How To Make A Chocolate Explosion Cake

This Chocolate Explosion Cake not only looks amazing but also tastes as good as it looks. And is SO easy to make! This is a chocoholic, chocolate lover’s dream cake – perfect for birthdays and other celebrations!

I made this cake for my son’s 18th birthday, and now I’m going to show you how to make a chocolate explosion cake for your *insert family member/friend here*. It’s a cake that wows guests, and is totally Instagram worthy!

There are 500+ Recipes, including more themed birthday cakes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy! Please feel free to check them out too.

Chocolate Explosion Cake

I used to make and sell celebration cakes and cupcakes, and am the go-to cake maker for friends and family, some of which I’ve shared on my blog.

I actually stopped making cakes regularly a few years ago, so my cake-making skills were at an all-time low when I made this chocoholic’s dream cake for my son’s birthday.

Good thing that this cake is so easy to put together… All you need is a chocolate cake, some chocolate frosting and a whole load of chocolate bars!

Now, the reason why I have described this as the easiest birthday cake ever is that I didn’t make a thing… it was a complete assembly job, thanks to store-bought chocolate cakes, frosting, and chocolate bars.

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to make your own cake and frosting, please do. If I had more time, I would have done the same, but I didn’t.

I’ve included a chocolate cake recipe at the end of this post.

Chocolate Explosion Cake Ingredients…

I will confess that I had no plan going into this cake. I literally just bought a bunch of my son’s favourite chocolates and chocolate bars and hoped I would have enough!

That said, I will give the approximate quantities I ended up using, for a better guide to make this chocolate bar cake than my ratchet way of making it!

• 20cm/8″ chocolate cake – the height needs to be about 10cm/4″ (I stacked two Tesco large chocolate birthday cakes on top of one another, no need for support between the layers.)
• 1 can Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Icing/Frosting (400g in the UK, 16oz in the US)
• KitKat bars (10-12, 4-finger packs)
• 40 Maltesers (2-3 regular bags) (US candy: Whoppers)
• 40 Cadbury Chocolate Buttons (3-4 treat size bags) (US candy: Candy Wafers/Melts)
• Kinder Egg (2 – just in case one breaks, if they both do… oh well, hide it with M&Ms!)
• M&M’s – your favourite kind, I used Crispy and Peanut (2-3 bags of each)
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (2 x 3 cup packs)
• Kinder Bueno (2 bars)
• Cadbury Dairy Milk (2 bars) (US candy: Hershey’s Bar or Milk Chocolate Lindt bar)
• Snickers (2 bars)
• Cadbury Flake (2 bars)
• Milky Bar (2 bars) (US candy: white chocolate Lindt bar)

Ultimately you can use whatever chocolate bars/candy bars that you like! You could focus on just 2 or 3 types, or go nuts and use ALL the chocolate!

Equipment Needed…

There isn’t any real need for any special equipment to make this easy chocolate cake, so if you don’t have the things that I have listed below – don’t worry, as there are alternatives.

But if you plan on making more cakes in the future, it’s worth investing in some basic cake decorating tools.

• cake stand or a large plate
• spatula or you could use a knife (to spread some frosting on the back of the KitKat bars so that they stick to the cake)
• piping bag or plastic food bag (fill the bag with frosting, and snip off the corner for a make-shift piping bag)
• birthday age candle (optional)

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How To Make A Chocolate Explosion Cake

If you are making your own cake, you will need to cover it completely with chocolate frosting.

My store-bought cakes were already frosted so I didn’t need to – but I did add a layer of frosting on the top to cover the writing that was on it!

• Place the cake in the middle of the cake stand.
• Break the KitKats into two-finger pieces. I used 11 full-size (4-finger) KitKats, plus one finger!
• Spread some frosting on the back of each KitKat and start to stick around the sides of the cake. Make sure that all of the embossings is facing the same way, and that the bottoms are touching the cake stand.

I added the Maltesers and Buttons around the cake because it was a bit higher than the KitKats and I wanted to hide it.

So, if you’re going to do the same, you will need to stick them on with some frosting.

If you don’t have a piping bag, use a plastic food bag instead – just add a big spoonful of frosting, and squeeze it down into one corner. Snip off the tip and away you go!

• Squeeze a blob of icing onto each of the Maltesers, and stick to the cake on top of the KitKats.
• Squeeze a blob of icing just behind and between each of the Maltesers and gently press in the Buttons.
• Use the photo above for reference!
• Now it’s time for the fun part – making the chocolate bar explosion!

• I found it easier to work from a focal point. In my case, it was the 18 candle that I placed about a third of the way from the front of the cake, and in the center. If you’re not using a big candle like this, another focal point could be a shaped piece of chocolate like a chocolate bear or chocolate egg.
• I started towards the back of the cake, gently poking the chocolate bars into the cake, deep enough so that they would stay standing. For added support, I added blobs of frosting with the piping bag.
• Some bars I broke up into pieces, and the Snickers bar I cut in half on the diagonal. Basically, just add chocolate bars until you are happy with the way it looks!
• Use my photos as a guide.

• Place taller pieces of chocolate at the back center, and graduate out in height.
• I then split open the Kinder Eggs – one shattered completely, the other one was a lot better, and I hid the broken bottom bit with some M&M’s and added some more to sit inside the egg halves.
• I tucked in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and halved one to make it look like it was stuck inside the cake. I then filled in the front of the cake with loads of M&Ms.
• And that is IT. Literally, stick chocolate bars into a chocolate cake – ta-dah! I told you it was easy, didn’t I?

Celebration Dinner Ideas!

Looking for some mealtime inspiration to go with this cake? I’ve got you covered!

• Appetizer: Nachos & Guac
• Main Dish: Slow Cooker Beef Fajitas
• Side Dish: Pico de Gallo
• Beverage: Blue Hawaiian Cocktail

More Cake Recipes

If you’re looking for more cake recipes, here are some for you to check out:

• Strawberry Shortcake (Disney copycat recipe)
• Chocolate Cherry Cream Cake recipe.
• Chocolate + Peanut Ice Cream Cake
• Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake

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