It’s the final of the Great British Bake Off, so I’m not going to wang on too much. All I will say is that this cake is not really a cake, in fact it’s no bake. Think of it as a gift to busy mums. Your son or daughter wants one of these sweetie illusion cakes for their birthday but you’re worried about making it last minute and it all being a disaster? Make this days ahead as there’s no sponge to harden and go stale. I made this for Aldi using all their ingredients and it was a HUGE hit with my lot.
Lots of great recipes like this in my books, Recipes from a Normal Mum, (available on Amazon, at The Works, Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets) and The Power of Frozen (available through Amazon).
One year ago: Sweet potato and mushroom chilli, Toffee apples, Peach, tea and white chocolate traybake, Milk, tea and honey cupcakes, Chocolate lime pinata cake, Chorizo, kale and roast potato traybake, Quinoa veggie burgers, Thai turkey lettuce cups, Cucumber salad and Blackberry and pear crumble.
Two years ago: Lemon cheesecake, Ginger and Caramac version, Peanut butter pie with an Oreo crust, Double chocolate pecan pie and salted caramel traybake, a Traditional Christmas pud and Parkin for Bonfire night
Three years ago: Chocolate hazelnut truffles and Delicious microwave Christmas pud
Four years ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes, Christmas pudding fizz, Brandy butter icing and my Lemon drizzle secrets
Five years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry, Christmas scones, Ginger cake with gingerbread Christmas cottage, Bonfire night treacle toffee flapjack and My festive take on cheesecake
Six years ago: Moonuts, Cheese biscuits, Parsnip soup and a Steamed cherry and pecan pudding
Prep Time: 45 minutes
- For the chocolate biscuit cake:
- • 150g butter, plus extra for greasing
- • 30g golden syrup
- • 200g dark chocolate
- • 300g digestive biscuits, broken into 2cm ish pieces (3/4 of a pack)
- • 150g sultanas
- • 200g glace cherries
- • 50g mini marshmallows
- • 2 straws
- To decorate:
- • 100g butter
- • 1 tsp vanilla extract
- • 200g icing sugar
- • 2 x 125g Milk Chocolate Fingers
- • 20g white chocolate, melted
- • 5 x bags jelly sweets
Melt the butter, syrup and chocolate in a bowl in the microwave until completely molten. Add the biscuits, cherries and sultanas. Stir well. Lastly add the marshmallows. Grease and line a 23 cm springform tin. Pour the mixture into it and pat down well, ensuring the mixture is about 1/2cm lower than the length of a chocolate finger. Take a straw and poke into the centre of the cake, poking out slightly to the side, add another straw to the top and cut to the desired length. Try placing an empty sweet packet on it to understand size requirements. Leave in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight. Remove from the tin and place on a cake stand. Make the buttercream icing by beating the butter and vanilla extract until fluffy then adding a tablespoon at a time of the icing sugar, beating well after each addition. Beat for a further 7 minutes until really light and fluffy. Cover the cake in a very thin layer of the buttercream and then gently attach the chocolate fingers around the outside of the chocolate biscuit cake, leaving an opening at the front. Melt the white chocolate and leave to thicken a little. Remove the straw from the cake and use the melted chocolate as glue. Paint it onto the straw and carefully place the sweets onto the stick. Do this gradually allowing each layer to dry and set before moving on. You can even chill the stick in the fridge in between adding layers if you wish. You may need to re-melt the chocolate during this process. Be careful not to add sweets too low down the stick where it will sit inside the cake. Replace the covered straw into the cake and balance an empty packet on the end of the stick to create the illusion that the sweets are tumbling onto the cake. Add more sweets to the top of the cake and use the exposed buttercream to fix sweets to the side of the cake as they cascade down through the chocolate finger fence.
Get the monthly newsletter...
and subscribe to get all recipes straight to your inbox!