An easy chocolate birthday cake decorated with chocolate biscuits, lollies, marshmallows and chocolates! This really is a chocoholics delight!
A few months ago (I know… I know… it’s taken me this long to type this post up!) it was my eldest nephew’s 7th birthday. He was born on New Years Eve (eeeek yep, now I’ve just admitted that it’s taken me 7 MONTHS to do this post!) and he is seriously the best little kid.
Anyway, I had seen lots of similar versions of this easy chocolate birthday cake on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to make. Jack, my nephew, was keen too… until he decided that he would rather a cricket cake… then a soccer cake… then a half cricket/half soccer cake. Such a typical 7 year old! He finally decided on this cake (which I thought was a very, very good call indeed).
We actually used a bought chocolate mud cake (shock horror, I know! But hey, it was New Years Eve!!!) and decorated it. Easiest. Cake. Ever. It seriously took about 20 minutes to decorate – from start to finish. How brilliant is that!?
Jack chose his favourite lollies and chocolates for the top, so we ended up using:
- chocolate finger biscuits (for the sides and dividers)
- chocolate freckles
- marshmallows
- strawberries and cream lollies
- choc pops
- crispy M&Ms
- chocolate honeycomb
- Bounty bars
- Maltesers
- a mini meringue for the centre
Oh and the birthday boy was going to help me decorate his cake… until a game of backyard cricket came calling. Again – typical 7 year old!
Ok, so here’s my tips for decorating this easy chocolate birthday cake.
- don’t be scared to use a store-bought cake (please don’t hate me for saying that!) – you’ll find that they’ll be perfectly round and completely flat on top which is what you want
- even if the cake you’ve bought has icing on it, buy an extra tub of frosting (or make your own) – you’ll need to frost the top and sides of the cake to get everything to stay in place
- use any kind of chocolate or lollies you like to decorate – the smaller the better as they’re easier to fit in the little gaps
- we used chocolate finger biscuits as the sides and dividers – you could also use musk sticks, Kit Kats or even licorice sticks
- this works best with a relatively big cake as you can fit lots of different lollies and chocolates on top
- go for bright coloured toppings – they look great!
- grab a ribbon and tie it into a bow – it looks like you’ve made an extra big effort… when really it only took you 10 seconds!
I really loved decorating this cake and will 100% be making it again in the future. And if I’m totally honest, I particularly liked decorating it whilst doing the whole ‘one for the cake, one for me’ thing. I’m pretty sure I ate half a bag of crispy M&Ms as I went!
What do you think of this easy chocolate birthday cake? What would you be topping yours with?
Easy Chocolate Birthday Cake
Ingredients
- 1 chocolate mud cake large store-bought
- 400 g chocolate frosting store-bought tub
- 800 g chocolate finger biscuits more or less depending on the size of the cake you use
- Chocolate or lollies to decorate chocolate freckles, marshmallows, crispy M&Ms, Maltesers, Bounty bars, chocolate honeycomb, chocolate pops, strawberries and cream lollies, mini meringues etc.
Instructions
- Place the chocolate mud cake onto a serving plate or board.
- Spread the frosting generously over the sides and top of the cake.
- Press the chocolate fingers firmly in place all around the sides.
- Use the chocolate fingers to create 'dividers' on top of the cake (make as many dividers as you need depending on the number of different chocolate/lollies you're going to be using).
- Fill each section with one type of lolly or chocolate.
- Add a mini meringue to the centre of the cake.
- Use the ribbon to tie a bow around the cake.
Nutrition
It is so amazing I’m going to do this for my next yr10 foodtech lesson. PENG!!!!!
Hi Lucy,
This is such an exciting one and looks pretty manageable for even home bakers. I am looking forward to making this for my 4yo’s birthday. Just tell me, how much in advance can we make so that it does well because the marshmallows and other candies often get moist with interaction of the sugar and water in the air. And probably the other candy bits may change their form too. So what is a safe time period that can come in between the prep and serving.
Thanks
Hi Wajiha, if possible it’s best to decorate this cake on the day that you’re planning on serving it. xxx
Thanks a lot for the reply…
Hi there! What diameter would be considered a ‘large cake’…25cm?
Hi Sarah, from memory (this was quite a few years ago). I believe we bought a plain chocolate mud cake from Costco which was around 30cm. You can definitely use a smaller cake – just reduce the amount of biscuits and lollies. xx