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 large store-bought chocolate mud cake or make your own - but ensure the sides and top are completely flat
- 1 tub pre-made chocolate frosting
- 4 X 200g packets of 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.
- Ribbon for tying a bow
Instructions
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Place the chocolate mud cake onto a serving plate or board.
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Spread the frosting generously over the sides and top of the cake.
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Press the chocolate fingers firmly in place all around the sides.
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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).
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Fill each section with one type of lolly or chocolate.
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Add a mini meringue to the centre of the cake.
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Use the ribbon to tie a bow around the cake.
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Serve.
This is my kind of cake! I wish I’d seen this last week – my hubby would have loved this for his birthday! I’ll have to bookmark it for next year!
Oh how true!!! Im sure you made something incredible!
Looks delicious Lucy! We would all fight at my house over which section we could have! 😉
Hehehe of course!
The decoration is just fantastic!
Thank you!
wow that is brilliant – I love it and know my 7 year old would love it (yep 7 year olds are distracted so easily – esp when it comes to tidying a room or going to sleep) – have pinned this for one day in the near future!
Hahaha so true!
Wow! This looks sooo good and just right for my skill level! How does it go when being cut?
Hi Karla, it was actually surprisingly easy to cut! We tried to cut into the wedges and then cut slices from that! And then everyone mixed and matched their lollies!!!
wow hold on to your hat, what an awesome cake!!! All the best lollies.
What a special cake!! love the idea of all the colours and how good are finger biscuits for the outside?!
Oh they were fantastic!!!
Hi Lucy,
This looks amazing!! Just wondering if you could tell me where you bought the mud cake from, was it Coles or Woolies? Thinking tondo this for my son’s 1st birthday, but i know my 3 year old will be the one who loves it the most!
Thank you.
Hi Honi, it was actually Costco 🙂
This looks amazing! A true show stopper! Thanks for sharing it with YWF too. x
I’d have been doing one for the cake and one for me too 🙂 I bet all the kids (big & small) loved it.
Hahaha yes we all did!
Hi Lucy, when you say store bought cake would a Coles or Woolies cake do?
It looks amazing!
Absolutely!!!
Thank you for posting this! A fab idea – I’ll try it for my son’s birthday cake today!
Yay!!! Happy birthday to your little boy!!
My four year old daughter has helped me pick this cake for daddy’s 40th in a couple of weeks, as her words summed him up “daddy just LOVES chocolate mummy!”! I’ve also got an amazing cake topper that spikes into the cake just to add an extra bit of flair along with how amazing this cake looks. Fingers crossed I do it justice.
Oh that sounds AMAZING!!! And what good taste your 4 year old has!!!
Hi! Do you have any idea what the size of the cake was? I will bake my own cake but I’d like to get it about the same size, as yours fit the lollies very nicely.
Hi Cat, no I’m sorry I’m not sure of the size as it was a bought cake. But it was quite large! Much larger than a small 20-23cm cake tin. I would say it was more like 30cm at least! 🙂