Halloween piñata cake
(Image credit: Future)

This Halloween piñata cake is fun to make and full of tasty treats.

Kids will love this Halloween piñata cake packed full of different delicious chocolates and sweeties. From chewy fangs to green Smarties, this spooky cake is the perfect October bake and makes an excellent Halloween birthday cake too. The easy 8-step cake will take 25 mins to cook and approximately 1hr to prepare and decorate. For added effect, dye the sponge with different food colourings - think green for a rotten piñata cake look or even black for a gruesome twist.

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 200g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 2tsp vanilla extract
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1-2tsp yellow or green food colouring

For the buttercream:

  • 450g icing sugar
  • 150g butter
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 1-2tsp black food colouring

To decorate and fill:

  • Jellied snakes
  • M&Ms
  • Haribo
  • Dolly mix
  • Maltesers

Step 1

Preheat oven 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2x 21cm/9inch cake tins with greaseproof paper. Using an all-in-one method pour all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric hand whisk together until combined. Once combined, pour into the 2x cake tins.

Step 2

Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until springy to the touch. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack and decide which is going to be the base and which is going to be the topper. Turn the base upside down and leave to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the buttercream. Whisk the butter and vanilla extract and gradually add in the icing sugar and food colouring until combined. Add in the black food colouring.

Step 3

Turn the topper cake upside down and mark out a circle on the sponge using a sharp knife. Make sure you don’t cut all the way through the sponge, you want to go half way down and scoop out the insides. Do the same to the base cake.

Step 4

Pop the base cake onto your chosen serving plate or board and pack it with different sweets and chocolates. Make a little mound of sweets.

Step 5

Cover the outside edges of each layer with a light buttercream. You can do this neatly using a small spoon or spatula.

Step 6

Put the topper cake on top like a lid. Press the edges down firmly so they sandwich together.

Step 7

Coat the cake in the rest of the buttercream smoothing with a spatula or the back of a metal spoon.

Step 8

Halloween piñata cake

(Image credit: Future)

Decorate with your Halloween themed sweeties and cut to reveal its sweetie filled insides!

If you don't want to overload your cake with buttercream, use jam to sandwich the 2 cakes together.

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Jessica Dady
Food Editor

Jessica Dady is Food Editor at GoodtoKnow and has over 11 years of experience as a digital editor, specialising in all things food, recipes, and SEO. From the must-buy seasonal food hampers and advent calendars for Christmas to the family-friendly air fryers that’ll make dinner time a breeze, Jessica loves trying and testing various food products to find the best of the best for the busy parents among us. Over the years of working with GoodtoKnow, Jessica has had the privilege of working alongside Future’s Test Kitchen to create exclusive videos - as well as writing, testing, and shooting her own recipes. When she’s not embracing the great outdoors with her family at the weekends, Jessica enjoys baking up a storm in the kitchen with her favourite bakes being chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, and a tray of gooey chocolate brownies