Chocolate Explosion Cake

Chocolate Explosion Cake

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A towering and decadent chocolate explosion cake layered with white chocolate buttercream that comes with chocolate balls filled with sprinkles, glitter and sweets so the birthday girl or boy can smash them all over their cake. Piñata-style !

As a kid, I always had a piñata at every birthday party. My dad had been to Mexico and fell in love with the tradition, so each year we would make a piñata out of newspaper and glue, stuff it with sweets and toys and then, blindfold on, my friends and I would take turns to whack it until it eventually exploded and rained exciting goodies all over the place. This memory was the inspiration behind the most spectacular birthday cake of all – chocolate balls filled with sprinkles and glitter that the birthday girl or boy can smash all over their own cake!

This towering, colourful explosion cake is made up of my favourite chocolate cake, sandwiched together with vibrantly tinted white chocolate buttercream. The chocolate balls can be filled with whatever sprinkles, sweets or surprises you like – whatever you fill them with they are going to be LOADS of fun!  It’s one of the more advanced recipes in the book, but I know that many of you have been baking recipes from The Kate Tin for quite a few years now, and since you’ve had so much practice and really are incredibly good bakers now, I need to keep up with your skills and so I think this one is a nice challenge! I also don’t think I’m alone here when I say that, I don’t mind the effort if I’m baking for someone special! 

This fun creation comes straight out of my cookbook, ‘Chocolate’ which is a collection of 90 brand new recipes that champion my favourite ingredient, chocolate, in some rather unique ways! I’ve shared a few recipes from the book here and here. If you haven’t already got a copy, you can order it online from Loot or Takealot or find it in any bookstore nationwide! 

The reason for sharing the recipe for this celebratory chocolate explosion cake today is that it was exactly 9 years ago back in 2010 that I started The Kate Tin and published my very first post. I cannot quite believe that it has morphed into a brand, a couple of awards and a cookbook in just under a decade! If you’re a regular around here (which I know many of you are), I want to THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for clicking, liking, sharing and making my recipes and allowing me to inspire you with wickedly delicious bakes. Here’s to another 9 years!  

