Pumpkin Pinata Cake

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Halloween is not far away now and there were so many bake ideas that I pinned last year, that I never had time to make, that I am already happily baking some now!! Knowing how much fun a pinata style cake is to not only make but serve, I thought that for Halloween it is the perfect excuse to make one because you can fill it with treats (and tricks if you were that way inclined!!) . Therefore, if you are having a party at home, the kids get to have treats with their cake which is what trick or treat is all about really.

This cake is very easy to make – I did not have any hemsiphere pans so I used my Pyrex bowl to make some (kind of !) curved sponges, but I still think the shape was pumpkin like in the end. You can add whatever sweet treats you like – you could even add fake creepy plastic crawlies if you prefer not to use sweets or chocolates.

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Pumpkin Pinata Cake
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 200g self raising flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 5 eggs
  • 500g vanilla buttercream (I used ready made Betty Crocker buttercream but you can make your own if you prefer)
  • 1 tube of orange coloured food liquid gel
  • 200g full fat cream cheese
  • 250g good quality white chocolate (I used some made by Hadleigh Maid - please see below)
  • sweets and / or chocolate to fill your cake for the surprise filling
  • black ready to roll fondant
  • 1 large Cadbury's flake
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 180oC /160o C (fan)
  2. Grease a large Pyrex bowl or if you have them use some 8inch hemisphere pans (you will need to use the Pyrex bowl again unless you have two)
  3. Cream the butter and sugar together for approx 5 minutes until pale and soft
  4. Add the eggs and 2 spoonfuls of flour (to prevent curdling) and beat well for a few more minutes
  5. Fold in the remaining flour and cocoa powder
  6. Divide the batter in half and pour into your prepared tins/bowls - my bowl took 40-45 minutes to cook each cake in
  7. Once cooked, remove from the pans and leave to cool completely.
  8. **to make your orange pumpking frosting**
  9. take half of the buttercream and place in a bowl with the cream cheese and all of the food colouring
  10. Meanwhile melt your white chocolate BUT keep 2 chocolate buttons back for decoration
  11. Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl with the other frosting ingredients inside , an beat well until your end up with a lovely silky smooth orange frosting. Leave to one side while you prepare your sponge
  12. Carefully cut each sponge in half so you end up with 4 sponge layers
  13. You need to use the two curved layers as the top and bottom layers
  14. From each layer of sponge, you need to scoop out some sponge from the centres - important to note that for the top and bottom layers you must not go all the way through the sponge
  15. Then using the white buttercream, stick and stack the sponges - being vcareful not to add buttercream near the holes.
  16. Before you add the final layer, pour your treats into the cavity and then close with the top layer of sponge
  17. Carefully using a sharp knife, remove any sticky outy sponge bits from the sides
  18. Then cover completely with the orange chocolate frosting
  19. Stick the flake in the top centre to make the stalk of your pumpkin
  20. Then roll out 2 pieces of black fondant and cut out trangles or circles and stick on to make eyes. I then added 2 white chocolate buttons to stick onto the black fondant to make the eyes (i used a bit of the frosting to stick them on with)
  21. Then cut a smile or evil smile from the black fondant and stick on
  22. Keep in the fridge to set.

pumpkinpinata

pumpkinpinata1

pumpkinpinata2

My Pumpkin Pinata cake tasted really nice, and everyone who tried it at the baby and toddler group enjoyed it and all said how nice the frosting was!

Using a good quality chocolate in my frosting definately makes a difference to the overall flavour and consistency of my frosting.  I was sent some chocolate buttons from Hadleigh Maid created especially for baking as they have been blended without additives and are honest, natural and gluten-free. Despite being sent these to review, I have to admit that the white chocolate buttons were by far the best white chocolate that I have ever melted with. Normally, with the white chocolate I would use, i have to be careful that it does not over heat and burn, or it goes a bit scrambled almost. These Hadleigh Maid baking buttons melted so easily and stayed the same colour, plus they tasted nice, and were not too sweet, perfect for using on an already sweety filled cake!! And I loved the fact that they are packaging in a brown paper bag that can simply be folded down on itself to reseal ready for another bake day

hmaidchoc

The Hadleigh Maid chocolate buttons for melting are not available to buy until mid November, and priced at just £3.99 for 350g, I feel is excellent value because of the quality of this luxurious chocolate from Suffolk. Yes the chocolate is made here in the UK in Suffolk by a family run business, who are passionate about chocolate and are experts in the manufacturing side of chocolate making too.  Hadleigh Maid do not just stop at baking buttons, they make a whole host of chocolate treats – please check out their website for more information http://www.HadleighMaid.com where you can also be in with a chance of winning this fab baking goody box

hadleighmaidbundle

 I was sent some baking buttons for the purpose of a baking review. The recipe idea is my own as are my comments about the chocolate baking buttons.

“I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I have been paid expenses and supplied with a product sample for this review but retain all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post.”

Other recipe which use the Hadleigh Maid baking buttons include

Chocolate Halloween Treats
Extra Chocolately Google Eyed Brownies
Creating A Showstopper

15 Comments

  3. That looks wonderful, I keep meaning to make a pinata cake but keep failing miserably! Beautifully decorated as well.

    I’ve just spotted your eBuzzing scores: 1 in Gastronomy? About bloody time because you rock!

    Reply

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