This Donkey Kong Cake Is An Absolute (Barrel) Blast

The idea of eating a barrel may not sound very appetising, but what about one made from cake?

Over the past few days, a video I uploaded on my Twitter account has been slowly accumulating views in the thousands. A video of a cake my wife and I created in the shape of a DK barrel from the Donkey Kong Country series. The response from the public has been truly amazing – a mixture of likes, retweets and positive comments that have been an absolute joy to watch unfold. I’ve seen famed composer Grant Kirkhope challenge me to craft a particular cake in the future and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle creative director Davide Soliani send an emoji with hearts in his eyes. Who knew an Easter weekend could be so eventful. How did this all come about though?

A couple of weeks ago when the UK fell victim to a downpour of snow, my wife saw it as a rare opportunity to make a snowman. Not particularly thrilled with the idea of going out into the cold to build a featureless, generic looking snowman, I started to think of a way to get out of it. It wasn’t until we started playing Kirby Star Allies though, that I formed an idea. What if instead of building something everyone does, why not try something else? Why not try building Kirby? The wife immediately loved the idea and before you know it we had a pretty decently sized snow Kirby sat on our garden table.

Fast forward to present day and we decide to apply the same logic to baking a cake. Why simply shoot for a standard round, two-tier chocolate cake, when we can once again be inspired by another gaming icon? Thus the DK barrel was born. Three layers of chocolate sponge with salted caramel buttercream between each and then coated around the outside with chocolate fudge. The detail on the barrel itself was handled with coloured icing. For a few finishing touches we decided to top the barrel with foam bananas (DK’s favourite of course) and also cut a hole in the middle of the sponge to fill with red, yellow and brown M and M’s hopefully causing them to fall out as you cut in.

As for the video, this was a choice we felt worked better at making it clear what we made was actually a cake. Furthermore, it also showed off the piñata effect in action too. Throwing in my plush Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as well as including the world music from Tropical Freeze was to add a little silliness to our efforts.

So why do it all? Simple. It’s fun. It pushes us. It’s something the wife and I can do together. And judging by the thousands of views our videos have received on snow Kirby and our DK barrel, there are people out there who enjoy seeing the end result of our hard work. The entire process from start to finish has been an absolute joy.

So where do we go from here? Talking it over with my wife and after seeing the reception we’ve gotten online, I’d be lying if I’d said we weren’t already thinking of more cake ideas. I for one would love to tackle anything Sonic related while she is leaning toward Toad. Our poll for what people would like to see has also revealed Pokémon to be a hot favourite. Bottom line is we have a laundry list of possibilities and a lot of excitement to try them. Stay tuned!