Kit Kat and M&M cake

Recently we had a special birthday in the family (I’m not allowed to reveal who’s it was or the age though!!) and a special birthday deserves a special cake. I had seen a cake on Pintrest earlier in the year and immediately thought it would be perfect for the occasion.

When searching for a recipe it seemed most of these types of cakes where filled with buttercream frosting, which I thought would be far too sweet so I decided to go with a raspberry mousse instead to add a fresh note to it.

As I was under strict instruction not to arrange any kind of party, big or small, but just have a small family celebration, I reduced the cake ingredients by a third to make it slightly smaller – after all it was mainly me and hubby who was going it eat it and although we both love cake, there is a limit to how much cake we can eat!!

I have added measurements for the normal sized cake below though. I baked the sponge in three small cake tins (which are actually a pie dishes, but they fit the purpose). If I had made the normal sized cake I would have just used a large (26 cm) cake tin instead and cut it into three layers.

I couldn’t get away from the buttercream completely though as I needed something to stick the Kit Kat bars to the side of the cake. I used a recipe I had for a Swiss roll filling, which turned out to be very rich. The next time I make the cake (I foresee this getting requested for children’s birthday parties in years to come!) I would probably use a different recipe, possibly a cream cheese frosting as that would hopefully be less rich.

Because I made the cake a bit smaller the Kit Kats were sticking up quite a bit above the cake, which meant it took a lot of M&M’s to fill the hollow at the top.

Although it may seem like a long list of ingredients below, and lengthy instructions, it is a very easy cake to make and it looks very impressive. It is also very tasty which is always a plus!

Kit Kat and M&M cake

Ingredients – Cake
3 eggs
200 ml sugar
300 ml plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1.5 tsp baking powder
300 ml boiling water

Buttercream frosting
200g soft butter
300 ml icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yoke
8 tbsp cocoa powder

Raspberry mousse
300 g raspberries
4 leaves gelatine
3 eggs
125 ml sugar
250 ml whipping cream

Decoration
8-12 Kit Kat bars
1-1.5 185g bag of M&M
Ribbon

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 175C and prepare a cake tin
2) Beat eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3) Mix the flour with the cocoa and baking powder. Add to the egg and sugar mixture.
4) Pour in the boiling water and mix until smooth
5) Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for about 35 minutes. Once cool cut into three layers.
6) If wanting a smooth raspberry mousse, mix the raspberries in a food processor and pass though a sieve to remove the seeds. If not wanting a smooth mousse, don’t pass through the sieve.
7) Soak gelatine leaves in cold water for a few minutes until soft. Squeeze the water out of them and melt over low heat in a saucepan, or for a few seconds in a microwave. Allow to cool slightly.
8) Beat eggs and sugar for the mousse until pale and fluffy.
9) Add the raspberry sauce to the egg mixture. Make sure the raspberries are at room temperature when adding, if using frozen raspberries the gelatine will set too quickly if the mixture is too cold when added.
10) Mix in the whipped cream and finally the gelatine. Chill in the fridge for about 4 hours, or longer.
11) To make the buttercream, mix butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder until smooth.
12) Add the vanilla extract and finally the egg yolk and mix until fully incorporated.
13) To assemble the cake, spread the bottom layer of the cake with raspberry mousse, add the middle layer and spread with raspberry mousse before adding the top layer.
14) Cover the cake with the buttercream frosting.
15) Split the Kit Kat bars into two (leghtwise) and stick to the sides of the cake.
16) Tie a ribbon around the cake and fill the top with M&Ms.
17) Keep cool until serving