I made one, just for fun for my son to take to work with him, everyone loved it, he did say however that after it was cut and being consumed that some people were unable to finish their slice of cake with their portion of candy. I have had others request this cake and they can't seem to get enough. Go figure!

I do want to try it now, but I will probably bring in a gallon of milk to accompany it.

I've done the Kit-Kat barrels and I have also done individual (mini) barrels with the mini Kit-Kats and mini MMs. They were too cute for kids! [/quote]

Did you use cupcakes for the mini's? I want to make the mini's for my kids classrooms since a cake is more work for the teacher to cut and distribute.

what happens when you cut the cake...don't the M&M's fly everywhere?

No, the M&Ms don't fly. They stick to the frosting for the most part.
I love Marshmallow Peeps, and have put them around candy barrel cakes, too.

I just wanted to chime in on the pricing part. I see a lot of people saying $40 for an 8" cake. That is only $1.66/serving (and 8" serves 24) My base price is higher than that at $2.00 / serving. I would have to price out the candy to see how much it actually cost and see if it cost more than the amount of hours i'm not spending on it

So in essense it would cost the same for the customer b/c i'm not spending as much time on it, even though i'm spending more in supplies my profit on the cake would still be the same. But I still think $40 is too cheap. And yes, i'm in the MidWest in a smaller city, and have clients in small towns.

The first time I made the barrel cake, my co-workers loved it, but I wanted to try to make some for my daughter's halloween party, has anyone actually tried using cupcakes? If so, how did that go? lol

I was wondering if there was a tutorial or if anyone wants to explain how you make it. Is it just buttercream then attach the kit kats (or whatever) to it then fill with other candy? And the top really doesn't go all over the place when cut? If not, do you just make a single layer so all of the m&ms are touching bc?

JustGettinStarted,
That's pretty much the way you make them. You can put as many or as few candies as you want on top. Some people eat all the candies, some don't.

This looks as if it would be a cute cake to make for a Halloween Party. This was a very nice thread to read!