I LOVE our latest Crunchy Nut Cereal Cake. The chocolate bowl filled with Crunchy Nut cereal Swiss meringue buttercream, creamy Belgian white chocolate ganache, a golden chocolate bowl and spoon, and a delightful white chocolate "milk splash". It has a delightful sweet-savoury flavour profile, moreish texture, with a side of nostalgia for our favourite breakfast. If you're opting for birthday cake for breakfast, you wouldn't go wrong with this.

Making it from scratch is pricey though. So I had to think of a way to fake it and here we are - a £10 version of our stunning Crunchy Nut cake!

I picked up two of Tesco's Finest Salted Caramel cakes and their basic vanilla tub frosting. Due to splashing out on the more luxury supermarket cakes I couldn't get the original Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal. Instead, I opted for the budget friendly Tesco own-brand version, which is a great dupe! I don't think I could tell the difference blind-folded.

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - ingredients

I wanted to make cereal bowls, spoons and a milk splash too so picked up some chocolate buttons, chocolate fingers and a cheap bar of white chocolate to temper. This was going to be a long shot because tempering cheap chocolate is a nightmare...however, I think I pulled it off!

Fake Bake Recipe - Crunchy Nut Cereal Cake

Ingredients

2x Ready-made Salted Caramel Cakes (5" or 6" size)

1 tub (400g) of ready-made Vanilla flavour frosting

Honey Nut Corn Flakes

Chocolate Fingers

Chocolate Buttons

White chocolate bar

Method

1. Prepare the cake decorating station with a cake turntable, angled palette knife, cake scraper, a cake board, a tablespoon, a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle, and a spatula.

2. Unbox the cakes. Smear a dollop of frosting in the middle of the cake board on the turntable, and then place one of the layer cakes on the board. Decant the frosting into a bowl and whip or stir to loosen and lighten it. Pipe some frosting along the top edge of the cake and stack the second cake on. Pipe the frosting around the cake and smooth it with the edge of the palette knife, or a plastic cake scraper. No need to smooth the top - the salted caramel curls look nice! Place in the fridge to chill and set.

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - frosting cake

3. Crush a few handfuls of the corn flakes and press along the base of the cake and let it rest in the fridge again.

4. Place a couple of teaspoons on a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray and place a chocolate finger on top of each. Gently melt 2/3rd of the chocolate buttons over a bain marie till they are about 75% melted. Take it off the heat and add in the remaining chocolate buttons. Stir to melt through. This is a very rough method of tempering chocolate. Using a small teaspoon, pour some of the chocolate on the heads of the teaspoons with the end of the chocolate fingers pressed in. Place the tray in the freezer for the spoons to set. Once set, use a dry warmed spoon to shape the chocolate spoons gently.

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - chocolate finger spoons

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - moulding chocolate spoons

5. Stir a couple of handfuls of honey nut corn flakes into the remaining melted chocolate. Crush some chocolate fingers and add it in. Mix well. Spoon a few tablespoons of the chocolate corn flake mix into a few cupcake liners to make "bowl" shapes. Press the back of a tablespoon inside to help shape. Put in the fridge to set.

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - chocolate corn flake bowls

6. Break up the white chocolate bar into segments marked. Gently melt 2/3rd of the white chocolate pieces over a bain marie till they are about 75% melted. Take it off the heat and add in the remaining pieces. Stir to melt through. This is again, a very rough method of tempering chocolate. Shape some muffin or cupcake liners into a round-ish base shape. Pipe the white chocolate onto the backs of the liners for the "milk splashes". Place in the fridge to set.

Tesco Fake Bake Corn Flake Cake - white chocolate milk splash

7. Add a couple of teaspoons of warm water into the melted white chocolate and stir into a ganache.

8. Fit a piping bag with a small star nozzle and pipe the remaining frosting over the top.

9. Remove the chocolate corn flake bowls from the cupcake liners. Decorate the top of the cake with the bowls and sprinkle some corn flakes into the bowls with a dollop of icing. Decorate the bowls with a milk splash and chocolate spoons.