Easy Easter Basket Kit Kat Cake
Need to entertain the kids this Easter Season? This fun and simple Easter Kit Kat Cake tutorial is the perfect family activity that everyone will love to make and eat! This delicious chocolate cake recipe can easily be customized as a Kit Kat birthday cake, baby shower cake, or used for any other special celebration!
You don’t have to be a master baker or decorator to get an exciting Easter basket cake! This kit kat cake is perfect for beginners or even kids to make! And when you are done you have a stunning easter centerpiece that will shine on your dessert table!
Want other fun Spring desserts to make with your kids? Try our fun Rainbow cake tutorial, or these fun Spring Flower Pot cupcakes.
We have made this easter basket kit kat cake as a family for several years now. It’s different every time, but it is always fun!
One year I didn’t have time to bake the cake from scratch like I usually do. And we were all sick. But I had promised them we’d make our Easter basket kit kat cake. I didn’t want to let them down. So I “cheated” and bought a basic cake from the grocery store and had the kids help me decorate it that year.
So, as I update this easter basket cake recipe, I am including some photos of the new updated Easter basket cake along with the photos of the “from scratch” original cake from 2013 (before I knew how to work a camera properly), so you can see how it can be varied from year to year and from person to person. 😉
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One of the best things about this Easter Cake is that you can make it completely from scratch, from a box cake mix, or like I mentioned before “cheat” and start with a basic store-bought cake and turn it into your own customized Kit Kat cake.
The options are endless, and it provides the best Easter activity with the kids! Both the decorating and the eating!
🥥 Can I make it without Coconut?
Yes. If you don’t like coconut, you can easily leave it out. Instead, you can pipe green frosting in a grass texture. Or use edible easter grass.
🐣 Supplies and Ingredients
To begin you need
- two 8 or 9-inch round cakes. I prefer using my Grandmother’s Devil’s Food cake. It is a super easy recipe with amazing flavor.
- Frosting – I use a sweet and tart Cream cheese frosting, using lemon juice instead of the milk. It turns out A-MA-ZING! But even store-bought frosting will work.
- 4-6 King Size Kit Kat Candy bars
- Shredded Coconut
- Wiltons Kelly Green food coloring
- Yellow Silk Ribbon 3-4″ wide.
- Easter candy of choice for decorating. We usually get peeps, chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs, and egg-shaped whoopers or maltses.
- Twizzlers Pull & Peel licorice or an old basket handle or headband for the handles of the basket.
⏱️ Time-Saving Hack
If you don’t have time to bake a cake or make frosting, you can still make this Easter basket kit kat cake!
Sometimes it is totally OK to “cheat” a little because LIFE HAPPENS. Buy a basic minimally decorated 8-inch cake from the grocery store. And a little frosting or chocolate spread.
🎂 How to Make a Kit Kat Cake
If you are doing the LIFE HAPPENED CHEAT method, skip ahead to the KIT KAT BAR step.
To begin, bake your cake in two 8 inch cake pans and allow to cool completely.
Take one cake and put on a Wilton 10-Inch Cake Circle.
For a perfectly even cake, slice off any uneven tops and spread a thin layer of frosting on the first cake before stacking the second layer.
Spread a thin layer of frosting (crumb coat) around the chilled cake. Pop it in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to firm up. This helps lock in moisture and creates a smooth base for the final frosting layer.
Apply a second coat of frosting around the entire cake. You can use any frosting flavor or a delicious chocolate Ganache recipe. Since the cake will be covered in Kit Kat Candy bars and other Easter candy, you don’t need to worry about the frosting color.
KIT KAT BAR STEP.
Now we will be placing Kit Kat Bars around the cake. Break the Kit Kats into pieces of 1 or 2.
Gently place the Kit Kat bars around the cake and gently press into the frosting.
If you have trouble with the Kit Kat bars staying put, you can use more frosting on the back.
If you are doing the updated version, and don’t have frosting on hand – I simply grabbed a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread (NUTELLA works too) and put a little on the back of the Kit Kat Bar. Either that or maybe even Peanut Butter. Anything that will still taste good with chocolate but is slightly sticky to help it stick in place.
Gently tie the ribbon around the Kit Kat bars to keep them in place. If you want you can even tie a bow. I’m horrible at bows. But I tried it just for you!
Original — If you can find them… You can then insert the Twizzlers as Easter Basket handles on each side. Any flavor will do really. But I really like the color of the green. Not to mention that Green Apple candy is a major weakness of mine.
**Updated version – Not a single store in my area currently carries Green Apple Pull n’ Peel Twizzlers. I literally drove to 6 different stores looking JUST for the Green Apple flavor. I’m quite disappointed. I love those! So I opted to skip the basket handles this year. It’s really up to you – basket handles or not, it works either way.
