We had a moment of confidence and decided to recreate TastyKake Kandy Kakes at home.
That confidence did not last.
This week’s CopyCaturday attempt: a homemade version of Kandy Kakes — those chocolate-covered peanut butter cake bars — made in our “tiny” bus kitchen with very mixed results.
TastyKake Kandy Kakes (Copycat)
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups peanut butter
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp shortening
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Grease and flour a 10x15 baking dish.
- In medium bowl, combine eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Beat with mixer until creamy.
- Sift together flour and baking powder and add to bowl gradually, keeping mixer on low speed.
- In a small saucepan, heat milk and 2 tablespoons butter, until it begins to bubble.
- Fold milk/butter mixture into cake batter until combined
- Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool to room temperature before spreading peanut butter evenly over the entire cake.
- Refrigerate to set. Should be set in an hour.
- Melt chocolate and shortening in a double boiler until smooth. Spread melted chocolate evenly over the peanut butter layer.
- Allow chocolate to harden and set before cutting and serving.
💰 What Did It Cost?
Our version: $9.06 total (20 servings, about $0.45 per cake if you follow the recipe and don’t go rogue like I did)
Store version: $3.94 per box (12 cakes, about $0.33 each)
So technically, making them at home is cheaper. In reality? We absolutely should have just bought the box.
Where This Went Sideways
Somewhere along the line, Instagram decided Saturdays belong to cats. Ours mostly supervise and judge, so we started CopyCaturday instead — a weekly experiment where we recreate something nostalgic, fast food-ish, or questionably worth the effort and decide if we’d make it again.
This round was inspired by TastyKake Kandy Kakes, which felt like a great idea right up until the chocolate got involved.
The cake itself baked up beautifully. The yellow cake base rose evenly, smelled great, and gave us a false sense of security. If I make this again, I’d probably shave a few minutes off the bake time since it got a little dense after chilling, but at this stage we were still feeling optimistic.
Things Were Going Suspiciously Well
Once the cake cooled, we popped it out of the pan before adding the peanut butter layer, because warm cake and peanut butter sounded like a great way to make a mess before the real mess even started.
That part actually went fine… which should have been our first warning. We mixed the peanut butter filling, spread it on carefully, and briefly convinced ourselves we had this whole thing under control.
The peanut butter layer was smooth, sweet, and honestly the closest part to the real thing. This was the high point. This was also the moment we should have known we were about to get humbled.
And Then the Chocolate Happened
I had the bright idea to slice the cake before coating it in chocolate.
The recipe did not tell me to do that. I did it anyway.
Turns out, trying to dip or coat individual pieces while the chocolate is too thick is a fantastic way to turn neat little snack cakes into a full-blown salvage operation.
The chocolate coating was supposed to be glossy and smooth. Instead, it was thick, stubborn, and deeply uninterested in cooperating. At that point, this stopped being baking and became some kind of chocolate-based reconstruction project.
I ended up piecing slices back together, smearing chocolate where I could, and doing the kind of “this is probably fine” kitchen math that never leads anywhere good.
Store vs. Homemade Kandy Kakes
This was very much a Nailed It situation.
And for comparison, here’s what we were actually aiming for:
Was It a True Copycat Kandy Kakes?
Honestly? Flavor-wise, pretty close. The peanut butter layer hit the right note, and the cake itself tasted good.
Appearance-wise? Absolutely not. These looked like Kandy Kakes that had been through something.
The biggest miss was the chocolate coating. The real ones have that smooth, even shell. Ours looked more like a rushed group project held together by melted chocolate and denial.
Would We Make Kandy Kakes Again?
No. Not even a little.
If we want Kandy Kakes, we’ll just buy the real ones and save ourselves the cleanup. But as a kitchen disaster story? This one delivered.
More Copycat Recipes & Resources
If you like making restaurant and snack favorites at home, these are still two of the better places to look:
- Top Secret Recipes — lots of restaurant copycats, plus books and memberships if you want to go deep.
- CopyKat.com — free copycat recipes and plenty of inspiration if you like recreating familiar favorites.
Want to see what we’ll tackle next? Check out the rest of the CopyCaturday series.