Kit Kat Cake

 A sweet a simple way to dress up an ordinary cake! Kit Kats, M&M’s, Oreos…a sugar addict’s dream come true!

Being that my brother was visiting this weekend to celebrate his birthday with my family and me, I decided to be the good sister that I am (more like the BEST SISTER IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!) and make him a birthday cake! Seeing as I had a multitude of Halloween candy from my recent couponing outings (Yay candy sales!), I figured there’s gotta be a more creative way to use it rather than cementing myself to the couch all weekend while drowning my singleness sorrows in snack size candy bars, peanut M&Ms and Katherine Heigl rom-coms.

Anyone who has a Pinterest account has no doubt discovered the sugar-filled amazingousity of the Kit Kat Cake. If not, here’s your introduction…

Aside from the fact that it’s encased in candy, the wonderful thing about this cake is that it’s so simple to make, yet looks impressive! In addition to the Kit Kat bars, the possibilities are endless as far as the kinds of candies and cookies you can use to “bejewel” your cake.  

While the original Kit Kat Cake just has Kit Kat bars and M&Ms, I decided to add these cute mini Oreos for the bottom border.

Instead of piling the M&Ms on top (I’m on a diet), I added a simple border around the perimeter. Look how pretty it is!

And since it’s October (Yay for Halloween coming up!), I went with Fall colors–orange-colored White Chocolate Kit Kats (as well as the original milk chocolate kind) and White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms.

 Being the white chocoholic that I am, restraining myself during the decorating process was definitely no easy task. I mean, have you tried the White Chocolate Candy Corn M&Ms???

 I popped one of those babies in my mouth and almost died from pure sugar coma joy! They are…A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Undoubtedly, I knew I’d love them because they’re white chocolate, but the candy corn flavor takes these M&Ms up ten more notches! It almost reminded me of cotton candy. LOVE! My NEW favorite M&M by far–TOTALLY gonna have to stock up on these before the season is over!

As for the cake, I used the chocolate cake recipe from my Homemade Hostess Cupcakes recipe, except I baked the batter in three 8-inch cake pans for 25 minutes at 350F degrees (same temperature).

For the frosting…don’t judge me…I used canned.

I know, I know! It’s probably been a decade since I’ve used canned frosting, but I was in a hurry and I figured it was more about the decorating concept than the recipe itself. Feel free to use homemade frosting, if you’re so inclined. Though sometimes it’s ok to give yourself a break and go the Sandra Lee route instead of the I-make-everything-from-scratch-because-I’m-Martha friggin’ Stewart approach! I did, however, use a homemade cream cheese frosting (leftover from a previous recipe) in between the layers, so you can at least give me credit for that!

I also doctored up the canned frosting just a bit. I started with Betty Crocker’s fudge chip frosting, whipped it in my mixer for a few minutes to add some air, added a little cocoa powder and vanilla for flavor as well as a few tablespoons of coffee creamer (great substitute if you don’t have milk or cream!) to make it more spreadable. Frosting straight from the can tends to spread like molasses! 

Because this cake is covered in Kit Kats and candy/cookies, the frosting job does NOT have to be perfect. Yay for messy jobs! After you’ve frosted the cake, any imperfection will be concealed once you add the candy. 

And there you have it! A wonderful excuse to eat tons of candy with your cake! Enjoy!

And Happy Birthday Bro!