Smarties Cake

 Another super easy bake for the school holidays! This cake needs around 10 regular size tubes of Smarties to completely cover a cake of this size in the style shown in the picture. But if the corner shop doesn't have enough Smarties, or funds don't allow, you can space out those Smarties, use different sweets or reach for the sprinkles. Anything chocolatey, fruity or colourful will work well. 

Ingredients 

275ml sunflower oil, plus extra to oil the tin 

3 large free-range eggs 

150ml semi-skimmed milk 

300g self-raising flour 

250g caster sugar 

50g cocoa 

1 tsp salt 

½ baking powder 

For the icing: 

3 x 100g bars milk chocolate 

200ml double cream 

10 x 38g tubes Smarties (or equivalent) 

Equipment 

Measuring jug 

2 large mixing bowls 

Whisk 

Large silicone-headed spatula 

Tala Performance 34.5 x 24.3 x 4cm brownie pan 

Mini palette knife 

Small saucepan 

Sharp knife 

Chopping board 

• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius fan (302 degrees Fahrenheit). 
• Use your fingers to oil the brownie pan with a little sunflower oil and set aside for a moment. 
• Place the oil, milk and eggs in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. 
• Place all the rest of the dry cake ingredients in the other bowl and whisk briefly to combine evenly. 
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a silicone-headed spatula until smooth. 
• Transfer the mixture to the brownie pan and spread out evenly with a mini palette knife. 
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until the mixture is risen and springs back when pressed on the top. (Take great care not to burn yourself.) 
• Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the pan. 
• Chop the chocolate finely and place in a mixing bowl. Heat the cream until it just starts to boil. Turn off the heat, pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. 
• Pour the chocolate and cream mixture over the cake and spread evenly over the top of the cake with a mini palette knife. Allow to cool. 
• Sort the Smarties into colours and arrange on top of the cake. Leave to firm up for a while before cutting and serving (a couple of hours or overnight works best but is not essential, you can cut it straight away if you need to).