Chocolate Candy Cake

Instructions

1. Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by lining the bottom with a piece of parchment paper and greasing the sides well with shortening or softened butter.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until smooth.
4. In a medium mixing bowl add the cocoa powder, salt, flour, and baking soda. Use a whisk to fully combine.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat well to combine. 
6. Add half of the water to the butter mixture and beat well to combine.
7. Add the last half of the dry ingredients to the batter and beat well to combine.
8. Add the last half of the water to the dry ingredients and beat well to combine.
9. Divide the prepared batter evenly between the two prepared pans. Smooth the top of the batter.
10. Bake at for 27-30 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
11. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack before inverting it onto a cooling wrack and removing the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool completely before adding the frosting and chocolate candy.
12. To make the frosting add the butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, and salt to a large bowl and beat to combine. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until the frosting is very smooth.
13. Beat an additional 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
14. Assemble the cake by placing one layer of cake on your cake stand. Add 1/3 cup of frosting to the top and spread it around. Place the second layer of cake on top of the first. Use the remaining frosting to cover the sides and tops of both stacked layers of cake.
15. To decorate the cake, while the chocolate frosting is still fresh (decorate right after you frost it so that the frosting doesn’t have time to form a crust, this will help your candy stick better) break all of the Kit Kats apart and start lining the edge of the cake.
16. Once you have gone around, use a big ribbon to hold the Kit Kats onto the cake.  
17. After I added the ribbon I went back over the Kit Kats and wiggled them closed together, adding a few more sticks where needed.  
18. Fill in the top of the cake with your favorite candy chocolate candy as pictured in the blog post. 
19. I like to have a few large pieces of chocolate bar and pocky sticks standing up on the cake for some height and then I filled the rest in with pieces of chocolate, chocolate candies, and truffles.
20. Enjoy!