Chocolate Explosion Cake
Serves 8
Recipe extract from 'Chocolate' by Katelyn Williams published by Human & Rousseau
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Total Time
4 hr
Total Time
4 hr
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Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
0g
Servings
8
Amount Per Serving
Calories 0
Calories from Fat 0
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 0g
0%
Saturated Fat 0g
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Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
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Total Carbohydrates 0g
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Dietary Fiber 0g
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Sugars 0g
Protein 0g
Vitamin A
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Vitamin C
0%
Calcium
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* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Ingredients
  1. CHOCOLATE CAKE
  2. 450 g white sugar
  3. 270 g cake flour
  4. 80 g The Kate Tin Cocoa Powder
  5. 15 ml (1 tbsp) baking powder
  6. 15 ml (1 tbsp) bicarbonate of soda
  7. 5 ml (1 tsp) salt
  8. 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  9. 250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk
  10. 15 ml (1 tbsp) vanilla extract or essence
  11. 250 ml (1 cup) strong, hot coffee
  12. 70 g smooth peanut butter
  13. 110 g salted butter, melted
  14. WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
  15. egg whites from 3 eggs, at room temperature
  16. 225 g white sugar
  17. 125 g The Kate Tin White Baking Chocolate, finely chopped
  18. 10 ml (2 tsp) vegetable or canola oil
  19. 400 g unsalted butter, cubed and softened at room temperature (don't use salted butter!)
  20. pink, blue, yellow, purple, green food colouring
  21. CHOCOLATE DOMES
  22. 400 g The Kate Tin Milk or Dark Baking Chocolate,
  23. melted and cooled
  24. 8-hole silicone dome mould (see TIP)
  25. 200 g The Kate Tin White Baking Chocolate, melted
  26. sprinkles, popping candy, edible glitter, to fill
  27. pink, green, yellow, blue powder food colouring
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C for fan-forced). Prepare 3 springform cake tins (18 cm each).
  2. For the cake, mix all the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients. Combine the coffee, peanut butter and butter and add to the mixture. Mix well.
  3. Pour 300 g of the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 15–20 minutes or until a skewer
  4. comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting and allowing to cool completely. Clean and prepare the cake tins again and bake the remaining batter to make the last two layers.
  5. To make the buttercream, fill the bottom of a saucepan with water and bring it to a gentle simmer.
  6. Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl that fits over the saucepan and place the bowl over the hot water, stirring gently with a whisk (don’t whisk to aerate the mixture). Keep stirring until the mixture reaches 60 °C on a sugar thermometer or until the egg whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the hot mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, whip the mixture on high until light and fluffy. Continue whipping for a good 10 minutes or until the meringue is cool to the touch. In the meantime, melt the white chocolate and oil together until smooth and set aside to cool. Slowly add the butter, one block at a time, to the meringue until it is thick, glossy and velvety. Check the temperature of the melted white chocolate – it should be cool to the touch – then whip it into the buttercream. Divide the buttercream into five batches and tint each using the gel food colouring. Place each colour into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
  7. To assemble the cake, place one layer on a cake stand or serving plate, then pipe dots of green icing to cover the cake. Top with the second cake layer, and pipe dots of another colour of icing on top. Repeat the process, finishing with a layer of icing dots.
  8. To make the chocolate domes, fill the silicone dome mould with the melted and cooled dark or
  9. milk chocolate (it shouldn’t be hot or it will melt the splatters), then flip the mould over the bowl of melted chocolate and allow the excess chocolate to drip out.
  10. Allow to set in the fridge and repeat the process to form a nice thick shell.
  11. Once set, pop the domes out of the mould. Fill one dome with a mixture of sprinkles, popping candy and edible glitter. Dip the edges of another dome in a little melted chocolate (you could also use a hot baking tray), then ‘glue’ the empty dome on top of the one filled with sprinkles to form a ball. Seal the edges and allow to set. Repeat with the remaining balls.
  12. Divide the white chocolate into four small bowls and tint each a different colour. Splatter and splash the various coloured chocolates onto the domes and allow to set. Arrange the chocolate balls on top of the cake and top with sparklers. To serve, smash the balls with the back of a spoon to release the sprinkles inside!
Notes
  1. TIP: You could also bake this cake in three tins and then cut each cake in half to make six layers.
  2. The remaining layer you can wrap and freeze for cake emergencies!
  3. Silicone dome moulds are available at baking or plasticware shops but if you can’t find them, you
  4. can also use 6 to 8 small water balloons that have been washed well. Simply dip the balloons in the chocolate first, and then splatter with the coloured white chocolate.
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The Kate Tin https://thekatetin.com/

 

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

 This post for cookie ice cream cones is sponsored by Natura Sugars

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
What if the ice cream cone was AS delicious as the ice cream that was in it?! I present to you… the cookie ice cream cone! It’s both delicious AND portable and pure genius. I get asked the question ‘Cup or Cone?’ at least twice a week. Yes, I eat ice cream twice a week, at least, don’t judge! But never in a cone, thanks. I go for the cup every time. Why? Because I really don’t like the taste of the waffle cone. It’s too sweet, artificial tasting and is a total waste of calories. It could be so much better and so I set to work!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
You could use pretty much any cookie recipe to make these cookie ice cream cones but you’re going to want to use mine, trust me. It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world – and I’ve tried A LOT! But what takes the cookie to a whole ‘nother level is the sugar I’ve used. Natura Sugars has this sandy, voluptuous soft brown sugar that is fudgey and gives these babies a chewiness on the inside but leaves the edges crispy crunchy – in my opinion, what every cookie should be!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
While they may look like a challenge, these cones are really easy to make. Simply whip up the cookie dough, then roll it into big balls. Next, use a rolling pin to roll them really thin and bake! While they’re still hot shape them around a normal ice cream cone which has been covered in foil (in my opinion, that’s the only use for them, really) and allow to cool! I like to stuff the bottom of my cones with a marshmallow to stop drips, and coating the inside of the cookie ice cream cone with melted chocolate would be pretty amazing too – or try this chocolate ice cap sauce!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
If cookie ice cream cones are not your thing, you could also shape them into cookie ice cream bowls by draping the hot cookie over a glass or muffin tin. All that’s left is to pile in the ice cream, sprinkles and sauce – and invite some friends around for an ice cream par-tay!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones

