This one looks pretty good, huh? You can use this decorating technique with any two-layer cake. I’ll show you how I made mine festive for the holiday season using an eggnog recipe. As you can tell from the mise en place below, this is a cake mix cake.
You dump all the ingredients into a bowl and mix!
Then you pour the batter into two greased 8″ cake pans and bake according to the boxed directions. In this case, it was about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
While the cakes cooled, I prepared the frosting.
And by prepare, I mean I purchased canned frosting. I know – blasphemy! But I was preparing 4 cakes in one weekend in order to catch up on my baking. I was cutting corners. I’ll admit it.
I trimmed the tops of the cake so I could sample them and make sure they tasted okay. I also wanted to make sure the cake layers rested flat on one another.
I placed the bottom layer on a cake stand lined with pieces of parchment and spread the top with a thin layer of chocolate frosting.
I placed the second layer on top and frosted the top and sides using an offset spatula. I just barely had enough frosting to cover the whole thing in a very thin layer. In hindsight, I would have liked to have had two cans of frosting on hand.
Now this is the tough part. You have to manage to place three 4.5 oz packages of Kit Kats around the sides of the cake without eating any! It was tough, let me tell you. You can place them individually or two by two. I went with the latter in order to save time.
Finally, I poured Christmas M&Ms on the top of the cake and tied it off with a red ribbon.
I served this cake at a small gathering of friends and one of my guests almost dug his hand into the top thinking it was an actual basket of M&Ms. I was very excited to announce the basket was indeed a cake – an eggnog cake!
I wasn’t wild about the taste of the cake. You see, I don’t really like eggnog. But I realize a lot of people do like eggnog. So if you do, I hope you enjoy this one. It’s perfect for the holidays.
This Kit Kat basket technique would also make a great Easter cake. Just use pastel M&Ms and a pastel bow.
- 1 package of vanilla cake mix
- 1 cup eggnog – from the can or the carton, sans alcohol
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons spiced rum
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cans chocolate frosting
- 3 large (4.5 oz) packages of Kit Kats
- 1 large bag of M&Ms
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8″ round cake pans and place a greased parchment round in the bottom of each.
- In large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, eggnog, oil, eggs, rum and nutmeg. Beat at medium and until combined and smooth.
- Distribute batter between the two pans and bake about 30-35 minutes.
- Allow cakes to cool in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Flip the cakes out onto the racks to cool completely.
- Trim tops of cakes with serrated knife. Place one layer on a parchment lined cake stand or round.
- Frost top of bottom layer. Place second layer on top. Cover top and sides with remainder of chocolate frosting.
- Place Kit Kats around the sides of the cake two-by-two. Top cake with M&Ms. Wrap a ribbon around the cake and tie into a pretty bow!