PHOODIE’S SIX LAYER CHOCOLATE HONEYCOMB BIRTHDAY CAKE 9

Another year, another…well, year, I guess.

Definitely older, possibly wiser.

And certainly ready to create another birthday masterpiece to gobble up on the afternoon of the day (several years later obviously!) my Mum pushed me out – thanks Mum!

This year I decided honeycomb, specifically Violet Crumbles, HAD to feature and so I created a 6 layer extravaganza that used a pretty ridiculous amount of VC’s.

Ground floor: Chocolate BISCUIT BASE

1st Floor: Chocolate Honeycomb ICE CREAM 

2nd Floor: Milk Chocolate GANACHE

3rd Floor: Chocolate Honeycomb BROWNIE

4th Floor: Chocolate Honeycomb CREAM

5th Floor: CHOCOLATE HONEYCOMB TOPPING

Needless to say, the cake was a roaring success, enjoyed by young and old. Happy Birthday to me!

INGREDIENTS

To make a 23cm cake

Biscuit Base

250g Arnott’s Choc Ripple biscuits (or similar, i.e. a plain chocolate cookie-style biscuit) – crushed to rough sand consistency

100g unsalted butter – melted (and extra 20g to brush tin with at start)

Ice Cream

2L good quality store bought vanilla ice cream

5 Violet Crumble chocolate bars (50g each)

Ganache

350g milk chocolate melts

250ml pouring cream

Brownie

1 x batches of THESE BROWNIES – instead of the nuts and chocolate chips though, I added 1 and a half cups of roughly chopped Violet Crumble bars) – you will need to use a 23cm round tin for this as well.

Cream

300ml whipping cream

3 x Violet Crumble chocolate bars (50g each)

Choc Honeycomb Topping

3 x Violet Crumble chocolate bars (50g each)

METHOD

Prep: Melt the ice cream until it is very, very, soft, not liquid though! Do this by simply leaving it out of the freezer for about 30 minutes. Also, turn on your oven to 180 deg. cel.

1) Make the biscuit base: Firstly, brush the entire tin generously with melted butter and then to make the base combine the crushed biscuits and the melted butter in a bowl. Once you have the rough, wet sand consistency you desire,  press into the base of a 23cm spring form tin. Place in fridge.

2) Make the ice cream: Chop the Violet Crumbles and gently fold them through the melted ice cream. Pour ice cream on top of biscuit base and then cover tin with cling film. Place into freezer for AT LEAST 6 hours, preferably overnight.

3) Make the ganche: Melt the chocolate and the cream over a medium heat. Stir the entire time. Set aside. (Can be stored in it’s pan in the fridge and simply heated again when required.)

4) Make the brownie by following THESE SIMPLE STEPS. Remember, replace the nuts and chocolate chips with chopped VC’s

5) Make the cream: Whip the cream until stiff peaks form and then VERY GENTLY fold through the chopped up Violet Crumbles.

6) Prep the topping: Roughly chop the VC’s into large chunks.

7) Assemble: Once ice cream has set, remove from freezer and spread about 1/2 cup of ganache roughly over the top (make sure ganache is not HOT HOT, allow it to be almost room temp) As soon as ganache is spread place brownie layer on top. Generously spread VC cream over the brownie and then top with the large chunks of VC. To serve, slice with sharp, hot knife. Use remaining ganache to pour over each slice and sprinkle with any extra VC bits too!

ENJOY!