Rainbow pinata cake combines two fabulous things - cake and candy. Make one for your next Birthday! Recipe in English & Spanish. Receta Ingles y Español.
For at least a week I had the same after work routine.
Come home, change into something more comfortable then mix up another batch of flour and water and carefully apply the newspaper strips to my craft project.
What was it you ask? It was a piñata
Sadly I can't seem to find any photos of my work of art but you needn't worry because I have a much better looking version for you today.
This rainbow pinata cake is extra special because today is my Birthday!
That's right today is the big 2-8 which means I have just two more years to come up with the-best-cake-ever for my 30th. In the mean time, I'm keen to celebrate this one with a whack bang and hope the celebrations spill over the next few weeks (get it...spill over like the filling in a piñata - oh yes I'm witty on my Birthday!).
A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a pic of a piñata cake and I knew it's what I had to make for my Birthday blog cake.
Just to fill you in, I get a Birthday cake for the day and a Birthday cake for the blog, ok and sometimes I bake an extra cake over the weekend closest.
What can I say, I love mud cake!
My rainbow pinata cake was seriously easy to make and oh so much fun.
The hardest part was probably choosing what to put inside. I settled on mini m&ms and freckles surprisingly fast.
Don't ask me why, they just jumped off the supermarket wall into my hands.
I didn't want the cake to just look fantastic I wanted it to be delicious too so my piñata cake shell is made of macadamia and lime pound cake and iced with lime cream cheese icing.
You could use buttercream icing.
If you're not a fan of lime or macadamia, try out a pound cake recipe. You can really use any recipe you like as long as it's a dense cake so it won't collapse when you hollow it out.
You will need some sort of round dish to bake the cakes in.
I used my pudding tin
It wasn't a big deal, but if you have two the same size or can borrow an extra one, it makes it easier.
Side note, someone has invented a Pinata Cake Pan
Once the cakes have cooled you will need to slice off the top and make sure that they're both the same height so that their circular tops match up.
You may need to trim one down to match.
Then, carefully dig out the middle of each one leaving at least a three centimeter border because you don't want the piñata cake to collapse before it's smash cutting time.
I challenge you to do this part without eating all the offcuts sampling the cake.
Next up, fill one of the halves with your treats of choice - mine were m&ms
You can use whatever you like but don't put anything too big in there or it will be really hard to cut the cake later.
Even the Freckles provided a little bit of a challenge.
You could even try filling it with something like jam & cream.
Pipe a thick border of icing around the outside of the base cake.
Then secure the lid.
I then covered mine with a thin coating of white icing to lock in all the crumbs and make decorating easy.
Once that was set it was time for the fun to begin.
To me, it's not really a pinata without crazy colours so I went all out with my vanilla cream cheese buttercream icing (you can use any thick icing that pipes well - here's how to make buttercream icing).
So I could use all four colours at once, I wrapped each one in a plastic wrap sausage and tied off one end and twisted the other end tight.
Then I gathered the twisted (not tied) ends all together and gave them the snip then carefully dropped them into my piping bag
After squeezing out a bit of icing to make sure all the colours were coming out together I went to town decorating. Feel free to go crazy with this step. It is a fiesta after all.
My icing was a little bit runny so drizzled down the sides a bit but I wanted it to look like it was draped the way the crepe paper
Now for the best bit...
The cutting! I imagine it would be pretty exciting to cut into it if you didn't know it was filled with goodies. Ok, I'll admit it was pretty exciting even though I knew there was hidden treasure inside.
Here are a few more homemade party food ideas:
Recipe
Lime & macadamia Pinata cake
Ingredients
- 250 g 8oz unsalted butter
- 250 g 8oz caster (superfine) sugar
- 4 free-range eggs
- 175 g 5½ oz self-raising flour
- 75 g 2½ oz almond meal (or macadamia meal)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- grated zest of one lime
- ICING
- 2 tablespoon cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2-3 cups icing confectioner's sugar
- juice of one lime
- food colouring
- chocolate or lollies to fill
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan-forced.
- Grease a pudding dish and line the bottom (prepare two if you have two the same).
- Place the butter and sugar in the food processor and process until smooth.Scrape down the sides.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and blitz until mixed in.
