PINATA CAKE
It is a cake with a chocolate shell on it which you can break using a hammer or a stick, and then you have a surprise cake inside. It was very enticing when this cake came into trend. I also wanted to make this cool cake, but it took a lot of time, materials, and effort to get it right. I am going to give you some tricks and tips so that you don’t have to waste material and time like I did. The most important part of this cake is the chocolate shell, as that is the part which is about having fun and cake both in one thing. This cake took over the social media, everyone wanted this type of cake for their celebration and every bakery had to figure out a way to work it out. It was very exciting for me, and I wanted to try it right away. So, I started looking through the articles and videos on piñta cake and gathered as much information I could about it. Then I went to the baking supplies store and bought silicone moulds for the outer shell of the cake.
When I tried it for the first time, I did it on the small heart moulds and I suggest you do the same. The important element of getting the shell right is tempering the chocolate. You can use any chocolate compound, dark, milk or white. But, if you want your shell to be a color of your preference, then use white chocolate compound and gel food coloring but it is a bit difficult than other chocolates as it dries out faster. I find that the easiest way to temper chocolate is using microwave. You can do it two ways, either completely melt the chocolate and then add similar amount of chocolate and mix it or melt 50 percent of the chocolates and mix it well until smooth. The main thing here is that half of the chocolate should be melted to get the right temperature to temper it. Now if you’re a beginner and are not sure if the chocolate tempered or not, take a piece of butter or parchment paper and dip it in the tempered chocolate, shake off excess chocolate and keep it in the fridge for a few minutes. If the chocolate comes off easily like a shell, then your chocolate is tempered.
Clean and dry your small silicone mould and pour the tempered chocolate in the middle, then using a brush spread the chocolate on the sides evenly. Make sure that your chocolate is of the right flowing consistency, if it is too thin then the chocolate will break while demoulding it, and if it is too thick then it won’t break easily. After you’ve spread the chocolate evenly, clean the edges with cake scraper and keep it in the fridge to set. Take out the mould and turn it upside down and keep it on flat surface, then gently and slowly pull the silicone mould off from one side while keeping a light pressure in the middle. I advise you to wear gloves while doing this to avoid fingerprints on chocolate. Gradually pull the whole mould off and there you have your chocolate shell. If your melted chocolate gets thicker, pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds at first and do more if needed. Do this same thing on a large mould after you’ve had good practice.
The one thing that I’d like you to take care of is to make sure that the size of the cake that you’ll keep inside the chocolate shell fits in there properly and is of appropriate size, otherwise your cake will collapse in there.
Its assembly time, get your cake, and chocolate shell. Fill the remaining tempered chocolate in a piping bag as well. Place the cake on a cake board and then cover it with the chocolate shell carefully. Drizzle tempered chocolate on the shell diagonally and top it off with sprinkles if you want. You can also pipe with buttercream frosting around the edges of the shell to prevent it from moving. You’re done with it, now you just have to freeze it and wait to break it open. Below is the picture of a Piñata cake that I made.
