Nothing says I love you like a cake that says… I Love You! The best part – you can make these piñata cakes from scratch OR you can buy all the components in local Aussie grocery stores and ‘home bake’ it without ever turning on the oven.
Here I show you the hacked version that you can literally make 30 minutes before your partner walks in the door.
INGREDIENTS FOR PIÑATA CAKES
- 1 vanilla sponge sheet cake (these come in 2 rectangle layers and they are usually found in the pre-made cakes section rather than the bakery)
- 1 batch of frosting – you can make your own but if you’re short on time, do a good tinned frosting in strawberry, or tint vanilla in different colours
- Red writing icing (from the baking aisle)
- 1 cup of candy – I love mini M&M’s but any small candy is great for filling these
- A heart cutter – any size but bigger is better
- A small circle cutter (about 20c piece size)
METHOD
- Decide on the colours you’d like and tint the frosting in pale pastel shades –I went with yellow, blue and pink
- Using your love heart cookie cutter, cut heart shaped pieces of cake – you’ll get about 3 finished cakes from a double layer pre-made sponge cake so you’ll need 6 hearts in total
- Use the circle cutter to cut a circle out of 3 of the hearts, removing completely. With the other 3, cut a ½ depth circle and use a spoon to lift out a small circle of cake while leaving a little on the bottom so your candy doesn’t fall out when you move them – these will be your bottom cakes
- Place a little frosting on top of the bottom cake and stick your top heart piece (with the fully cut out circle) on top
- Using a knife or spatula, smooth frosting all over the sides and refrigerate for ten minutes to set the first layer of frosting. Add a little more frosting and smooth
- Fill the centre with candy and slice your circle core in half to make 2 thin circles. Pop one of the circle pieces back on top of the candy filled hole to give you a flat surface and spread with frosting, use a ruler or offset spatula to make it nice and smooth on the sides and top
- Write your message with writing icing and pretend you’ve been in the kitchen all day long! This is the perfect way to do “home made” when you just don’t have time for a scratch baked surprise!
For more recipes from our Baking Editor, Elise Strachan click here!
