Ombre Piñata Cake // Food

I am not a chef, by any means, however I do love to bake.  Especially when it is something a little bit different like a piñata sponge cake.  When a friend of mine was turning 40, I wanted to bake something to mark the occasion.  Piñata cakes are fairly easy to make and come in all forms, I chose to keep it simple by making a sponge cake, cutting a hole in the middle pouring in the sweets and iced the outside by creating an ombre style icing.  I used Betty Crocker’s vanilla butter cream icing, which you can buy in most supermarkets, and added blue food colouring.

Method for making the sponge cake:

175g softened butter

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

175g self raising flour (sieved)

1. mix together butter & caster sugar
2. gradually add eggs
3. once thoroughly mixed, gradually add flour
4. equally divide the mix between two round baking tins
5. bake in oven at 160 c

Icing the cake:

1. take butter cream icing and portion in to thirds
2. add food colouring to first third until you get the desired darker colour
3. add food colouring to second third until you get the desired lighter colour
4. in the final third of butter cream, add small amount food colouring to the lightest shade

When you have baked your sponge cakes and they have cooled, carefully cut them in half through the centre keeping one to the side.  Stack three layers on top of each other and cut a hole in the centre.  Ice and stack on a serving plate.  Pour in your chosen sweets, here I have used M&Ms and place the final layer on top to close over and ice the outside.

Now, why not try it yourself?