Archive note — March 2022: This article records an Aldi £10 Fake Bake challenge from March 2022. The Aldi products, prices and the StoryBakes fulfilment references below belong to that period and are not statements of current availability.
Allergen note: This cake uses hazelnut-filled chocolate products and is not suitable for anyone with a hazelnut or tree-nut allergy. Check every current packaged ingredient for its own allergen and cross-contact information.
This week had been a weird one. Not because of cake delivery, but because the Fake Bakes series had begun attracting some rather dramatic messages. In March 2022 I was accused both of damaging the cake industry and of encouraging unhealthy eating with supermarket ingredients. Quite a lot to put on a silly £10 cake project with my son.
It highlighted the problem with putting internet strangers or influencers on a pedestal. A follower count does not make somebody an expert on nutrition, and the last place anyone should turn for nutritional advice is a celebration-cake business.
At the time I joked that this Aldi Kinder Swindler Cake would be my last Fake Bake of the series…until next week. I was having far too much fun.
Fake Bake Recipe - Kinder Swindler Cake
@angesdesucre £10 Fake Bake with the fake Kinder Bueno and bars from Aldi. Aptly called the Kinder Swindler. #fakebake
Ingredients
2x ready-made chocolate sponge cakes (5" or 6" size)
1 tub ready-made vanilla flavour frosting
Chocolate mini muffins
Aldi Dairyfine Mini Delights Hazelnut Crisp
Aldi Dairyfine Spirals Hazelnut
Method
1. Prepare a cake turntable, angled palette knife, cake scraper, cake board, tablespoon, piping bag with a small star nozzle, knife and spatula.
2. Unbox the cakes. Smear a dollop of frosting in the middle of the cake board, place one cake on it and remove its paper wrapping and top decorations.
3. Loosen the frosting. Smooth the existing chocolate frosting over the top of the first cake and pipe some vanilla frosting around the edge.
4. Stack the second cake on top. Pipe frosting around the outside, smooth the sides and top, then chill to set.
5. For the Bueno-style drip used in this original recipe, melt four Mini Delights bars gently in short microwave bursts or over a double boiler, stirring frequently. Pass the melted mixture through a sieve if you want a smoother drip. Keep any hazelnut pieces you want to use for decoration in a clean bowl; do not rinse them.
6. Crust the base of the cake with crumbled chocolate mini muffins.
7. Chop the chocolate bars into large and small pieces.
8. Spoon the melted chocolate mixture along the edge of the chilled cake and gently push a few drips over the side.
9. Pipe frosting swirls over the top.
10. Place the muffins on top, add frosting swirls and decorate with the reserved hazelnut pieces, muffin crumbs and chopped chocolate bars.
Back in 2022 I was genuinely impressed by how the Aldi chocolate bars worked in this design. The original tenner challenge is retained as part of the Fake Bakes archive, not as a current Aldi shopping promise.
If you want the full-fat bakery version rather than the supermarket challenge, our current Kinder vs Nutella cake is the place to look.
And the useful point from the original criticism still stands: a cake blog is not a source of nutritional advice.
Lots of love,
Reshmi xoxo
I became a fan of yours last year with your influencer responses. Thanks for always making me laugh and inspiring me to fake bake too! love from NZ
Well, thank goodness for that. I was feeling all kinds of sad that the infamous Queen of cake and freebie request smackdowns would be kyboshed by, of all things, Fake Bake haters. I bloody love this series, I wish you’d been around when my son was small and he could have had something better than chocolate cake covered in buttons 👀😆 Keep being true to you Reshmi, you’re a beacon of light in the world.