COCONUT Step
Now we need to color our Coconut. It really it quite simple once you know how to do it. I wanted grass color. But you can use any color you want. Just add some coconut to a ziplock bag. Add in a few drops of food coloring.
Then seal the bag and shake. I used 8 drops of green.
**UPDATE: I wanted a richer color this year, so I used just a little Wilton Kelly Green Food Coloring paste instead of the liquid food coloring. The color came out much richer and I needed to use a lot LESS food coloring.
Sprinkle the colored Coconut across the entire top of the cake until you can no longer see the frosting underneath.
Easter Kit Kat Cake Decorating
Now we are at the final step. The decorating of our Easter basket Kit Kat cake! Call in the troops! This is the part the kids love the best! Let them help you place the Easter candy on the cake!
In the original version, we used two chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs as “rocks”. A chick peep and rabbit Peeps that my boys picked out. And Jelly Beans and mini Robin Eggs that my oldest daughter picked out.
For the Updated Version: I wanted to surprise the kids with the Kit Kat Cake when they come home from school. So I decorated it myself. I still used the traditional Bunny and Chicks PEEPs. And the chocolate-covered marshmallow egg. And of course the robin eggs.
If you have trouble getting the PEEPS to stay upright, again use frosting or chocolate hazelnut spread to keep them standing up.
No matter which version you create, it turns out quite well. It is a lot of fun to create and the kids loved it. Not to mention, just think about what a great conversation piece this will be if this is on your Easter Dinner Table for dessert!
🤔 How do I Make The Easter Basket Handle?
If you want two small handles, one on each side, Twizzler Pull and Peel licorice is perfect!
If you want one single handle that goes over the entire basket you will need something a little more sturdy to hold it’s shape.
You can use the handle from an old Easter basket, or a fun headband for a handle. If you really wanted to get ambitious, you could use pipe cleaners and braid them together to fashion a basket handle.
Whichever basket handle option you choose, be sure to clean the ends before you poke it into the cake.
Insert the handle into the cake, pushing it all of the way down to the plate.
🍽️ Serving Tips
To Serve, remove the ribbon and slice it between the Kit Kat bars. You only need a small slice. It is best served with a scoop of your favorite ice cream.
Now, let me tell you, it is RICH! You definitely do not need a big slice of this! I’d recommend opting for a slice that is only 1 or 2 Kit Kat Bars wide per person.
Enjoy!
🫙 Storing Leftovers
If you happen to have leftovers, store the cake, covered, in the refrigerator. It will remain fresh for approximately 5 days.
Bring slices to room temperature before serving for the best flavor and texture.
This Easter cake is even better when you share it with neighbors so you don’t have the entire cake left over in your house taunting you!
Yeah, my neighbors may love me at first, but I am a huge hindrance to anyone’s weight loss goals when I start baking. I just have to share! Ha-ha! But the teenaged boys in those homes truly love us as neighbors!
🧊 Can I Freeze a Kit Kat Cake?
Yes and No. You don’t want to freeze this cake once it is all decorated. Decorated cakes can get “weepy” frosting and splotchy chocolate when thawed, making them look messy and unappetizing.
Instead freeze the unfrosted cakes after the crumb coat (the first layer of frosting). Wrap them up tightly in plastic wrap, and they can stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months!
When you are ready to make your Easter basket cake, let the individual cakes thaw slightly so it’s firm but not rock-solid. This makes it easier to handle and frost smoothly. Aim for about 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature.
🍫 Kit Kat Cake Variations:
The idea of a Kit Kat cake is simply a round cake surrounded by Kit Kat candy bars. Beyond that, you can create any kind of Kit Kat cake you can dream up!
Make the cake with a white vanilla cake or even a strawberry cake! It doesn’t have to be chocolate.
You can make a fun Birthday cake with a funfetti cake and the top filled with M&Ms or Reeses Pieces.
Use different holiday candy in the center to make a Halloween Kit Kat Cake or even a Christmas-themed Kit Kat Cake. You can totally use the white chocolate Kit Kat bars too!
Use a chocolate cake with a thick layer of chocolate ganache and form little fondant piggies for a pig in the mud Kit Kat Cake.
You can fill the top with fresh strawberries for a romantic Kit Kat Cake. Or even get really decadent and fill the center with your favorite cookies, donuts, and other baked treats for a loaded Kit Kat cake!
How did you decorate your Easter Basket Kit Kat Cake?
