Valentine's Day Candy Box Cake

I give my kids apple sauce in their lunch boxes everyday. They never eat it, but I feel like it looks good in the lunch box and maybe one day they will change their minds and really want a healthy snack and actually try it. They always eat their Pirate's booty and dessert and Olive has gotten rather smart and now opens her apple sauce to make it seem like she had some. Clever little child I have. Anyway, I feel like there are other parents out there that are faking it with the apple sauce as well so I thought I would put it out there so ya'll didn't feel bad. Below is this wickedly awesome candy box cake I made. I love it and I hope you do too, because it's pretty easy to make. You can also use a regular white boxed cake mix if you don't want to bother making one from scratch. Scroll down for the recipe! Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Candy Box Cake

** This makes (2) 5.5" cakes so split the recipe in half if you only want one cake

Cake Ingredients
White Fondant (You can buy it at Michaels)
1 box Truffles or Sees Candy
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Frosting Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 teaspoons heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a 5.5"x5.5" square pan and line with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. 

3. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 25 minutes in preheated oven. Remove from pan and let cool.

5. To make the buttercream, use the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat the butter on medium speed until smooth.

6. Add in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and mix on low speed at first, then increase to medium speed and continue mixing for another 1-2 minutes until the mixture starts to come together.

7. Add in the heavy cream (start with 2 teaspoons and add a little more if desired), vanilla extract, and salt and continue mixing on medium-high speed for another minute or until everything is well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

8. Frost both your cakes and roll out your white fondant. The fondant should be about 1/4" thick when rolled out. For each cake you will need (1) 5.5" square for the top of the cake and (4) 5.5"W x 2.5" H strips for the sides of the cake. Carefully place your fondant around the cake and use a little water to stick the side panels together. Let dry and fill the top with your chocolates!