Ah guys, this cake! This Snickers birthday cake has been both a labour of love and my biggest nemesis.
Before I put you off, the cake tastes insanely good and each part is easy to make. I’m just an unfortunate combination of terrible-at-cake-decorating and a perfectionist. You see my problem?
The first attempt looked beautiful right up until the last minute when I spread chocolate ganache over the top and turned it into a giant, gloopy mess.
(The good thing about almost crying over Snickers cake is that you have the perfect comfort food to console yourself with. I’m not even joking 🙊)
So, this time I ditched the ganache. The sponge has a super rich chocolate flavour anyway so a little salted caramel and chocolate sauce for decoration is more than enough!
I don’t often make big fancy layer cakes since they’re so time consuming. But, Ricky’s birthday presented the perfect opportunity to try a Snickers celebration cake. The idea was to combine all the flavours and textures of a Snickers bar into a cake.
So, we have:
– Rich, moist chocolate sponge – less light & fluffy, more dense and muffin-esque
– A thick layer of peanut nougat filling (a cheat’s version which is super easy & is adapted from this homemade snickers bar recipe)
– Salted caramel sauce, both as a filling and to decorate
– Creamy peanut butter frosting to finish it off
Do your best not to eat too much of the nougat/caramel/frosting as you go along. In the end you’ll have an incredible snickers birthday cake full of delicious chocolate peanut flavour!
If you’re looking for more info on how to crumb coat a cake and get super smooth edges (something I’m still working on!), check out these cake decorating tips from Molly Yeh (aka Queen of beautiful cakes!).
Tell me, what are your favourite cakes to bake for a special occasion? Any other chocolate bars you’d like to try in cake form?
Ingredients
- 150g cocoa powder, sifted
- 300g plain flour, sifted
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 medium eggs
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g light brown sugar
- 6 tsp vanilla extract
- 360ml milk
- 240ml vegetable oil
- 50g unsalted butter
- 150g caster sugar
- 60g evaporated milk
- 125g marshmallow fluff
- 65g peanut butter
- 150g roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped
- 300g smooth peanut butter
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- Milk
- Chocolate sauce
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180°c. Grease or line 3 8 inch cake tins.
- Mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk and oil.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, folding gently until combined. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- To make the nougat: Add the butter, sugar and evaporated to a pan and heat gently until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the marshmallow fluff, peanut butter and peanuts and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and allow to cool fully before assembling the cake.
- To make the frosting: Whisk the butter and peanut butter together until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar, whisking to combine. Add milk 1 tbsp at a time if the frosting is too thick.
- If you're using homemade salted caramel sauce, follow the instructions in the linked recipe. Allow it to cool fully before assembling the cake
- To assemble: Level each sponge. Top with a thin layer of frosting, followed by a layer of salted caramel sauce and half of the nougat. Place the second sponge layer on top. Add a thin layer of frosting, followed by salted caramel sauce and the remaining nougat. Crumb coat the cake, before adding the final layer of frosting.
- Decorate with the remaining salted caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, if desired.
Oh my God, this looks incredible! My mouth is watering! I’ll have to give this recipe a try, thanks for sharing! x
Thanks Kate, hope it goes well if you do try it!
I made this cake for my partner’s birthday but used a loaf tin so I could cover it in fondant icing to decorate. The cake is spectacular with all it’s elements and tastes fabulous. This wont be the last time I make it I’m sure.
Thanks for your lovely comment Liz – so happy to hear you enjoyed it!