Ahem, sorry.
Anyway, I must apologise for my recent absence from blogging. I've been on a diet and for the first week or so I was trying to refrain from making cakes as I have a habit of eating as I go along - which is probably why I needed to be on the diet! But I just couldn't stay away from my favourite pastime, so here is the next adventure for you to read about...
I've heard and seen a few examples of the semi famous Kit-Kat + Smarties cake, and I thought it looked fab, so I decided to give it a go. I had a perfect excuse... one of my work colleagues resigned recently and his last day was Friday, so I told him I'd bring him a cake. Since whenever I say I'll be bringing cakes to work he asks for something chocolate (brownies and chocolate log spring to mind) so I thought this would be most fitting.
It was unbelievable how many Kit-Kats this takes! I bought 13 four finger bars, and I think 11 of them got used; it was only an 8 inch cake and it took 44 Kit-Kat fingers. There were also 6 tubes of Smarties on top and I still don't think that was enough. Tell me what you think.
Chocolate sponges just out the oven.
Sandwiched with chocolate buttercream. The whole cake was then covered with chocolate buttercream as well, but I wanted to work quickly to get the Kit-Kat fingers on before the icing started to set, so I didn't get a picture :-(
And here is the finished product! I was quite pleased with it - I was picturing some horrendous wonky mess but it turned out OK, I think.
I had to look up how to tie a proper bow, because when I tried to do it at first, it was like I'd just tied my shoe laces: not very elegant at all.
One thing that I need to remember for if I do this again... keep the Kit-Kats in the same groups of four they were in before I broke them apart, so that they fit together perfectly on the cake! It's unbelievably difficult to break a Kit-Kat evenly (while the biscuits are separated, the chocolate on them doesn't necessarily break in a straight line), so putting them next to the ones they were next to in the first place makes it like fitting two jigsaw pieces together. Seems obvious now I've written it down but it didn't seem like that at the time.
On the Friday morning, I arrived at work as I normally do before Kane (aforementioned colleague), complete with cake, which I placed on his desk as a surprise for when he arrived. He knew I was making a cake, but not what sort :-) I'd just settled down with my cup of tea, logged in and started work, when I got a phone call from the nursery. My son wasn't well and I had to go and get him. Oh well, up I got again, picked up the cake (yet to be seen by anyone, and I wanted to see his face when he saw it) and headed off.
Luckily I was able to come back in again a couple of hours later, and could give Kane his cake. He seemed very pleased with it, carrying it carefully round the building to show everybody. I just hovered behind him sheepishly as a lot of people exclaimed over it. It attracted a lot of attention. :-)
The most important thing of all... it all got eaten within minutes of being cut, so I heard. I managed to pinch a couple of slices to take home with me, but by the time I got to them they were stale.
Oh well. At least I get the satisfaction of a job well done.
PS. Amazingly, I have stuck to the diet and have refrained from eating any of the left over Kit-Kat fingers in the fridge. My 19 month old son gets that privilege :-)
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