I had asked my daughter what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday.

She wanted Merida.

Well, since her party was going to be a Hello Kitty party, we did a Merida (From Disney’s Brave) cake here at the house.

Which is why the cake in the photos is blue, like her dress.  :)

And for a little something different, I decided to add chocolate chips into the filling between the layers.

Wow.

This idea is a keeper!

Anyway, the process is pretty simple:  bake a cake like you normally would, and when you add the icing, generously sprinkle chocolate chips over the icing that’s on top of the bottom layer.  Then place the top layer over the chocolate chips.  Finally, add some icing in between the layers at the edge (to help make the final product smoother) before icing the entire cake.  (See step-by-step photos below.)

I used milk chocolate chips, which I thought added a wonderful dimension to the vanilla cake and cream cheese icing.  I also choose the regular-sized chips, which I loved, but you could also try the miniature ones as well.

The only thing I would change in the future, is that I would add some icing to the bottom of the top layer before placing it on top of the chocolate chips.  The chips themselves don’t stick to the cake, so it didn’t stay together very well when placing the pieces on the plates.

It wasn’t a big problem, just something I think I’d change.  Honestly, I thought about it, but I only had one container of icing (yes – I used store-bought for this) and that wasn’t enough to add icing to both layers on either side of the chocolate chips.

Here’s a photo of the step-by-step process:

Let me know if you try this – or something like it!

It was a big hit in our home.  :)