Step by step homemade baking recipes
Today we’re joined again by Gemma Stafford from Bigger Bolder Baking, and this time, we’re doing a fun video challenge putting together a Kracie Popin’ Cookin’ Donut kit!
If you’ve played the game Five Nights at Freddy’s, you’ll know that it takes place in a pizza parlor after hours. It’s dark in there, and it’s scary! It’s so scary that the first time I played it on my iPad, the iPad ended up being thrown across the room- from fright! I don’t recommend being as much of a chicken as I am when playing horror video games. “If you’re a chicken, why are you playing horror video games Jenn?” For research people, for research!!
When I was a kid, I loved Nerds! There’s nothing much better than “retro” candies from the 80’s! Nostalgia makes everything taste better, am I right? Combining cake and the crunch of Nerds is such a novel treat!
“Because sometimes a cake is just not enough.”
“Because sometimes, you want a side of candy to go with your cake.”
“Because sometimes, you just must.”
If you need any excuses as to why you are stuffing a cake full of candy, use one of the above statements.
This cake is for chocolate lovers only. In fact, you should probably be obsessed with chocolate in order to make this cake since every component has chocolate; from the chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream base, to the swirled chocolate wafer sticks wrapped around it, to the chocolate candy chunks on top!
Imagine this . . . hazelnut core, nutella hazelnut wafers, chocolate hazelnut coating. You with me?
Sound familiar? Like a Ferrero Rocher you say? Well, it is, but in GIANT form!
I’ve been wanting to make a homemade ferrero rocher every since I made homemade nutella. But, rather than making regular sized ones, I opted to go big. “Go big or go home” is what my brother used to say. He was referring to hockey and not chocolate, but that’s not important. When I’m referring to chocolate, I’m always referring to going BIG.
Hazelnuts are the main flavouring component to a ferrero. I find it next to impossible to find hazelnuts already roasted. To roast the hazelnuts, simply line a baking tray with parchment paper, and toast for 15-20 mins at 325F. Once the hazelnuts are fragrant and toasted, allow them to cool, and peel the skins from the nuts. They’re now ready to use!
To make the giant ferrero rocher, the general idea is to encase a hazelnut/hazelnut butter mixture, nutella wafers and coat the entire thing in chocolate and crushed hazelnuts.
If you prefer to stick with the smaller, traditional size, you can definitely do that with this recipe too. Instead of using the hazelnut butter and hazelnuts to make the core, simply use a single hazelnut. Wrap the hazelnut in the nutella mixture, roll into a ball, roll in nuts and finally melted chocolate.
Target Canada can sometimes be a little slow on distribution of goods, especially when the shopper (me) is looking for Halloween and fall candies at the beginning of September. Wait a second- is that my problem, or Target’s? Sorry Target– I should have known better! It was too soon for shopping for fall things! The only candy that was out on the shelves while I was pre-season shopping was candy corn. I don’t like candy corn, but as you’ve just heard from my ramblings, I had no other choice for a fun cookie add-in. I couldn’t go without some sort of chocolate though, so to match the candy corn, white chocolate was in order. And yes, Target had that in stock.
Candy selection in Canada can sometimes be dismal. It’s not just a problem for one store, it’s a problem for all Canadian stores. I’m not sure if candy corn is available outside of North America, but if you can’t find it in your country, I understand! There are so many types of candies, candy bars, and chocolate bars that we can’t get here in Canada, so I have to travel over the border to get supplies for recipes. Luckily, I’m only an hour away from the nearest border crossing, so I’m able to do that. Unfortunately for some, that’s not an option. I get lots of questions about where to find certain treats or ingredients from countries around the world, and I’m usually not able to help with locating them. If there is a certain candy or ingredient that you need for a recipe, always try Googling it, and seeing if you can get it mailed to you. I also have lots of success with Amazon.
Since candy corn is made entirely of sugar, it is likely to melt in the heat of the oven, so try to keep the corn pieces away from the outside of the balls of cookie dough. You can place some on top of the cookie before putting them into the oven if you want the candy corn to be seen better.
The recipe is after the break! Enjoy!
