Birthdays are always a little stressful for me. Hubby is super hard to shop for. I mean, he pretends that he loves everything he gets, but sometimes you can just tell he secretly thinks your gift is totally lame! And then there's the cake. I do not pretend to be a baker. Josh has his most favorite birthday cake; triple chocolate cake. It's one of those recipes that need a lot of love and exact-ness. (If we have the permission of my mother-in-law we should share the recipe because it is
de-licious) But I have tried and failed to make said cake in the past so I leave it up to Josh's mommy! Since it was his 25th birthday I couldn't not give him some sort of cake! So I hopped on trusty pinterest (seriously, what did we do before this fantastic site?!) and I found
this pin! Josh loves candy and I figured it looked easy enough so I decided to give it a go! Mine was nowhere near as extravagant, but I think it turned out pretty cute!
It is actually pretty easy to make. And the best part? Everything I got was purchased at the Dollar Store except the candy; which you could totally get there too, I just was looking for certain kinds! Here's what you'll need:
- 2-4 graduated containers to created the tiered look (I just browsed the aisles at the Dollar Store stacking random bowls and tins until I found the shapes and sizes that I liked!)
- Double Sticky Tape (most things from the Dollar Store are awesome. this tape? not so much. if I were going to do this again I would get "real" tape from a "real" store!
- Candy! You can obviously choose whatever you'd like but I got the big box from Walmart (Butterfinger, Crunch, 100 Grand, & Baby Ruth) The second layer is a variety bag of Rolos, kisses & Reeses. And the top is fun sized snickers bars and cadbury eggs for the very top
- Random decorations! I got "Happy Bithday" candles and some ribbon!
To assemble this cake I started by covering my bottom bowl with tin foil so it looked a little more finished. I have seen people get really creative and wrap the bottom layer in wrapping paper. After it was wrapped I taped the bowl to the lid it came with so I had sturdy, level surface. If the container you get doesn't have a lid you could just cut a circle out of cardboard! Then I just started taping and sticking! Like I said, if I would have known the tape was so cheap and unsticky I would have definitely bought a "real" brand! I have seen examples of candy bar cakes where the candy was all color coordinated and everything fit together perfect, but I just didn't have patience for that so I just basically moved the candy bars around until it covered everything I wanted and didn't look too "squishy". Then I moved on to the next layer; the reeses, rolos & kisses! Then I covered my second container with the snickers and finally taped the final piece on top! I put on the finishing touches; ribbons & candles. And there you have it! It ended up costing me about $15+ and took me about an hour and half to finish. If I would have had decent tape I'm sure I could have knocked the entire thing out in a lot less time but I had to keep re-sticking everything.
This was a fun project and is definitely a great alternative to the traditional baked cake!
{S}handa
