Halloween Piñata Cake

Will your guests get a trick or a treat when they cut into this Halloween Piñata Cake? Get the recipe below.

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Trick or treat?

A piñata cake looks like a normal layer cake on the outside, but when you cut into it, you find a centre stuffed full of sweets, sprinkles and other treats! (If you’re lucky…)

As well as looking good this cake tastes good too! The sponge is a citrus orange Madeira cake which lends well to being carved up and hollowed out (a bit like a pumpkin!) Where there’s orange there must be chocolate so I’ve then used my favourite chocolate buttercream recipe and added the juice of half an orange to make a silky smooth chocolate orange buttercream. The dark colour of the chocolate also makes it easier colouring it jet black as it doesn’t require quite as much food colouring as normal buttercream!

Step by step

Making a pinata cake is a little bit more involved then your average layer cake. But if you follow these simple steps then you will realise it doesn’t have to be time consuming or stressful.

Step 1 – bake 3 layer cakes using the recipe below.

Step 2 – take the cake layer you would like to sit on the bottom and push a circular cookie cutter halfway through the cake. Scoop out the cake. Repeat this with the layer you’d like to be the top of the cake.

Step 3 – using the same cookie or pastry cutter, cut out the middle of the final layer of the cake.

Step 4 – secure your bottom layer to your cake board with a little buttercream. Fill the hole with your trick or treats.

Step 5 – spread a little buttercream around the top edge of the bottom layer and place the middle layer on top. again fill the hole with your trick or treats.

Step 6 – spread a little more buttercream around the top edge of the middle layer. Stack the trick or treats high in the middle so they sit above the middle layer. Place the final layer cake on top making sure all of the trick or treats are hidden in the middle of the cake.

Step 7 – ice the outside of your cake!

Halloween Pinata Cake from Supper in the Suburbs

Halloween costumes

As well as the trick or treat centre, I wanted this Halloween piñata cake to look like it had gotten all dressed up for the occasion. I covered the cake in a layer of chocolate orange buttercream I had coloured jet black, then piped buttercream roses around the base and on the top. I LOVE how gothic the finished cake looks. It’s so chic and elegant. And so BLACK!

You’d have no idea that hidden inside are three bright layers of orange flavoured sponge and a whole host of goodies! This is one cake in full Halloween costume! Doesn’t it look fab?

Top tip

My only top tip would be to make sure you have some really good food colourings before you start. Liquid food colouring just isn’t going to cut it here. You will need Wilton or Sugarflair gels. Don’t be afraid to use lots of them too. I know they aren’t cheap but you won’t regret it when you the faces of your friends and family as you cut into the cake!

Variations

This has to be one of my favourite cakes that I’ve made in a while. The design is just so simple yet so effective and it genuinely tastes as good as it looks!

It is the perfect cake for Halloween because you can decide whether or not you want to treat your guests or if you’d rather play a trick on them! Instead of filling with sweets you could fill it with plastic spiders instead, or why not have an oozing, bloody centre?!

If you’re hosting a big Halloween party it might be fun to have two cakes both of which look identical on the outside but one filled with tricks and the other filled with treats!

If you want to make this a real treat (adults only), then why not swap out the orange juice in the buttercream for an orange liqueur like Gran Marnier? I won’t tell if you don’t!

The recipe