This post may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy for details.
Are you looking for a cake that screams “candy is my favorite thing”? Look no further than this crazy, over the top Willy Wonka Birthday Cake.
Why I Think You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s fun and full of everything kids love like candy, more candy and cake!
- It’s actually quite easy to make and looks like something you’d have spent hours on.
- It’s delicious because it’s full of candy and chocolate (how can it be bad?).
This Willy Wonka cake will kick your sweet tooth into overdrive.
There is not a single possible way you can be looking at the picture of my latest Willy Wonka Cake and be grumpy. I do apologize that you can’t reach through the screen and take a bite, or sneak a candy though, because this is one fun, happy cake! It’s also the perfect cake for the big kid who hasn’t grown up yet.
Karlynn’s Tips
- I usually pre-bake the cake and freeze it, much easier to work with, especially when you have to trim it!
- Another trick here is to freeze the Kit Kat bars, because if you don’t, you leave fingerprints on the chocolate outside. It won’t affect the taste at all.
How to Make the Willy Wonka Cake
Believe it or not, this isn’t that hard to replicate but it’ll have you looking like a cake master in no time to your friends and family!
- Prepare the cake batter and bake in two 9- or 10-inch parchment-lined pans.
- Ice with my Chocolate Buttercream Icing on the top and sides of the cake.
- Surround with Kit Kat bars, tied with a ribbon, and top with hard candies.
You Can Make It The Day Before!
This is a pretty versatile cake, you can even freeze the cake, then top it with candy, then return it to the freezer, which allows you to make it early but not have the candy get squishy from being on the cake too long. I did it overnight and it defrosted perfectly the next day, with a crunchy candy topping.
Hope you love it!
Karlynn
Willy Wonka Cake
Ingredients
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate
- 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
- 3 cups sugar
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder - not Dutch processed
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk - well-shaken
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 batch Chocolate Buttercream Icing
- 11-12 KitKat
- 2-3 packs assorted hard candies
Instructions
- Kick the tires and light the fires to 300 degrees.
- Get the chocolate and chop it up.
- Melt the chopped up chocolate in the hot coffee until it is completely dissolved and set aside.
- Whisk together your dry ingredients.
- Beat your eggs for 2-3 minutes, until they are thick and lemon colored.
- Time to add the oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Once those are in, add the coffee/chocolate mixture slowly.
- Then it’s time for the dry ingredients, dump them in and mix at a moderate speed until they are combined completely.
- Grease and parchment line two 9 or 10 inch pans.
- Bake at 300 degrees until done.
- When you have the two layers baked up, make a batch of my Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Put a small middle layer of icing between the cakes and put one on top of the other. You DO need to take a knife and carve the sides of this cake to make sure that they are fairly even. Otherwise, the Kitkats won’t do a good job of standing straight along the edges. When that is done, frost the sides and top. It doesn’t have to be pretty since we cover all the surfaces.
- Depending on the size of your cake, take your 11 or 12 KitKat bars and line them up on the outside of the cake. (A little trick here is to freeze the KitKat bars. If you don’t, you leave fingerprints on the chocolate outside. To avoid this, freeze them! It won’t affect the taste at all.) Now, loosely wrap a ribbon around the KitKat bars to hold everything in place.
- Tighten the ribbon until the Kitkat’s stand up straight and are tight against the cake. You can exert quite the pressure without breaking them if you have a wide ribbon.Tie it up tightly, helping push the KitKats into the icing to stick a bit better.
- Start filling up your cake top, which is the best part of this whole cake, what could be more fun than loading up a cake with candy?
- You are done! Serve when ready!
Nutrition
Pin this recipe to your DESSERT RECIPES Board and remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
Janna says
We were so worried! Our go-to chocolate cake has been your “old fashioned chocolate cake“ recipe and my daughter and I went to make it tonight and it was gone. 😲
After a little hunting we are so glad to find the same cake recipe hidden in here! This is easily your best chocolate Cake recipe…..we love it and get RAVE reviews no matter how we ice or fill it. 🙂
Nora says
Can I use any other kind of drink other then coffee for this cake?