How do I make a 3 Musketeers cake?

[AmyH]

My son loves 3 Musketeers candy bars and has requested that I make a cake with them for his birthday. Most of the recipes I've seen online involve melting the candy bars and mixing them in with the cake batter or with the icing. It doesn't seem like you'd get much flavor this way, especially with a candy bar like 3 Musketeers. Does anyone have a recipe where the candy bars are left in chunks, either in the cake or maybe as a filling between the layers? Would making a ganache and then stirring the chunks into it when it's cooled work as a filling?

[AmyH]

I ended up baking a 2 layer chocolate cake. I made a ganache icing, put it between the 2 layers with some chopped up (not too small) fun-size 3 musketeers bars, then put more on top and on the sides, and put more chopped 3 musketeers bars on top. It was a big hit. My son, his friend, and our other kids loved it.

[chowser]

I'll bet you could just chop them up and fold them gently into a cake. But, if I were going to do it for my kids, I'd probably chop them up and mix into ice cream. Make a cake in a rectangle and cut, it the shape of a 3 musketeers bar. Layer w/ 3 musketeers ice cream into a block. Cover w/ ganache so it looks like a huge 3 muskateers bar. If you want extra bang for the buck, put frozen 3 musketeers in the freeze and process in the food processor. Use those crumbs in between the layers of ice cream and cake.

[AmyH]

That sounds good! It would look like a Cold Stone Creamery cake, I think. I can ask him if he wants ice cream in the cake. I think if I put them directly into the cake they might sink to the bottom and burn. Maybe I'll do a test run.

[chowser]

I would pick a cake batter that's a little more dense, not quite as dense as a pound cake. Then sprinkle them on top just before baking. You could try coating them in flour first, but I've never found that trick to work as well as tossing some on top before baking. But, smaller chunks, not big portions of bars.

[AmyH]

That sounds like it would work. I was also just thinking that I could put the bars on top of the cake layers after they come out of the oven, so they'd soften but then cool. Kind of like putting peppermint patties on top of brownies. Then I could stack the layers and frost with chocolate frosting. I don't know what happens when 3 musketeers get melty, though.

[biondanonima]

IMO the whole attraction of a 3 Musketeers bar is the texture, which is totally lost when the candy is melted. I think using them as a filling (cut up and stirred into frosting, ganache or whipped cream), a topping, or stirred into ice cream and made into an ice cream cake are probably your best bets. There's really nothing like a frozen 3M bar, so I would go for the ice cream idea!

[AmyH]

I have to agree that frozen 3 musketeers are great! And now that he has his braces off he can enjoy them, too.

[ipsedixit]

How about a tiramisu?

Sub out the traditional lady fingers with bars of 3 Musketeers? Of course, you can leave out the alochol if it's for your son is, ahem, still not of drinking age.

[AmyH]

That sounds interesting. He'll be turning 16 so I'm sure he'd like to have the alcohol in there, but I wouldn't use it. I'm not a coffee drinker and I don't think he is, either, but I could play with the flavors. We did see a 3 musketeers trifle on the 3 musketeers web site (who knew?) but he wanted something more like cake and less like pudding.

[Virginia Girl]

I just googled it and came up with the recipe--in fact, a few of them. Check them out.

[AmyH]

I did look online, but as I said in my OP they all involved melting the candy bars and mixing them with the other ingredients.