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!!
Vicky says
Thank you for this. It was so easy to follow, (i did mud cake though, and changed the lime juice to lemon, but only 1/4 of a lemon) my icing definitely did NOT look like yours but my 8 year old didn't care! (I think my star nozzle was too big and I ran out of icing too quickly and had to spread it around the sides)- should I have used a smaller nozzle? Anyway the look on the children's faces was priceless and they all loved it
Claire says
You're welcome Vicky! That could have been the problem but it sounds like it was a success anyway!
sonias says
Pourriez menvoyer la recette en français par email
Jo says
Hi Claire
The amount of cream cheese & butter doesn't seem right. Its definitely 2 TABLESPOONS of cream cheese & 1 TABLESPOON of butter?
Cheers!
Claire says
Hi Jo. Yep that's right. Good luck!
Sapna says
Please confirm the quantities for the icing.
Claire says
Hi Sapna. The quantities are as listed in the recipe. Good luck!
K.D. Rausin says
Hi! This cake is delicious! I just wanted you to know I'm putting it on my blog and linking back to you. Thank you!
Claire says
So glad you like it KD. Thanks for linking.
Louise says
Hi Claire, I just love this cake of yours I want to try for a friends birthday and was wondering if I can make it a week in advance and freeze, would the m&m's unfreeze ok or not?
Thanks,
Claire says
Hi Louise,
I'm not too sure. m&ms tend to be a bit funny after being defrosted. You could bake the two cakes and freeze them and then you just need to assemble them at the last minute?
Sharon says
I wish I could pin this yummy recipe
Rheannon says
Hiya..
Such a fab cake, which I'm looking to make for my brother! He's slightly fussy and I was looking to make a plain cake, I saw somewhere about a pound cake, but I was wondering, if I just took out the lime and macadamia meal, would that make the cake all wrong, would they have to be substituted?
Also, if just making a pound cake is the better idea, which measurements of ingredients do you suggest and what size bowl did you use?
Claire says
Hi Rheannon. Yep you could just use extra flour in place of the macadamia meal and leave out the macadamia meal. My pudding dish was about 15cm in diameter.
Melanie says
Hi, I thought your was AMAZING!! I'm planning on doing it with my fixing to be 7 year old. She wouldn't care for that flavor you had and I was reading all the posts and you commented that it'd be best to have a pound cake? Well, is there a good dense chocolate pound cake recipe available? Or could I just use a Chocolate Box Mix cake? Would I need two of them? I was looking to see what bowls I had that would work for this. The only thing I could come up with was a Pyrex mixing bowl that says Microwave safe, No Broiler, No Stovetop....I'm guessing that means that it's not safe to do in the oven for baking.... I'm very limited on store choices where I live...Walmart's my best bet and even then that's not so good.... :/
Btw, Happy Late Birthday! :)
laurie says
love this! so creative! passing along to famil and friends! can you add me? wont take my email :(
Claire says
Thanks Laurie! I sure can.
Becca says
This cake looks awesome and I plan to make it for a work party that is candy land themed however I have to make it nut free due to an allergy. Do you have a plain cake recipe that you would recommend? And could you add me to the email list got an error message.
Claire says
Hi Becca. That sounds like a great theme for a party! I sure do. My cake is a variation of this pound cake. You can vary it however you like http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2012/04/10/food-processor-pound-cakes/. I will add you to the list.
Kai Jalland says
I made it! Well, a much simplified version. For my son's fifth birthday! It was great! The kids LOVED it! Just did 2 simple lemony sponges in a glass bowl, stuck them together with ganache, and went mad with the icing bag! OK, so my colours made the super duper cake look more like the shell of a prehistoric tortoise, but there was a bit of a dino theme going on too, so it was all fine! Oh, and put M&Ms and jelly bears inside. It was pretty easy and the kids were awestruck. Well worth a try. Thanks!
Claire says
Well done Kai! It sounds perfect. I'm so glad it was a hit!
Shyla Ramos says
This cake looks so fun! Since I am in the United States, what is a Pudding Dish? Where can I find them, and can you double the recipe?
Claire says
Hi Shyla,
Thanks so much! A pudding dish is basically just a rounded tin or bowl that can go in the oven. You just need something oven-proof that will give it that nice ball-like rounded shape. Yes you can double the recipe.
Alicia Ramirez-Wiella says
Hi Claire
I`m writing you from Mexico City and of course i`m going to try this wonderful recipe,but....only what question: can you translate for me or you can try to explain me what the "ICY" is?Thanks a lot and thanks for share
Claire says
Hi Alicia. I have sent you an email.
chris says
Hello Claire,
I am so sorry for reaching you this way, but this page will not accept my email address, and there were no other ways to reach you that I could find on this page..... I would love to be added to your list, if possible
thank you so much....
chris
Claire says
Hi Chris,
That's not a problem at all. I have added you to the list.
Claire
trisha says
About the hollowing out the top cake... and this is just my two cents worth, based on my 40-years or so of cooking & baking. I would think if you DIDN'T hollow out the top portion, IT would be too heavy and crush the bottom - especially when you tried to cut into it (and especially with such a dense cake - by the time you got the knife thru the top layer, the bottom would be crushed and totally lost it's form - just my observation --- like with those "Barbie cakes" our mothers made so many years ago - they didn't stick an entire DOLL in the cake or it would split & totally collapse & lose it's shape - I know, I did it in my younger years - lol! - so it's a matter of physics! :) )
Claire says
Yes that's what I thought too Trisha.
Bridgette says
How long did the icing take to set? Going to make this for mothers day.
Claire says
Hi Bridgett. I would ice it the day before. It takes a couple of hours depending on the weather.