Easy Easter Basket Kit Kat Cake
Indulge in the ultimate Easter celebration with our Easter Basket Kit Kat Cake! This sensational creation combines the joy of Easter with the irresistible crunch of Kit Kat. Perfect for family gatherings or as a delightful centerpiece, our cake promises an unforgettable taste experience.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1/2 Cup Shortening
- 1 1/4 cup Sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 package Cream Cheese (8oz)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1-3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
Kit Kat Cake Decorations
- 6 King Size Kit Kat Bars
- 1-2 cups shredded coconut
- Wiltons Kelly Green food coloring
- Yellow Silk Ribbon
- Easter Candy Of Choice: IE - peeps, chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs, robbins eggs, etc.
Instructions
Make the Cake
- Beat shortening, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy.
- Add salt, milk, flour, and cocoa and mix well.
- Combine boiling water and baking soda.
- Slowly add one teaspoon of the water mixture at a time to the batter while mixing.
- Grease and flour the 8 inch cake pans before filling with batter
- Fill cake pans 1/2 full. Any more and it will overflow as the cake bakes.
- Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done in the center.
- Cool completely on a cooling rack.
Frosting
- Put softened cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar into a medium mixing bowl and blend until smooth.
- Mix in 1 Tablespoon of Lemon juice at a time until you reach the frosting consistency you desire.
Assembly
- Unwrap candy bars and have them ready to hand.
- Level the cakes by slicing off the tops of the cake and apply a thin layer of frosting to the top of the first cake.
- Place the second cake on top of the frosting to stack.
- Apply a thin layer of frosting around the cake. This will be the "crumb Coat" and doesn't need to be pretty.
- Place the cake in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes.
- Apply a second layer of frosting to the entire cake.
- Break the Kit Kat bars into pieces of 2.
- Gently place the Kit Kats around the cake and gently press into the frosting until the cake is surrounded by kit kat bars.
- Gently tie the Ribbon around the Kit Kat Bars to keep them in place.
- In a ziplock bag, add the coconut and a little green food dye. Seal the bag and shake vigorously.
- Sprinkle the colored Coconut across the entire top of the cake until you can no longer see the frosting underneath.
- Decorate the top with the Easter Candy of your choice.
- Insert the Easter basket handles if you desire.
Serve
To serve, slice cake between the Kit Kat bars and add a few easter candy pieces on top of each slice.
Store the cake, covered, in the refrigerator. Bring slices to room temperature before serving for best flavor and texture.
Notes
If you don't want chocolate, you can use whatever cake flavor you like. You can even use a box of cake mix.
Instead of cream cheese frosting, you can also use chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting.
If you have trouble with the Easter candy sitting on the cake, you can use extra frosting or even chocolate hazelnut spread to the bottom of each piece of candy to help hold it in place.
Don't Like Coconut? Instead, use edible easter grass or use green frosting piped in grass texture.
To make this easier - bake the cake the day before and allow to cool overnight.
To make it even easier - buy a premade cake and frosting.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 692Total Fat: 30gSaturated Fat: 18gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 470mgCarbohydrates: 99gFiber: 3gSugar: 75gProtein: 8g
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although Busy Creating Memories attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
This is genius! Love that the kids could easily help with decorating the top.
love this! so creative i want to try and make it 🙂
Adorable! This cake is so cute and festive. If only my husband liked Kit-Kats I could make this for his birthday next week!
That is so cute. My kids would love that!
Love the idea…although I may sneak in multiple Kit Kat pieces while making the cake…haha
OMG I love this! What an awesome idea
What a cute cake. Kit Kats are one of my favorites.
That is so ridicously awesome!!! How in the world did you think of something like this! I LOVE it!!
This is very clever and so stinkin cute! Just pinned it!
Oh my goodness that looks absolutely sinful. And it’s totally adorable at the same time. Thanks for sharing! I will have to pin it later when I am on my laptop
My, this is SO cute and creative. Plus, Kit-Kat is my favorite, so this would be a great one for me… I mean, my kids. 🙂
What a cute cake! It looks like it would be simple enough for even me to try 😀
This is one of the cutest things I have ever seen!!!! I am going to attempt to make it this weekend!! THANKS!!
This looks so much fun! How can it not come out good with all that yummy stuff?
This is a cute idea. I think I’ve gained a few pounds just by looking at the photo.
This is super cute! I have been looking for a cute idea for a cake for Easter! Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow what a cute cake!! I need to try my hands on this DIY cake 🙂
Those green apple twizzlers look yummy! Super cute cake!
I love the green basket handles. That is a great touch! The Kit Kat cakes are great on Pinterest
This cake is sooo cute! Using the Kit Kats to make the outside of the barrel is such a great idea. Not to mention the ‘ropes’. Love it:)
THANK OU THIS IS SO CLEVER – love it!
I cannot believe this post hasn’t went crazy on SU. IT’s so cool. I pinned it today to my Easter board!