- Slowly add the flour and macadamia meal then once they're mixed in add the lime zest and vanilla.
- Scrape the sides down again and process for a few seconds to incorporate the scraped bits.
- Divide the batter in half and pour half into each pudding dish (or save the other half for later).
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to sit in the tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Clean out the tin and repeat with the rest of the batter if you're only using one tin.
- IcingBeat the butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
- Slowly add the icing sugar then the lime juice and beat until it is light and fluffy.
- You may need to add a little water or icing sugar to get it to the right consistency.
- Hollow out the middle of the cooled cakes and fill one half with your goodies.
- Pipe icing around the edge of the cake and place the 'lid' on top and press to secure.
- Ice the cake with a thin layer of icing.
- Divide the remaining icing into however many colours you would like and tint them with food colouring.
- Wrap the icings up in plastic wrap to form a sausage and twist and tie it off at one end and twist the other end tightly.
- Gather all the twisted ends together and snip them with scissors then drop them, snipped end first, altogether into piping bag fitted with a start tip.
- Press from the end of the bag to squeeze out all the colours at once and decorate the cake with icing.
- Leave to set.
Nutrition
Recipe
Ingredients
Torta
- 250 g mantequilla sin sal
- 250 g azucar muy fina
- 4 huevos
- 175 g harina con levadura
- 75 g harina de almendras
- 1 cucharadita de vainilla
- ralladura de una lima
Guinda
- 2 cucharas de sopa de queso crema
- 1 cuchara de sopa de mantequilla
- 2-3 tazas de 250g de azucar en polvo
- jugo de una lima
- colorante
- puqueños chocolates y caramelos para rellenar el centro de la torta par a hacer 'la piñata"!
Instructions
Torta
- Pre calentar el horno a 160oC (ventilador forzada).
- Engrasar con mantequilla un plato de pudin (como 18cm x 9cm) o dos si tiene dos iguales.
- Batir la mantequilla y azucar hasta que esten bien mezcladas.
- Anadir los huevos una a una.
- Despaciamente añadir la harina y la harina de almendra, ralladua de lima y la vainilla.
- Batirlo bien encorporandolo todo.
- Dividir la masa por la mitad y si tiene 2 platos de pudin echar los dos o guardar la mitad para cocinar despues del primer plato de pudin.
- Ponerlo al horno para 45-55 minutos probandolo a ver si esta hecho.
- Dejarlo 5 minutos en el plato despues transferiendolo a una sitio para enfriarse.10. Repetir puntos 7-9 si es necesario para cocinar la otra mitad de la masa.
Guinda
- Batir la manteqilla y queso crema con una maquina electrica hasta que este bien mezclada y suave.
- Añadir el azucar en polvo hasta que este bien lijera.
- Puede necesitar añadir un poquito de agua si esta demasiado espeso.
- Invertir la torta. Hace un hoyo en la base de cada torta y rellenarlos con los caramelos.
- Poner un poco de la guinda por el borde de la torta y con mucho cuido invertir la una al otra apretandolo para fijar las dos tortas juntas haciendo un globo.
- Cubrir la torta con la guinda.
- Compartir el resto de la guinda en cuarto cantidades y mezclar con 4 colores distintos.
- Envolver los 4 porciones separados en plastico formando como una salchica a cada y atandolo a un extremo y enrociendolo muy fuertemente el otro.
- Coger los cuarto extremos enrociendolos juntos y con unas tijeras cortar los 4 extremos juntos y al mismo momento bajandolo en una manga pastelera que tiene boquilla de estrella puesta par despues cubrir la torta con los cuatro colores de guinda.
- Dejarlo establecer.
- Buen fiesta!!
Elenore Hiltjes says
Would love to make this cake for my birthday.
Thankyou very much for sharing Claire and Thankyou M & M's
Claire says
So glad you like it Elenore. I'd love to see it when you make it!
Natalie says
thanks for this great idea. Made your cake for work tomorrow. Can wait to bring it in :) will try to post a picture on my blog in a few days!
Claire says
Will look forward to seeing your photos Natalie!
Jan says
This is amazing, I have loads of grandchildren and can think of many items to place inside it. Happy Birthday by the way.
