Devouring: Chocolate and Nutella Sweeties Cake

When I started this blog, I envisaged it as more of a multi-genred thing than the book blog it's mainly become (although I do review quite a few movies as well). I think the main reason for this is simply that there is such a great book blogger community out there that it is really easy to just be a part of that then to have to think of other things to do! So, apart from the two, maybe three cake-type things I posted really early on, I haven't really covered the 'devouring' part of my blog very well, even though, apart from reading, baking is probably the thing I do the most often. The main reason I don't post about that? I'm too lazy to take pictures most of the time, and if I'm not, then my camera sucks anyway and that's just depressing in comparison to all the other food blogs out there. (My favourite? The Gluttonous Vegan. It's creator is super sweet, and, I'm sure we all know that vegan food doesn't count, so I can eat as much of it as I like!)

So, anyway, I'm going to try and post some more about cakes, lousy photos or not, because I think it just makes a nice change every once in a while to show you all some food that tasted really really good! Also because I can't read enough to post every day, and I like to try and do that because it gives me some kind of sense of achievement when I'm all pathetic and unemployed and stuff. And, even if I don't, this cake really deserves more viewers than it's had already.

Behold! The Chocolate and Nutella Sweetie cake thingy! I made this for my sister's birthday, not, you understand, that you ever need a reason for a good cake. Everyone was calling it a Willy Wonka cake, but I resent that because, you know, Willy Wonka doesn't know shit about cake!

I can't even tell you how long it took to get all those sweets on the cake... except that it was a really very long time, and after it my back hurt a lot from all the standing and doing things! This is a 3 layer cake, which is really the only way to make cakes if you ask me, and I'd love to share the recipe with you but I really feel like it's too naughty to do because it's from The Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book, which I would really encourage you to buy because it's awesome and has so many amazing recipes in that I can't wait to try! What I will tell you is that this chocolate cake was beautiful and soft (albeit a bit crumbly, which is fine, but not great when you want to get a picture of its insides). So yeah, get on that!

See, kind of crumbly! But still, sooo good... Let's talk frosting though. This is Nutella frosting, and if you don't think that deserves to go in italics then clearly you don't know about how amazing Nutella is. I'm going to be really nice and share the nutella frosting recipe with you, so you can thank me later when you're having mouth orgasms. So, to fill and cover a 3 layer cake, you will need:
625g (6 1/4 Cups) Icing (confectioner's) sugar
200g (3/4 Cup + 2 tblsp) Unsalted Butter
62.5ml (1/4 Cup plus 1/2 tsp) Whole Milk
200g (3/4 Cup + 2 tblsp) Nutella

And, all you need to do is whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk until they come together nicely (it will be a bit thick, but don't panic cause that's what the milk is for) then add the milk and whisk until it's really really smooth and creamy, and the longer the better is really the case here. When you think it's ready, which is when it's really light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes with the electric whisk) stir in the Nutella by hand, and, importantly, don't overstir it because the frosting easily becomes too thick and unspreadable. When it's ready, just spread over your cake, and then just make it look pretty!

I put a variety of sweets on this cake- Haribo Tangfastics and Milky Way Magic Stars because they're my sister's favourites, and then M&Ms, Smarties and marshmallows, basically because I had them! It was so so good, I can't even tell you. I would go for some kind of modesty here, normally, but really, it was bloody great! And, I got Good Sister Points too, which is always a good thing to have! Mmmm, cake...

Note: It took me ages to figure out how to change metric measurements into cups. So if someone American could make the frosting and tell me that they love it, that would be fab!