Snickers is one of my favourite candy bars. Layers of chocolate, caramel, peanuts and more chocolate are very tempting to be recreated in a cake form. This lovely little treat is a non-baked dessert, which is great during the summer heats, but is also good year-round, because it's a quick dessert to make. If you like the flavour of salted peanuts to be more prominent, increase the amount to your liking.
Ingredients
For the base
100 ml double cream
50 grams milk chocolate
200 grams cocoa cookie crumbs
4 tablespoons milk
For the peanut buttercream
120 grams butter
150 grams roasted unsalted peanuts
50 grams roasted salted peanuts
50 grams icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
For the caramel filling
400 ml whole milk
40 grams cornflour (corn starch)
2 tablespoons plain flour
3 tablespoons sugar
120 grams butter
100 grams milk caramels
For the Ganache
150 grams chocolate
100 ml double cream
Preparation
First make the caramel filling, because it will take some time to cool down. Take about 100 ml of cold milk and whisk it with the cornflour (corn starch), plain flour and sugar. Bring the rest of the milk to a boil (over medium heat). When the milk starts to boil, remove it from heat and whisk in the milk and cornflour mixture, then return it to the stove and cook for another 5 minutes, or until it thickens up. Remove from heat once again and immediately stir in the caramels, and keep stirring until they melt. Let the filling cool down completely at room temperature.
For the base, melt the milk chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave and set it aside to cool. Beat the double cream with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks form, then add half of the cookie crumbs and blend well. Add the melted chocolate and the rest of the crumbs and mix again. Finally, pour in the milk and combine well. Lightly grease the base and sides of a spring form pan (23 cm; 9"), then press in the base, level it as much as possible and set it aside.
To make the peanut layer, grind or finely crush the peanuts, but do not make peanut butter out of them, it's fine if there are some larger pieces. Beat together the softened butter with the icing sugar until light and fluffy, add the peanuts and milk and blend well with an electric mixer. Spread this mixture over the base in the pan, level it and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. By that time, the caramel filling is cooled. Beat the softened butter until very creamy, then (mixing constantly with an electric mixer), add one tablespoon of the filling at a time to the butter. When the filling is well blended and creamy, pour it over the peanut layer and put the whole cake in the fridge.
Finally, to make the Ganache, chop up the chocolate and bring the double cream almost to a boil (but do not let it boil). Pour the cream over the chocolate and mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula until everything is melted, then let the Ganache sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Take the cake out of the fridge, spread the Ganache over the caramel filling and put the whole cake back in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
