KitKat Piano Cake by Tastemade

When I saw this cake on Tastemade I knew I wanted to make it because I play the piano. Originally, I was going to make it for my Mom's birthday, but she didn't want any chocolate in her birthday cake. So, I decided  to make it for my piano teacher, whose birthday was just a week before. 

Baking the Cake

The original recipe was for a chocolate cake, but I just found a vanilla cake recipe on Pinterest that made a medium-sized rectangular cake because I didn't want the entire cake to be chocolate. I put parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan so the cake wouldn't get stuck to the pan. This trick works very well! Then I cut the cake in half to stack the two pieces on top of each other to make it the shape of a piano. 

For the chocolate buttercream I found another recipe on Pinterest. I didn't think I'd have enough to make a layer in between the cake and cover the entire thing, but I did, and even ended up with some leftover frosting. Yummy! I bought myself the off-set spatula to make the frosting job look smooth, and it may have been the best baking purchase I have made thus far. 

I used Tastemade's recipe for the chocolate ganache. I made it, but left it sitting out because I had something else to tend to, and then the texture got all jiggly/clumpy and it was shiny. So, next time, I will make it and use it immediately. Even reheating it in the microwave didn't help much. I reserved some in a bag and put it in the fridge to cool so I could use it to pipe a border. Obviously, if you leave ganache in the fridge, it will harden. When it came time to pipe, I heated it in the microwave a bit.

Decorating the Cake

My mom bought the fun-size, mini, fat chocolate Kit-Kats instead of the longer, skinny ones, so I couldn't make as many keys for the piano. But I still managed to make it work. I put chocolate ganache underneath the chocolate Kit-Kats to make them stick because I knew the ganache would harden in the fridge, and they would stay in place. I carefully placed the white chocolate Kit Kats onto the cake, making sure they were straight, and centered. Afterwards, I piped the ganache across the top and sides. It was a little liquidy to pipe, but I didn't have time to wait for it to cool in the fridge again. The cake looked better after sitting in the fridge because the ganache hardened, and you could distinguish the piping from the frosted cake better. 

The Taste

The vanilla cake was moist and  the buttercream was fluffy, chocolatey, and creamy. The chocolate ganache gave the cake a hard layer, kind of like a truffle, with the buttercream nestled right underneath. I thought it was delicious, and my piano teacher loved it so much!