Baking, Cakes, Great British Baking Show

Kit Kat Chocolate Bucket Cake with M&M’s and Strawberry Filling

by Ruth Grindeland

GBBO Season 1, Episode 1, Show Stopper Challenge:

This challenge coincided perfectly with my grandson’s fourth birthday. He picked out this cake from a few pictures and I was so excited to try and bake it for him. To make this I combined a few recipes and I added in strawberry jam. My thought was this was a lot of chocolate and I wanted to break up the flavor. The strawberry jam is optional, however I highly recommend something to break up the flavor of so much chocolate.

In making this cake I learned a few important lessons that I can use in future bakes:

  • Espresso powder in chocolate cakes enhances the chocolate flavor.
  • By adding hot water to the batter it makes the cake even more moist.
  • Because the cake is so moist, it is best to line the cooling racks with parchment paper. If not it will stick (yep, this happened to me!)
  • I filled the bucket with as many M&M’s as I could. While it was a great visual, it was too much. Too much sugar and too much to handle when cutting the cake. The next time I make this cake I will use much less M&Ms.

Let’s get baking!

  • Strawberry Jam
    • 1 PD of Strawberries
    • 1 Cup of Sugar
  • Chocolate Cake
    • 2 cups flour
    • 2 cups sugar
    • 1/2 cup coco powder
    • 2 tsp baking powder
    • 1.5 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp espresso powder
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1/2cup vegetable oil
    • 2 eggs
    • 2 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1cup boiling water
  • Filling
    • 3 sticks of butter
    • 1 cup coco powder
    • 5 cups confectioner sugar
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 2tsp vanilla extract
    • 1/2tsp espresso powder
  • Decoration
    • 4 King Kit Kat’s
    • 1 Sharable M&M package

Strawberry Jam

  1. Cut the strawberry’s into a smaller size. Cook the strawberry’s over low to medium heat to soften.
  2. Add the sugar, lower the heat and and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
  3. Once the sugar has dissolved, allow the liquid to boil for about six – eight minutes.
  4. All the jam to cool.
    • I usually make this a day or two before.

Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 nine inch cake pans.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients: Flour, sugar, coco powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, expresso powder.
  3. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients and mix using an electric mixer.
  4. Once mixed add the boiling water.
  5. Divide the batter between the two pans and place in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes. Press the cake with your finger and if the cake springs back you are done.
  6. Once the cakes have completely cooled you can decorate.

Filling

  1. Place coco powder in a mixing bowl and mix out any clumps
  2. Add butter and beat together until creamed
  3. Add sugar and milk in small amounts until fully mixed
  4. Add vanilla and espresso powder

Assembling the Cake

  1. Place the Kit Kat’s in the freezer separated by paper towels. This will keep the Kit Kat’s free of finger prints.
  2. Place the first layer on a cake board flat side up.
  3. Fill a piping bag with the filling
  4. Create a moat around the cake about 1/2 in from the edge of the boarder.
  5. Fill the moat with the strawberry jam
  6. Pipe a layer of frosting above the layer of strawberry jam
  7. Place the second cake on top of the frosting flat side up.
  8. Frost the cake
  9. Place the Kit Kat’s around the cake. Use a string or ribbon to keep the Kit Kat’s in place
  10. Fill the bucket wit M&M’s

JUDGMENT:

Finally, because this is a GBBO bake I have to add in the judges responses. The first Judge, Kurt, loved the cake! He said it was moist and decadent. He also felt like it was a show stopper. The second judge, my grandson, I did not get his exact response because he was eating it so fast. But he did look very happy 🙂

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