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing Shelly. Not to toot my own horn, but I was thinking it was pretty cool too. Thought for sure SU would go nuts over it. Thanks for the pin earlier today. 🙂
I have seen these cakes. They are so cute.
So adorable, and rich!!! My kids would absolutely love this! Very cute idea.
I LOVE this idea! It looks difficult, but then when you explain the steps it seems totally doable! Thanks! 🙂
That cake is ADORABLE!!
OMG – if this is not cute, I don’t know what is
This is so fun!! I don’t know if I would want to eat it because it is so cute!! WAIT… No It looks too good not to eat ;-)!!!
Very cute!!
This is such a cute idea. I am always looking for new ways to do holiday crafts. I will definitely be trying this one out next year
This is so cute and easy to make :)!
That came out SO cute. I was thinking about doing something similar with my boys, so thank you for the fun idea!
Love how the kit Kat makes it look like a basket. I would think you would need patience to cut it though
actually the outer layer of Kit Kats is only two Kit Kat sticks at a time. So it makes cutting it even easier! I just slice between each 2 Kit Kat candy pieces and it turns out to be the perfect small size! Or if you want bigger pieces, just keep the Kit Kats in solid 4 pieces. But I usually like to break them up into 2 stick sections.
Whoa – I’m impress. I’m sure this took a lot of time and wow – so creative. haha! I’m afraid to get a bite as I don’t want to tuin how it looks haha!
I love this idea and its the first time I have ever saw it. I love it so much Im going to share this post for you on my fanpage nb coupon clipper, cheers
Really love using the Kit Kats for the basket edges. Almost looks like a rain barrel!
This is so awesome, Jade! I love it! I am going to have to make it with my kids.
Ya know, I saw a picture like this on Pinterest (I think) and I wondered who had the time to make something like that! But, after reading this post I realized how easy it actually is. Plus, Kit Kats are like one of my fave candies, so how can I not make this?!
Yes, I used to think it took forever to make them too. Boy was I surprised at how easy it actually was! the hardest part was simply waiting for the silly cake to cool down enough to frost. lol.
Thank you so much for your fun cake recipe! My daughter and I made one today for her youth group bake sale. We had a great time making it!
Your basket ROCKS!!! Definitely something to do with my baby girl.
That is the cutest Easter cake I have ever laid eyes on! I just got in some Easter candy today, that would be perfect to decorate the top with. I may have to make this cake
I have seen different versions of the Kit Kat cake, but never a spring/Easter themed! Your cake looks delicous! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Wow, this is so beautiful! You are really talented Amber!
Now that is a very creative cake. I love it and I bet most little ones would too and might not even want to eat it because it is so pretty.
This is such a creative baking idea. I love the thought of getting the kids involved in the whole process.
This cake looks amazing!! Kit kat are my fav chocolate bar too
What a fun way to celebrate Easter. It turns out just as cute as can be too!
I made a cake like this last year except ours was COVERED with tons of individually wrapped candy. I put it in the other desserts until dinner time. Every time I passed I could see there was less and less candy on top. Finally i heard one of the kids yell “DUDE – there’s CAKE under here.” Hahaha. I think it was a hit. 🙂
That looks so cute, we just got our items for our Easter Cake yesterday. Never thought to use Kit Kats though. Of course I would have to buy double as my youngest would eat them as we put the cake together.
Oh wow, that is super cute!! And my mind is totally blown by this new revelation that – gulp – there are GREEN APPLE TWIZZLERS??? Must.find.
Awesome job, that cake is almost too cute to eat!
That looks easy enough! I wonder how it taste! Pinned it so that I can try it!
KitKats are one of my favorite candies ever. That cake looks amazing!
That is insanely cute! I wish I had an iota of your talent. If ever lopsided cakes come into fashion, though, I’ll be a master!
That is really cute. I love holiday treats that are whimsical. It adds to the specialness of the occasion.
What could you use if you hate coconut???
I’ve been thinking on this and asked a few other bakers for some additional ideas and I have some great alternative ideas for you!
1. Green Icing and use a grass tip and add another thin layer of frosting to the top of the cake
2. green chocolate melts and shave them, then sprinkle onto the cake
3. Edible easter grass candy. You can just cut up into small bits the same size as coconut with scissors
4. Green sanding sugar
5. Wilton edible accents (if your walmart carries them)
I hope this helps. 🙂
I made the same cake with this recipe of yours. The outcome was really good. Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe with us. 🙂 Shared this cake recipe with my friends also. xoxo
Thank you-I made this with a carrot cake inside and cream cheese frosting instead. I also piped green tinted frosting on top to look like Easter grass instead of coconut since hubby is not a fan. This is an adorable cake-thanks for sharing!