Kinder Bueno Cake

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉 

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and friends or if you’re hosting a Christmas party!

Today’s recipe is showing you how to make a Kinder cake. Most people, at some point at Christmas have a cake. More traditionally a decorated fruit cake or a plain fruit cake but if you’re not a fan of them, this cake is the perfect alternative for chocolate lovers. 

The cake consists of 2 layers of chocolate sponge cake, filled and coated with a Nutella buttercream and finished with a selection of Kinder chocolates. I know it’s not all that festive but will make a good replacement.

Don’t forget to check out the videos for my other Christmas cakes, both traditional and alternatives. Starting with the more traditional fruit cake and fruit cake 2 ways or for other alternatives, check out chocolate celebration cake, fresh cream cake and snowflake cake.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

 

Chocolate cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

3 Eggs.

210g Plain flour.

40g Cocoa powder.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

 

Simple syrup:

100g Granulated sugar.

100ml Water.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

 

Nutella Buttercream:

250g Butter.

650g Icing sugar.

250g Nutella.

Milk (to help loosen the consistency, to be more spreadable).

 

Decoration/finishing:

Kinder Bueno’s (Both the milk chocolate and white chocolate variety).

Kinder chocolate bars.

Kinder happy hippos (I used the hazelnut milk flavour but feel free to use the cocoa ones if you’d prefer).

 

Methods:

As with all of my recipes, I recommend that you do some prep work, especially before you start (it will help eliminate the chances of things going wrong). Start by getting your 6 inch cake tins and lining them with greaseproof/parchment (if needed), preheat the oven to 180˚c/350˚f and weighing up all the ingredients.

Chocolate cake:

Start by getting your mixing bowl of choice, I went with my stand mixer bowl but feel free to use whatever you would normally use. Into the bowl, place the butter and granulated sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until they are fully incorporated.

Next you’ll want to give the bowl a good scraping down. This is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Now you can add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As the eggs are added, you’ll notice the consistency change – don’t be too alarmed, this is normal.

A repeated step but give the bowl another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

After the bowl has been scraped down, you can add the dry ingredients. Make sure you pass them through a sieve first, this helps to remove the lumps from the dry ingredients, especially the cocoa powder.

Incorporate the dry ingredients on a medium speed to start and then work your way up to a medium-high speed, adding  a splash of milk if needed to achieve the right consistency.

Right away, take the cake batter and divide it between the two 6 inch cake tins, levelling them off using an offset palette knife – then you can place in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tester when inserted comes out clean.

While the cakes are in the oven baking, now would be the best time to make the simple syrup and buttercream.

Simple Syrup:

The simple syrup is the easiest thing to make. 

Take a small/medium saucepan and place the water, granulated sugar and vanilla extract and give it a mix until its combined.

Place the saucepan on the hob over a medium-high heat and allow it come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, take off the heat and allow it to cool down fully before you use it.

If you’re making this in advance, store in suitable container in the fridge and keep chilled – use within 2 weeks.

Nutella Buttercream:

To make the buttercream, get yourself a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer again) or feel free to use whatever you’ve got. Place the butter into the bowl and beat on a medium speed to start and once it’s going, crank the speed up to high and beat for a further 5-7 minutes or until the butter is lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once the butter is done, give the bowl a good scrap down, then add your first addition of icing sugar. Start the mixer on a low speed to start and once the icing sugar is incorporated, crank the speed up to a medium-high and beat for a couple of minutes just to fully work in the icing sugar. Repeat with the remaining icing sugar.

After the second batch of icing sugar has been fully worked in, you can add in the Nutella. I slightly warmed the Nutella so it was easier to get out of the bowl and works into the buttercream easier. I used a fair bit of Nutella but I really wanted the have a strong flavour.

If the mixture is a little stiff, add a splash a milk (and maybe more if needed), make sure it’s at a spreadable consistency.

Place the buttercream into a bowl and set aside until it’s needed later on.

Assembly & Finishing:

You can start to assemble the cake once the cakes are baked and cooled, the simple syrup is completely cooled and the buttercream has been made.

To start assembling the cake, take your cake board, plate or stand and into the centre place a small but generous amount of buttercream and spread it out in a circle and place your first layer cake on-top of it, applying a little pressure just to secure it in place. 

Next, you can add a generous amount of buttercream on-top of your layer of cake and spread it out using a cranked palette knife, just so its level. Then top the buttercream with the second layer of cake, sandwiching the cakes together. 

Give the cake a generous coating of the buttercream, this is the crumb coat. This coating of buttercream does exactly what it says, it’s a layer of buttercream to lock in the crumbs from the cake. Once you’ve done the crumb coat, place in the fridge and chill it for 45-60 minutes.

After the cake has chilled, you can take it out of the fridge and apply the final layer of buttercream. On a normal cake I’d like to get the buttercream as level and perfect looking but for this cake I went a little more rustic and didn’t make it all that perfect. I actually quite liked how it wasn’t perfect, it kinda of added to the appearance of the cake… I know thats weird to say.

Now that the cake has been iced, you can finish/decorate the cake. I used a mixture of Kinder branded chocolates. Started with some of the hazelnut happy hippos, then some of the kinder bars (I’m not sure what these are actually called) and finished with pieces of the buenos, both the milk and white chocolate varieties.

I place my cake back in the fridge for around 30 minutes, just to firm up.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.