Beer in a barrel of ice cake

My only nephew is turning 18 and to celebrate, I wanted to make him  special cake.  What could be more special to a boy of 17 than the prospect of being legally able to buy a beer?

I decided to make a cake of bottles of beer on ice in a barrel.  My challenge was what to use for the ice.  After much deliberation, I decided on Fox’s glacier mints if I could find them (I haven’t seen one for years)  They wouldn’t taste right on the cake but they would look the part and could be removed before serving.  I would then use KitKat biscuits as the planks of the barrel around the cake.

I have to say, I was absolutely delighted with the results and just a teensy bit smug.  I didn’t find the Foxes mints but Tesco’s own brand did the job!

My nephew seemed to like it but with boys on the cusp of turning 18, you just never know!

If you want to give it a go- here is what you will need:

• One cake- you can use any but I used a Victoria sandwich- you can find the recipe here- RECIPE FOR VICTORIA SANDWICH
• 100z icing sugar
• 50z butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• multi pack of KitKats
• clear mints
• one bottle of beer

Instructions

• Beat together the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy, beat in the vanilla essence
• cover the top and sides of the cake to ensure that the butter cream covers the whole thing
• place the KitKats around the side, pressing them in to ensure they stick (you may want to add a ribbon to hold them in place too)
• cut a hole at an angle into the cake to insert the bottle, pressing it down gently into place
• When it is in place, arrange the clear mints to look like ice cubes all around the cake

 My nephew enjoying his cake!