Julie Surprise: Zinger Cake

Back in August a friend of ours was having a birthday, but she also was going through a hard time so we (my sister and my husband and I) sort of temporarily adopted her and therefore, we felt responsible for making sure she had a Happy Birthday, since it seemed that no one else was really going to trouble themselves about it.

She suspected this though and forbade me from baking her a cake. I found my way around that though. By paying attention to things that she said I became privy to the fact that she loves chocolate Zingers. Hence, my brilliant idea!I constructed rather than baked this Birthday cake for her.

I started out by making a cardboard circle for the base which I covered in foil. Then I figured out the circumference of the ring I needed to make a good sized cake base against/around which the Zingers could stand side by side without to any gaps. This took some trial and error and I practiced with the still individually wrapped Zingers before I got it right. Once it was right I covered that in foil as well and then began the balancing of the (now unwrapped) Zingers.
I created two rings of Zingers; an outside ring and an inside ring, and then secured them with a nice pink ribbon tied up into a bow.
To finish it off I made a simple chocolate glaze and drizzled that over the top to hide the edge of the foil ring.

Once we presented the cake to the Birthday girl I was able to inquire whether or not she liked coconut and upon receiving the answer in the affirmative; garnished the glaze with some shredded coconut before I put the candles on. (As you see above.)

It wasn't amazing in any gourmet type way (considering it tasted like Hostess Zingers) but creatively speaking, I was rather proud of it.