Chocolate Explosion Cake

“A little bit of sweetness can drown out a whole lot of bitterness.”

When I was thinking of a way to describe this cake, I got stuck on the word “Playful”. Because, frankly a chocolate chip cake, encased in Cadbury chocolate fingers and overloaded with a whole variety of some of the best picks from the confectionary aisle. It isn’t exactly a serious cake, all it wants is to be loved and to make people smile.

But, to really enjoy this kind of cake, I’d suggest getting pretty serious about your relationship with chocolate. Only a few are tough enough to take this absolute treasure trove of a cake on, but it’s worthwhile, I’m not lying.

I found inspiration for this cake on Instagram. I had become tired of seeing oodles of complex, multilayer cakes, I decided to make something delicious, yet simple. If I was going to break it down, the whole concept would go a little like this:

1. Bake a chocolate cake

2. Sandwich with buttercream

3. Generously smother the outside with buttercream

4. Lovingly surround the cake with Cadbury fingers or Kitkats? (Buy enough, don’t run out halfway through and have to run to Tesco as I did)

5. Stack a vast selection of chocolates on top, the more the merrier, after all, everyone is welcome (eat the “leftovers“).

6. Serve and let everyone think that frankly, you’re amazing.

Chocolate Explosion Cake

For The Cake

1. 40g Cocoa powder

2. 125g Butter

3. 125g Caster Sugar

4. 125g Self Raising Flour

5. 1tsp Baking Powder

6. 2 eggs, beaten

7. 50g White chocolate chips

For The Buttercream

1. 200g butter or margarine softened

2. 400g icing sugar

3. 5 tbsp cocoa powder

4. 2 tbs milk

For the decoration

3x Boxes of Cadbury Fingers – You will have some leftover

Around 8-10 chocolate bars, buttons, Maltesers or whatever you fancy really.

Method

Pre: heat the oven to 180 degrees and set aside a cake tin, any kind of tin will do as it doesn’t have to be perfect. Then, start by beating the sugar and butter, followed by the eggs and vanilla. Then gradually add flour, cocoa powder & chocolate chips until a smooth batter forms. Now, if you have two slim cake tins that would be ideal as I’d recommend splitting the mix in half between the tins. If not, then no problem as you can slice the cake once it’s cooled. Bake for 25-35 minutes (basically, until a toothpick comes out clean) but go bake for less time if you’re splitting the mix between two tins.

Set aside and allow to cool through fully. Whilst the cake is cooling, you can make the buttercream, which can be set aside to chill in the fridge. To make the buttercream, beat together the butter, milk, icing sugar and vanilla until fluffy cream forms.

Then sandwich buttercream or fresh whipped cream into the middle of the cake and smoother the outside in buttercream. Don’t worry about this being super neat as it won’t be seen, which is a huge relief! Now, please don’t hang around, whilst the buttercream is still moist, carefully arrange Cadbury fingers around the outside of the cake. As you can see by mine, it’s not entirely perfect and I’m completely okay with that.

Once the Cadbury fingers are in place, start scattering the chocolate on the top of the cake, building it up gradually and ensuring that all the buttercream is covered.

You can serve right away or freeze for a later date, this cake would easily serve 8-10 persons.

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Happy Baking!

Katie

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