Step by step homemade baking recipes
“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!
Whether you are a lover or hater of Valentine’s day, you’re bound to love this cake because it’s full of candy, and lined with WHITE Kit Kats!
For whatever reason, I wasn’t able to find the white KitKats in Canada. For those of you that might find yourself with the same problem, I got the white KitKats on a recent trip to the US. Being so close to the border, I find that it’s super easy to order things that we don’t have in Canada, and have them shipping to a shipping outlet five minutes from the Canadian border. It’s awesome. And deadly at the same time. It’s quite an addiciting habbit. With Target pulling out of Canada, shopping is incredibly sparse in my city, so if it means I have to drive an hour or so to pick up packages from the USA, I’m willing to do so. All for the sake of the videos. All for you. ALL FOR YOU PEOPLE!!! Hahaha . . . that is true, but I might have an obsession with online shopping. Maybe. Why do they have to make it so easy!?!?!?
For the candy topping, you could use whichever your favourite candies are, themed with Valentine colours. Of course, you could make this for another occasion, and it would look just as awesome- I’m thinking Halloween, Easter, Christmas, or even a rainbow theme!
For the heart shaped cake, I used my favourite cake recipe, divided it in half like I would for any 8″ or 9″ pan, and baked them for about 45 minutes at 350. I think I had too much batter in the pan which is why I had to bake them for so long. The heart cake pan comes in a variety of sizes, so when you’re working with your batter, I just advise you to start watching it at 30 minutes.
When I’m choosing ribbon to use with cakes, for something like this, I went with a larger sized one. I also stay away from the ones that are “Wired”, since they tend to crinkle, and don’t lay flat on the cakes. They might be better for making bows, but aint’ nobody got time for that!
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.
My obsession with penguins started way back, long ago. Think 2005, Morgan Freeman, Antarctica, and you have the seed that planted and grew. March of the Penguins was the first time I had ever paid much attention to these birds-that-can’t-fly, but ever since, I have spent a month or so teaching and exploring about them in my kindergarten class. They are so fascinating!
When deciding which videos to make, I always try to make ones that have a level of interest to me as well as to the viewer. When I was looking at the up coming movie releases, and saw Penguins of Madagascar, I knew I had to do a cake for their solo movie debut!
They are the cutest penguins around, but surprisingly difficult to find in mini figurine form. I’ve linked to the ones I purchased on Amazon below in the list of ingredients, though I’m sure you could find them elsewhere if you look hard enough. Now, these penguins are obviously fictional, but you could easily replace them with a more realistic looking figurine if you wanted to just do a cake that focused on penguins, or even an iceberg.
The blue rock candy represents the ocean below the iceberg, while the penguins sit safely up on the glistening white iceberg. If you don’t have the blue rock candy available, or you want to make one giant iceberg, do away with the blue area, and cover the entire lower level in white/clear candies as well. I think that would look beautiful too.
The key to this cake is getting the glistening icy look by using the rock candies. You can make your own, or you can buy them in bulk like I did. They give the cake the shininess that most people associate with icebergs. Rock candy is also sold off the stick in chunks, so that is another option as well. And if all else fails, crush some suckers up!!
