How sweet it is! For Kiva’s 10 year anniversary, we made an edible unlike anything else. The Ultimate Kiva Cake features custom-made frosting, batter, and ganache infused with your favorite Kiva gummies, mints, chews, bites and bars. Are you salivating yet? Visit our “Recipe” Highlight for the full-how to on recreating this supreme treat at home. Here’s to another 10 years!


INGREDIENTS

Salted Caramel Ganache:

¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

½ cup (120ml) heavy cream, room temperature

5 KIVA Terra bites: Sea Salt Caramel, cut in half

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup milk chocolate, chopped (170g)

Chocolate Cake Batter:

Nonstick baking spray

1 cup (230ml) coffee, hot

70mg Kiva bar chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 ½ cups (325g) AP flour

1 cup (95g) unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch process if you have)

2 ½ teaspoons (11g) baking powder

¾ teaspoon (5g) baking soda

1 teaspoon (3g) kosher salt

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (150ml) grapeseed oil (or other high quality, neutral oil)

2 cups (400g) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons (8ml) vanilla extract

1 ½ cups (350ml) whole milk


Gummy Chocolate Frosting:

60mg gummies (suggested: 4 Camino and 4 Lost Farm in the flavors of your choice)

1 ⅓ cups (310ml) heavy cream

1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar

7 ounces (198g) unsweetened chocolate (or 72% or higher dark chocolate)

10 tablespoons (140g) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Small pinch kosher salt

Dark Chocolate Ganache Drip:

1 cup chopped dark chocolate

5 pieces KIVA CBD Dark Chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

Assembly:

Lost Farm chews and mixed berries, for decorating

Any extra Kiva products you have on hand

PETRA Glitter (See notes)


DIRECTIONS

  1. Make the Salted Caramel Ganache: In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan place the sugar, corn syrup, and 2 tablespoons (30ml) of water and place over high heat, stirring to combine.
  2. Swirl the pan occasionally and cook for about 8-10 minutes, until the mixture is a light golden amber color. (The mix will boil rapidly then slow down and darken in color.) Once a golden amber is achieved, remove from heat and let the bubbles subside.
  3. Slowly (and carefully!) whisk in the cream, being careful as the mix will sputter, and keep stirring until incorporated. Add the butter and stir until melted, followed by the vanilla, salt, and chocolate. Stir until well combined, then set aside to cool to room temperature. The ganache will hold in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks.
  4. Make the Chocolate Cake: Preheat the oven to 350˚F, 325˚F convection if you have. Coat three, 8-inch cake tins with the baking spray and set aside. (You can also line the bottoms of the tins with parchment paper if you like.) Place the KIVA chocolate in the hot coffee and stir to melt completely and incorporate before setting aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & powder, and salt then set aside.
  5. Place oil and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until homogenous and fluffy. With the mixer still running, add the eggs, yolk, and vanilla extract and let mix for about 30 seconds before stopping the mixer and using a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  6. Turn the mixer to low and add about one-third of the flour mixture. Once mostly incorporated, stream in about half of the milk. Repeat this with the next third of the flour, the rest of the milk, followed by the remaining third of the flour mixture. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl again before returning the mixer to low and streaming in the KIVA coffee mixture. Increase the speed to medium-low and mix for about 20-30 seconds only, until everything is incorporated. The batter will be runny and loose.
  7. Evenly divide the batter between the three prepared baking tins (about 550g grams each). Bake for 23-25 minutes, rotating the tins 180˚ halfway through baking if you can, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool away from the heat for about 15 minutes before removing from their tins and setting on a rack to cool completely.
  8. Make the Chocolate Frosting: Place the KIVA gummies and ½ cup each of the heavy cream (115ml) and sugar (100g) in a 2-cup, microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Stir together the cream and sugar. Reduce the microwave power to medium, cover the cup with a towel, and microwave for 1 minute. Whisk to combine the melted gummies and cream mixture. If the gummies are not fully melted, microwave in 30-second increments until hot and melted.
  9. Place the remaining cream (195ml) and sugar (200g) in a medium saucepan, and strain the gummy cream mixture into the pan, discarding any solids left in the strainer. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes.
  10. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and add the chocolate, butter, vanilla, and salt. Let stand until the chocolate and butter are mostly melted.
  11. Set the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water. Using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the frosting on medium speed, scraping the sides occasionally with a rubber spatula, until thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Once the mixture has become pale, remove the ice bath and whip for another 30 seconds or so. Use at once.
  12. Assemble the cake: If the cake rounds have a domed top to them, trim off the excess using a sharp knife so they are flat on top. Place one cake layer on a lazy susan, if you have, and spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the cake. Place about 1 cup of frosting in a piping bag (or in a small ziplock bag and snip off the end for a hole) and pipe a border around the edge of the cake, repeating this twice. This barrier helps create a home for the caramel ganache so it won’t spill out of the sides. Spoon a few generous spoonfuls of the caramel ganache on top and spread around evenly. Place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, then repeat this with the next layer and return to the fridge for 15 minutes.
  13. Place the final cake layer upside down (so the neat bottom is facing up--this makes the edges cleaner and the cake easier to decorate) and frost all over with a thin layer of frosting, but enough so that any exposed cake rounds are mostly covered. This is the “crumb coat” layer--place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes and frost the entire cake again, using a bench scraper or long spatula to ensure the sides and top are neat and cleanly frosted. Place the entire cake in the refrigerator again for at least 30 minutes to really firm up before adding the dark chocolate ganache drip.
  14. Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache Drip: Place the chocolates in a medium bowl and set them aside. Either in a small pot on the stove or in a microwave-safe measuring glass, heat the cream until it begins to simmer then remove from heat.
  15. Carefully pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow to sit for a moment or two before slowly stirring to combine, mixing until smooth. Let cool until ready to use, just above room temperature, then transfer to a squeeze bottle.
  16. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and find the area you’d like to be the “back” of the cake to test your first ganache drip. Place the tip of the squeeze bottle just above the edge of the cake (where the top and sides meet) and gently squeeze a small amount of chocolate drip out--if the drip falls how you like it, keep going with this technique all around the top edge of the cake. Squeeze a bit more chocolate onto the top of the cake and smooth with an offset spatula.
  17. Before the chocolate sets, decorate the top with berries, Lost Farm chews, and whatever else you’d like to use as decor. Return to the refrigerator until ready to serve. Let the cake come to room temperature about 30 minutes before serving, and decorate with any fragile items like KIVA products or PETRA glitter. Enjoy!


RECIPE NOTES

-If you don’t have baking spray, simply grease the tins with butter or neutral oil and coat them with flour, then rotate the tins to evenly distribute the flour, tapping lightly to let the excess flour fall away.

-If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can easily make this recipe using a hand mixer fitted with the two beater attachments, it just may take a bit more time for things to come together.

-Dark Chocolate Ganache Drip should be slightly warmer than room temperature before use. Test it on the inside of your wrist to check, it should feel a bit warm to the touch but not hot. You can also test the speed of your drips on a chilled plate, or the edge of your sink. If the drip falls too quickly, the ganache is too hot.

-The ganache drip can be tricky to execute--there are plenty of wonderful instructional videos on YouTube that are a great resource to help you feel more confident in applying this technique.

-To make PETRA glitter, simply use a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to grind down the mints, then mix with any edible glitter of your choice.