Pigs in Mud Cake

This was a sad week in work. One of the girls was leaving, so of course I had to make her a cake to send her on her way. I've been seeing pictures of Pigs in the Mud cakes all over Facebook and Twitter and have been wanting to try it for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

Because there was so much chocolate (18 KitKats and ganache) on the outside of the cake, I wanted to keep the inside simple and light. But with me, there's always a little surprise, so I did a three layer pink ombré vanilla sponge. I actually made five layers but they were too tall for the KitKats, so me and my mum ate those. 

I had so much fun making this cake and was really happy with how it turned out. Everyone in work loved it too, and my friend got the send off she deserved!

Five Layer Pink Ombré Vanilla Sponge

(adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes)

355g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

225ml milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

400g caster sugar

225 unsalted butter, softened

4 medium eggs

Pink food colour

Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and line your tins. I only had 2 round tins, so had to bake this in batches. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Mix milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mix and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (Add 1/4 of the dry mixture followed by 1/3 of the wet mixture at a time). Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 5 bowls. Leave one bowl of batter white, then very gradually add colouring to each bowl and gently fold it into the mixture, adding slightly more colouring to each bowl so that the 5 bowls give you a even gradient of colour. Pour batter into prepared tins and bake each layer for about 10 minutes or until a skewer into the centre comes out clean and the outside is golden. Cool in the tin for 5 mins and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely

Vanilla Buttercream

500g icing sugar

275g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add icing sugar and beat well until combined. Add vanilla.

Chocolate Ganache

200g chocolate

100ml double cream

Break up chocolate and put in a bowl. Heat cream in a saucepan until stating to boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir continuously until all the chocolate has melted. Put in the fridge to cool.

You will also need:

17-21 2 fingered KitKats

Pink Fondant

Candy Eyes

Pink ribbon

To assemble the cake, I followed CakeBaker step-by-step guide which shows you how to make the pigs. When everything is ready, layer the cake, filling each layer with buttercream. Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of buttercream and add your KitKats. Pour your ganache on top and place your pigs. Tie a pink ribbon around the cake and voilá.