chocolate fudge cake recipe, brought a chocolate ganache icing and decorated with a rainbow of M&M’s and chocolatey wafer-y Kit Kat’s. The cake went down storm with both family and friends and it was completely devoured in a record time. Enjoy guys!

You’ll be surprised how easy this cake is to decorate. It looks so visually amazing! Just spread your favourite chocolate ganache icing all over the cake, stick the Kit Kat’s all around the outside and then pour over the M&M’s. That’s literally it and the cake looks absolutely stunning! And as you can tell it makes an amazing birthday cake.

Ingredients-

Cake (Makes 2 x 8 inch cakes)

1 3/4 cups of plain flour (all purpose)

2 cups of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup of good-quality cocoa powder

2 free-range eggs (I used medium sized)

1 cup of buttermilk

1/2 cup of Vegetable oil

1 cup of freshly brewed coffee (use a nice strong coffee)

To decorate- 

Approx. 450g of Chocolate fudge icing- you can use homemade if you prefer

Chocolate M&M’s, Kit Kat’s

Method-

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C Fan. Line two 8 inch cake tins with some baking parchment and grease the sides with some butter. Then set aside. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (the flour, sugar, bicarb, baking powder, salt and cocoa.) Mix with a wooden spoon, just to combine.

2. Then add the eggs, buttermilk, oil and the freshly brewed coffee. Mix until all the ingredients are well combined and they are no lumps in the batter- don’t overmix, just mix until you can’t see any lumps of flour!

3. Ladel the cake mix into the tins and then bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cakes are well risen and a cake tester comes out clean. Once cooked, allow to cool in tins for 30 minutes, then remove from tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

4. To decorate, spread a thin layer of the fudge icing onto one cake layer. Then sandwich together with the over cake half. Spread the remaining ganache around the outside of the cake- don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect as you’re going to decorate with loads of chocolate! Then finish by going around the outside of the cake with the kit kat’s. Then decorate the top with chocolate M&M’s. Slice up and enjoy.

Note: The cake will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days. 

Becky with her birthday cake!