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St Patrick's Day Piñata Cake

This St Patrick's Day Piñata Cake is full of surprises. From the green and yellow marbled cake and the hidden gold coin centre. I decided to decorate this cake with a green ombré effect, a chocolate drip and of course some gold sprinkles. I absolutely love how this cake turned out.  
Servings: 12 Servings
Author: Sarah Mark

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 400 g Unsalted Butter or Stork
  • 400 g Caster Sugar
  • 400 g Self-Raising Flour
  • 8 Large Eggs
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • Green Food Colouring
  • Yellow Food Colouring

For the Buttercream

  • 300 g Unsalted Butter
  • 600 g Icing Sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 3-4 tbsp Whole Milk (optional)
  • Green Food Colouring

For the Chocolate Drip

  • 100 ml Double Cream
  • 100 ml Dark Chocolate

For the Decoration

  • Chocolate Coins
  • Gold Sprinkles

Instructions

To Make the Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan). Line three 8” cake tins with greaseproof paper and leave to one side.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Add in the flour, eggs, baking powder and vanilla and whisk until all combined.
  • Split the mixture between two bowls. To one bowl add green food colouring a little at a time mixing in between each addition until reaching the desired colour.
  • To the second bowl add in the yellow food colouring a little at a time. Mixing in between each addition until reaching the desired colour.
  • Add a tablespoon of green cake mixture, and a tablespoon of yellow cake mixture to the cake tins. Alternating until the mixture is split between the three tins.
  • Using a skewer swirl the two colours together and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. You will know they are ready when they are golden brown and springy to touch.
  • Leave them to cool in the cake tin for 15-20 minutes and then remove and put them on a wire rack to cool fully.

To Make the Buttercream

  • Beat the butter for around 5-10 minutes until soft and pale in colour.
  • Add in the icing sugar and vanilla extract and mix until completley combined. If you find the buttercream is too thick add a tablespoon of milk and mix again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency.
  • Split the mixture into three bowls. One bowl should have 400g, the other two around 250g.
  • Add a little green food colouring to the bowl with the 400g of buttercream. Now add green food colouring to the other two bowls. You want the buttercream in each bowl to be a slighly darker shade of green.
  • Leave the two 250g bowls to one side.

Putting it all Together

  • Using a 6" cookie cutter cut a hole in the centre of 2 of the 3 cakes and leave to one side.
  • Place one of the cakes with the centre removed on your serving plate and pipe the buttercream on top. Smooth using a spatula, don’t worry is any of the buttercream splodges out the side.
  • Place the second cake with the missing centre on top and pipe the buttercream on top and smooth. Fill the hole in the centre with gold chocolate coins until it is full.
  • Finally stack the final cake on top.
  • Pipe or spread the buttercream onto the sides of the cake to fill in any gaps.
  • Using your cake smoother smooth the sides of the cake. Don’t worry if you can see the cake through the buttercream, this is just the crumb coat. We will cover the cake soon.
  • When there are no gaps in your cake pop it into the fridge until the buttercream has hardened.
  • Once the buttercream has hardened, pipe or spread the lightest green buttercream around the bottom of the cake. Spread or pipe the middle shade of green in the middle and the darkest shade of green on the top of hte cake. I used each cake as a guide.
  • Using your smoother, smooth around the sides, if there are any gaps fill these with the buttercream and continue to smooth around the sides until the cake is smooth. You will most likely take some of the buttercream off the cake if you do pop this back into your bowl.
  • To smooth the top edges of the cake, use a palette knife and smooth any buttercream into the top of the cake.
  • Leave the cake to one side.

To Make the Chocolate Drip

  • Add the cream and chocolate to a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave in 20-second bursts until it has completely melted. Pop it into a piping bag and snip of the end.
  • Put the edge of the piping bag on the side of the cakeand squeeze gently. To get the drip I hold the piping bag ever so slightly awayfrom the cake. If you have any left-over chocolate pipe it onto the top of yourcake and smooth.
  • Put the cake back into the fridge until the chocolate has set.

To Decorate

  • Once the chocolate has set, add the remaining buttercream to a piping bag and pipe swirl onto the top of the cake. Finish with some sprinkles and any leftover gold coins.