Loaded Candy Bar Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, with homemade frosting and candy bars in every bite, is every chocolate lover’s decadent dream come true.
This Loaded Candy Bar Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting was my birthday cake pretty much every year when I was growing up. In fact, I love it so much it was my wedding cake, too. My mom was appalled by my choice because, in her words, “It’s such an ugly cake,” but to me, and to all chocolate-lovers out there, it’s a beautiful sight.
Since then, this gorgeous cake has become a staple at many family gatherings. It’s even become a tradition in J’s family. As true lovers of all things chocolate, they recognize a good thing when they see it. His family prefers to use only peanut butter cups, but I’m convinced the original method is best. Really, though, you can’t go wrong when you take a moist chocolate cake, slather it with homemade cream cheese frosting, and finish it off with handfuls of chopped candy bars.
Loaded Candy Bar Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
For the Frosting and the Candy Bars
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
8-10 king-size candy bars in the variety of your choice (I recommend Milky Way, KitKat, Twix, and Reese’s)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine in a large bowl all the ingredients for the cake. Mix well and then divide the cake batter evenly between two greased 9-inch round pans. Bake for 22-26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the pan comes out clean. To ensure a moist cake, make sure you remove it from the oven as soon as it’s set. Allow cakes to cool 10-15 minutes before removing from pans and transferring to cooling racks.
While the cakes are baking and cooling, unwrap and dice all the candy bars. Make the frosting by whipping together butter and cream cheese for three minutes, until fluffy. Add in the cocoa powder and mix to combine. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing for about a minute after each. Add the vanilla and the milk or cream and beat on medium to high speed for three minutes, until frosting is fluffy and lighter in color.
When cakes are completely cool, use thread or a long bread knife to slice them in half through the middle to give you four thinner 9-inch cakes. Build the cake by layering cake, a quarter of the frosting, and a quarter of the candy bars. Repeat until all ingredients have been used, piling the top layer of candy bars in the center of the cake. Enjoy!
Tools I Used
- Rada bread knife (it’s my favorite!)
- Offset spatula
- 9-inch cake pans (I prefer dark ones)
I’m literally drooling over here! YUM!
I don’t blame you! I dream about this cake until the one time a year I can have it.
I swear I gained 5 lbs just looking at these pictures. It looks awesome – your family is lucky that they get to benefit from your delicious recipes! 🙂
It’s all thanks to my mom! I rarely make it because, well, the 5 pounds thing.
My mouth is watering looking at the pictures of this cake! I know what I will be making for my birthday celebration this year! Thanks for linking up at the Ultimate Pinterest Party this past week. I will be featuring your post in this weeks party! Can’t wait to see what you share this week!
Thanks, Ali, for the feature and for hosting my favorite linkup!