Using Up Halloween Treats 2: Crispy Crunchy Cake

Yes Halloween has been over for awhile now but good thing about candy, they pretty much last forever with that much sugar...

But you only live once!



So...



Crispy Crunchy Cake, as you might have guessed it's made with the candy bar, Crispy Crunch.



They're peanut buttery but somehow it's has a lot of bite into it and really good. So I decided I want to not really do anything to the candy bars because I want to keep that crunch. Then I wanted cake and duh, chocolate cake for a chocolate bar! Which somehow jump started this whole chain of perfect combinations which starts with peanut butter -> chocolate -> bananas -> Nutella!

So it ended up with a moist chocolate cake filled with bananas, Nutella frosting, and covered in Crispy Crunch.

Okay I'm going split the recipe in the categories of "making the chocolate cake" and "decorating the cake" and the second part is...quite picture heavy I must say.

Crispy Crunch Cake

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Flour - 300g (2 1/5 cups according to Yahoo answers 140g unsifted flour = cup...buy a scale already!)
Cocoa powder - 100 grams (3/4 cup)
Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
Baking Powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Salt - a pinch
White sugar - 200g (1 cup)
Brown Sugar - 200g (bit less than 1 cup? It's supposed to be 220g for 1 cup for brown sugar)
Butter - 200g, cubed (1 1/2 cup, if you have a block uh...just cut it a bit smaller than half it's also about two sticks)
Shortening - 50g (1/4 cup)
Cream - 100 ml

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Cream the room temperature butter and shortening with the sugars until light and well incorporated.
3. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and 100ml of the cream
4. Add the eggs slowly, one at a time at low speed until well incorporated, then turn the speed to high till the batter starts getting fluffier. Add the melted chocolate.
5. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to the batter at slow speed.
6. Turn up the speed till the batter is light and fluffy.

Like so. You can see I added some candy bar bits but I don't think you should because it melted anyways and the flavour gets lost in the chocolate.
7. Pour the batter into two 7 inch pans and put in the oven, middle rack.
8. Take out after 30 minutes or check with a toothpick (when it does come out clean, have a feel for the cake so you know how it feels when it's done.)
9. Let the cake rest until it's room temperature.

Decorating The Cake

Ingredients
Crispy Crunch - 15 small bars (or you can use like 4 big bars)
Nutella - 250g (they come in 400g jars so half of that and then two big spoonfuls)
Unsweetened chocolate - 100g
White chocolate - a small handful
Cream - 400 ml
Bananas - 4-5, ripe (there should be a few dots on them, but not full of dots)

Instructions

1. Now make the frosting, whip 390ml of the cream till it's firm (shouldn't drop if you hold it upside down)

2. In low speed, add the nutella, then turn it back to high speed until well incorporated. Keep the frosting in the fridge until it's time to use it.

3. Once the cake is cool, cut the top part (the part that looks like a dome) so the cake will be flat...like a perfect cylinder. Than cut the cakes in half, making four cake layers. If you're wondering why one of the layers there is different looking...I dropped the pan mid bake and it collapsed within itslef, it's more condensed.
4. Now you only need three of the layers because I thought it's a bit tall with four layers but you can if you want to.

5. Add a bit of the frosting to one of the cake layers, spread it around with a palette knife but not all the way to the edge.

6. Cut the bananas in half, lengthwise.

7. Line the bananas at the edge, as you can see, the pressure from the bananas kinda pushed the frosting to the edge, it would've went overboard if you spread the frosting all the way to the edge in the first place.

8. Put as much bananas as possible.

9. Fill in the gaps with more frosting.

10. Chop 6 of the candy bars (1 1/2 large one), sprinkle the chopped candy bar on top of the bananas.

11. Repeat with the second layer and then top it off with the final layer.

12. Pour most of the frosting on the top of the cake. Using a palette knife, spread the frosting on top, pushing the frosting to fall down on the sides until there's a thin but adequate layer on top.

13. Just run the palette knife around the cake to spread the frosting thoroughly. If there isn't enough to cover the cake, if there is not enough, add more frosting, but you have to do the same as in step 11, add it to the top and use the palette knife to spread it.

14. Chop up the rest of the candy bar. Just grab a handful and gently pat it on the edges. Then transfer the cake to a cake board or whatever you plan to hold your cake.
15. Now melt the white chocolate with the 10 ml of cream.

16. Using a spoon, just randomly drizzle circles on top.

17. Get a fork and drag it from top to bottom in lines.

Instantly looks more professional!

Phew! Typing it all out was more tiring than the actual process (fortunately for everyone who wants to make this cake...unfortunate for me who had to type all that.)

I have to say, I think the cake looks alright for me, who never really had to do much cake decorating (it's why I make cupcakes...so I don't have to deal with this bullshit).


Of course you have to look at the inner beauty as well. It's not just a pretty cake, it has a lot of layers, very complex.


Everyone wants a piece of it!

Well...this cake is just really indulgent which is great for those days when you just want something sweet to make your day happier. Like everything good just comes together, chocolate, banana, Nutella, peanut butter. I love the bit of crunch that the candy bar gives.