Could you please add my email address to your mail out as for some reason it keeps coming back with invalid email address....????
Claire says
Thanks Jan! Not a problem I'll add you to the list.
Tammy says
Great looking cake!! My question is regarding the icing. I think everything seams pretty straight forward with making the icing, but how hard was it to get it rolled in the clingwrap (sausage) stage. Thanks for sharing
Claire says
Hi Tammy. Thanks so much! Wrapping the icing is really simple. If you need a demo, I made a little video here: https://www.clairekcreations.com/2012/11/mess-free-icing-with-a-piping-bag/
Rebecca says
Oh my gosh! This looks amazing and it looks like one of those things I'm going to try and fail miserably at, but it looks so fun, I'm going to go for it anyway! Thanks for sharing!!
http://thisfineday.com/
Claire says
Rebecca you won't fail! It's surprisingly easy to make! I'd love to see a pic when you make it :-)
Sharron Sheining says
Absolutely amazing cake. I love it! I will practice and try and do it for my daughter's 5th birthday. Thanks so much for your beautiful pictures, explanations and blog.
Claire says
Thanks Sharron! I would love to see a photo when you make it for your daughter :-)
Ivi says
Sorry Claire, but I too am wondering why both cakes have to be hollowed out if only one half is filled with the goodies? Would this not cause the cake to collapse or did you pile the treats into a mound (not depicted in your picture)?
Do you have an alternative icing recipe which does not use cream cheese? Can't wait to try it. :)
Claire says
Hi Ivi - I hollowed out the top cake as well because I wanted it to look hollow when you cut into it like a piñata. You don't have to to get the filling in but I thought it was more authentic.
Janet says
Awesome job on the cake! I'm a cake decorator and always looking for some new ideas. Why are both cakes hollowed out if you are filling only one? I understand that if you filled both you wouldn't be able to put them together but it seems like a lot of air space in the top. Or do you fill it with enough candy that it is a huge mound? It didn't look that way in the pictures you provided.
Claire says
Thanks Janet! I wanted it to be totally hollow in the middle like a pinata but I guess you don't really have to hollow out the top if you don't want to. You could mound up the candy in the middle.
I'd suggest making cake pops with the bits of cake that you scoop out. Yum!
Lynda says
One quick question. If you fill one half with lollies, why do you need to hollow out the second cake?
Lynda says
This looks amazing! I just found it on Pinterest and am making this weekend for my husbands birthday! Can't wait to see him cut it!
Please add me to your email list :)
Claire says
Thanks Lynda! I'd love to see a photo when you finish! Re the hollowing... I didn't really thing about it. I guess you don't have to but I wanted it to be a round hollow in the middle to look more like a pinata. You could mound up the filling too.
Brooke says
LOVE THIS CAKE!!
Some questions... is icing sugar also known as confectionery sugar?
What is Caster Sugar?
Is macadamia meal just ground macadamia nuts?
Is this cake cooked to be on the 'dry side' in order to hold up better?
Thanks
Claire says
Hi Brooke. Thank you!
In answer to your questions....
Icing sugar is also known as confectioners sugar.
Caster sugar is super fine sugar.
Macadamia meal is ground macadamia nuts (you could substitute almond meal if you like).
Not necessarily dry but a dense cake like pound cake is best as it's nice and sturdy.
Louise says
Hi,
This cake looks awesome and my kids want me to make it for my hubby, have you another recipe for the cake as my hubby isn't keen on lime and stupid question would a square tin work also as I don't have any pudding basins
Claire says
Hi Louise. I've just sent you an email. I'd recommend a pound cake because they're nice and dense. You could use a square but make sure it's not too big or it may collapse when you scoop out the inside.
Debbie says
This looks awesome!!! I tried to subscribe but it wouldn't work. Will you please add me to your list. Thank you!!!!!
Claire says
I sure can Debbie.
Cat says
Great cake! Silly question but why do u need to bake 2? Do they join together?
Claire says
Not silly Cat! Yep you fill one and put the other on top.
Sara says
I tried to subscribe but received an error telling me I had an invalid email address. Please add me to your list...thanks
Claire says
Hi Sara. No problem I'll add you now.