Makes 12

 

200g salted butter, softened

340g Natura Sugars Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

1 large egg

300g cake flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g The Kate Tin Dark Baking Chocolate, chopped

 

Preheat oven to 200°C (or 180°C fan-forced). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream for 8-10 minutes until pale, creamy and light. Add the vanilla, milk and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and chopped chocolate and mix to combine. Roll out golf-ball size balls of the cookie batter between two squares of baking paper until 2-3mm thin then place onto a baking tray, leaving enough room for spreading. It’s easiest to bake two at a time. Bake for 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown but the centre should still be chewy. While still hot, turn the cookie over and wrap it around a waffle cone wrapped in foil and hold it in place for a few seconds until it starts to firm up. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

 

TIP This cookie dough freezes very well so make a huge batch, roll into balls and freeze in a ziplock bag. Then simply bake them from frozen!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cones
WATCH HOW TO MAKE THEM HERE:
Giant Doughnut Cake with Homemade Sprinkles

Giant Doughnut Cake with Homemade Sprinkles

Doesn’t this cake look like SO MUCH FUN?! That’s because I had a ridiculously good time putting it together! What’s not to love about pastel colours, cake, doughnuts, sugar and of course, sprinkles?

This cake was actually created for one of my dearest friends, Claire who is the ridiculously good looking foodie behind SA’s first YouTube cooking channel ‘Good Looking and Cooking‘. There is no one on this earth more obsessed with doughnuts than she is (except that she calls them ‘donuts’) but I love her anyway! ;). I was tasked with making her a cake for probably the most epic bachelorette party in the history of bachelorette parties. Guys, there was a candy floss bar, build your own freak shakes, inflatable unicorns, Private Chef Matt Manning, rainbow bagels – it was like every dream I’d ever had came true!

So of course, I had to dream up one seriously cool cake and this one is straight out of a Candy Land fantasy! I baked an easy one-bowl butter cake in 3 savarin moulds (those silicone microwave bundt cake moulds would also work well), and then stuffed each cake with a raspberry vanilla buttercream. I piped on the royal icing to get that cartoon-looking doughnut design but you could just go ahead and drizzle it over the cakes. And of course, giant doughnuts, deserve giant sprinkles so I’ve also included a fun, easy way for you to make your own using leftover royal icing – simply pipe colourful strips of icing, allow to dry and break them up! Clever, right?! *throws sprinkles on self*

Giant Doughnut Sprinkles Cake

Makes 1

 

250g butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

3 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup milk

 

Frosting

250g butter, softened

2 cups Natura Sugars Demerara Icing Sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

drop of milk, if necessary

1/4 cup of good-quality raspberry jam

 

Royal Icing

1 egg white

1 cup Natura Demerara Icing Sugar

Pastel gel food colourings

Sprinkles, to decorate

 

Preheat oven to 150° C (fan-forced) Grease 3 x 20 cm savarin or bundt cake tins. Place the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment). Beat on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to high and beat the mixture until it is just smooth. Spoon mixture into the baking tins and bake for 1 hour 5 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in cake tin on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn out onto the wire rack and cool completely.

For the buttercream, whip the butter in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment until very white and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whip for 5 minutes until almost white and the icing sugar is completely dissolved (add a drop or two of milk if necessary). Swirl through the raspberry jam – don’t mix it in completely. Place in a piping bag with a plain nozzle.

For the royal icing, whisk the egg whites and icing sugar together to form a firm icing then divide in three and tint each a different colour. Place in piping bags fitted with plain nozzles and set aside.

To assemble the cake, poke the bottom of each ring with the back of a wooden spoon and fill the holes with the raspberry buttercream. Pipe the icing onto each layer to create a dripped effect (TIP: Start with your royal icing very thick to pipe the outline, then thin it out slightly and fill in the lines). Decorate with sprinkles and allow to set completely then place the ‘doughnuts’ on top of each other.

 

TIP To make your own sprinkles, fill a piping bag fitted with small plain nozzle with coloured royal icing and pipe long strips of royal icing onto a piece of baking paper and allow to dry overnight or in a low oven (60 degrees). Once dry, break them up and mix the colours together. Store in an airtight jar.