A four-layer vanilla Piñata cake frosted with strawberry flavoured buttercream and a surprise centre filled with HARIBO Starmix sweets.
I don't know about you but when it comes to HARIBO Starmix there's never been a more apt tagline: "kids and grown-ups love it so" it's so true isn't it?
Going to the cinema? Take a packet of HARIBO Starmix. Road trip? HARIBO Starmix!
It's no wonder HARIBO Starmix is the nation's favourite sweets.
HARIBO Starmix is celebrating a very special birthday - it's 25 years since HARIBO brought together it's most well-loved iconic sweets - the egg, heart, ring, bear and cola bottle.
To celebrate this momentous occasion I've baked a HARIBO Starmix themed cake.
As you can see, this is no ordinary birthday cake. The centre of each sponge has been cored and then filled to the brim with HARIBO Starmix to make a Piñata cake.
This Piñata cake is an adaptation of my Strawberry Drip Cake which just goes to show how much you can do with a basic vanilla sponge recipe!
I baked the vanilla sponge in my (affiliate link) 7″ Wham Layer Cake Tins. They only cost around £10.00 and come as a set of 5.
I use the Wham tins a lot to make layer cakes – I find using individual shallow tins much easier than slicing baked cakes in half to get the layers.
I decided to split my cake into four layers because when you're making a Piñata cake - the taller the better. That way you can fit more sweeties inside.
For the frosting, I made a strawberry flavoured buttercream, however, plain vanilla would work just as well.
You could even buy a tub of ready-made buttercream icing to turn this Piñata cake into a very quick and simple recipe.
Piñata cakes are perfect for birthdays, they are so fun and exciting. I love the look on people's faces when they realise the cake is filled with a surprise.
I'll show you step by step how to make perfect vanilla sponges frosted with strawberry buttercream and you'll also learn my technique to cutting, stacking, icing and filling your own Piñata cake.
Vanilla sponge
Step One: Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 160ºC Fan / Gas 4 / 350ºF. Prepare the baking tins by spraying them with cake release or line them with greaseproof paper.
Step Two: In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using an electric handheld whisk. Mix until pale and smooth.
Step Three: Add the eggs to the creamed butter one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and beat slowly, mixing until no white streaks of flour are visible. Don't overmix.
Step Four: Add the vanilla extract and milk and fold into the mixture using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
Step Five: Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for 23 minutes until golden brown. The cakes will shrink away from the sides of the tins and will look the colour of fish fingers! Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in the tins to cool while you make the buttercream.
Strawberry buttercream
Step One: Add the room temperature butter to a stand mixer (or use a large bowl and handheld electric whisk) and beat for a couple of minutes until pale yellow and creamy. Next, add in the icing sugar half a cup at a time.
Step Two: Once you’ve added all the icing sugar, pour in the vanilla, milk and strawberry jam. You can also add a splash of pink food colouring if you want to make the icing pinker. Beat the ingredients smooth and creamy.
How to assemble a Piñata cake
When your cakes have cooled and your buttercream is ready, you can assemble the Piñata cake.
Place a sponge on cake board or plate and then use a 5cm round cookie cutter to cut a hole from the centre of the cake.
You can now use the first cake as a template to make sure all your holes line up. Place another sponge on top of the sponge with hole and use the cookie cutter to make a hole.
Repeat for all of the sponges. You can eat three of the centres now, but you'll need to save one!
Spread each sponge with a layer of strawberry buttercream and stack them on top of each other.
Tip ¾ of a bag of HARIBO Starmix into the hole in the centre of the cakes then plug the top with the circle of cake that you saved earlier.
Spread the remaining strawberry buttercream on top and down the sides of the cake.
Decoration
For the top of the Piñata cake, I whipped double cream and icing sugar and added a tiny splash of pink food colouring. I used a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M piping nozzle to pipe large swirls on top.
I decorated the top of the Piñata cake with the remaining handful of HARIBO Starmix, adding a heart, bear, egg, ring and cola bottle on top of each swirl.
I hope you love this HARIBO Starmix Piñata cake as much as we did.
#HappyBirthdayStarmix here's to many more years of HARIBO sweets.
This recipe was sponsored by HARIBO It was such a joy to design and bake a Piñata cake to celebrate such a wonderful milestone. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this website possible :-)
More cake recipes
Piñata Cake
A four layer vanilla sponge cake, frosted with strawberry buttercream and filled with sweets!
Ingredients
- 225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 225 g caster sugar
- 225 g self raising flour, sifted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 bag HARIBO Starmix
Strawberry buttercream
- 230 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 500 g icing sugar
- 50 ml whole milk
- 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 g seedless strawberry jam
- pink food colouring
Decoration
- 300 mls double cream
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 small splash pink food colouring
- 1 handful HARIBO Starmix sweets
Instructions
For the vanilla sponge
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 160ºC Fan / Gas 4 / 350ºF. Prepare the baking tins by spraying them with cake release or line them with greaseproof paper.
- In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using an electric handheld whisk. Mix until pale and smooth.
- Add the eggs to the creamed butter one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl and beat slowly, mixing until no white streaks of flour are visible. Take care not to overmix.
- Add the vanilla extract and milk and fold into the mixture using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. A skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes should come out clean. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in the tins to cool.
For the strawberry buttercream
- Add the room temperature butter to a stand mixer (or use a large bowl and handheld electric whisk) and beat for a couple of minutes until pale yellow and creamy. Next, add in the icing sugar half a cup at a time.
- Once you’ve added all the icing sugar, pour in the vanilla, milk and strawberry jam and continue to beat until it’s smooth and creamy. You can add a small splash of pink food colouring if you want to intensify the pink colour of the icing.
Assembly
- Place one of the sponges on a cake board or serving plate. Use a 5cm cookie cutter to cut a hole from the centre of the sponge. You can now use this sponge as a template for the others. Place the next sponge on top of the sponge with the hole and push the cookie cutter through. Repeat for all sponges. Reserve one of the cut out pieces of cake for later.
- Spread all the sponges with a layer of strawberry buttercream and stack them on top of each other. Add ¾ of a bag of HARIBO Starmix into the hole in the centre of the sponges. Plug the hole in the top with the leftover circle of cake that you saved earlier.
- Spread the remaining strawberry buttercream on top of the cake and down the sides using a palette knife to smooth.
To decorate
- Whip the double cream, icing sugar and pink food colouring until it reaches stiff peaks. Transfer the cream to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M nozzle. Pipe swirls on top of the cake. Decorate the top of the Piñata cake with a handful of HARIBO Starmix and place a sweet on top of each cream swirl.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 926Total Fat: 51gSaturated Fat: 31gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 218mgSodium: 26mgCarbohydrates: 93gFiber: 1gSugar: 74gProtein: 5g
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