Very Pink Piñata Cake

This cake was inspired by as ASDA recipe, which can be found here.

The basic recipe can be adapted in numerous ways: sponge colour, icing colour, using chocolate and variations on the filling, so I think this is a recipe I’ll be using again and again, adapting each time!

This was a birthday cake for a friend who loves all things pretty and pink, so I adapted the original recipe with differing shades of pink icing, and a multitude of pink sweets!

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Very Pink Piñata Cake 

You will need:

For the cake

• 460g butter, softened
• 460g caster sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 460g self-raising flour
• 4 x 20cm cake tins (or cook in batches if you only have 2 tins)
• Strawberry jam

For the icing:

• Pink Food Colouring
• Red Food Colouring
• 450g butter, softened
• 900g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Freeze dried raspberry pieces

For the filling:

• 350g small pink sweets

(I used smarties, dolly mixtures, mini marshmallows, pink sprinkles, pink and white edible pearls, pink and purple sugar hearts, pink sugar crystals, freeze dried raspberry pieces, strawberry lances chopped into 0.5cm lengths)

Instructions:

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line 4 x 20cm sandwich tins.
2. Beat together 115g butter and 115g caster sugar until light and creamy.
3. Sift 115g of the flour. Beat in 2 eggs, one at a time, then add a spoonful of the flour.
4. Beat again, then fold in the rest of the 115g flour.
5. Put the mixture in one of the cake tins and level the top. Now repeat the process to make 3 more layers of cake.
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
7. Remove from the tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the icing:

• Using a spoon, mix the remaining 450g butter with the icing sugar, vanilla and 4 tbsp cold water until the sugar is just blended in, then beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy.

Assembling the cake:

1. Cut out 10cm rounds from the centres of 2 of the sponge layers, leaving the other 2 layers whole.
2. Take one of the whole layers, this will be the bottom and stick it to a plate or cake board using a little buttercream.
3. Spread some of the butter icing in a ring on top of this layer, leaving a 10cm circle bare in the centre.
4. Spread a layer of jam onto the buttercream in a ring.
5. Put one of the sponge ring layers on top of the iced bottom layer.
6. Spread icing and jam onto this ring and place the second of the ring layers on top.
7. Fill the hole with the sweets.
8. Spread icing and jam on top of this ring, then cover with the final whole layer.

Icing the cake:

1. Put 2 heaped tbsp icing in a bowl and thin down with 2tsp water. Spread thinly over the sides of the cake.
2. Divide the rest of the icing into five equal portions.
3. Put two portions together in a bowl and colour one shade of pink. Set this aside and only use for the top layer and the surface of the cake.
4. Colour the other portions in differing shades of pink with the red and pink food colouring.
5. Get four plastic piping bags and cut off the ends. Fill each bag with a different colour icing.
6. Pipe the first shade around the base of the cake, then use a palette knife to spread it around the sides of the first layer.
7. Pipe and spread the second shade of icing around the edge of the next layer, and the third shade around the third layer.
8. Pipe and spread the set aside icing around the sides of the top layer, then spread the rest over the top of the cake.
9. To finish, combine any excess icing together and colour in a darker shade of pink.
10. Pipe decorations with a star nozzle around the top and base of the cake.
11. Finally, sprinkle with a few freeze dried raspberry pieces.

Enjoy!

Love, Chloe xx

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