Good Morning! I woke up super refreshed and excited to share all my birthday details with you. As you may have seen, it was my 30th birthday on Monday. I spent the weekend (+ Monday) celebrating with friends and family. In case you don’t have insta, I wanted to share all the details. Plus I wanted to have a permanent spot to refer back to all the fun details in case you want to recreate for your own parties.
Everything came together perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better 30th [social distancing] birthday. I’m also going to share the details of how I made my own piñata cake in case you want to try it for yourself!
Birthday Details
I knew that I wanted some custom cookies for my own birthday. I randomly came across this instagram page and fell in love with all the beautiful work she did. I sent her a picture of what I wanted for my cookies and she made it come to life. To say she delivered my vision would be an understatement. I’m so impressed with these cookies and how beautiful they turned out. They are *ALMOST* too cute to eat. They taste great, too, which is a huge plus because theres nothing worse than a cute cookie that doesn’t even taste good, ya know?! I would highly recommend ordering cookies from Jill if you are wanting custom cookies for an event/birthday!
Mike also ordered cupcakes from Sprinkles and a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes because both are delicious and really how can you go wrong with a bunch of desserts?!
Aside from all the desserts, I knew I wanted a balloon “display” as well. It’s not everyday you get to decorate your house with balloons so why not go all out. I ended up finding Paris 312 on Insta and loved all the balloon decor they had. Since the vibe of my birthday was pink, I ended up going with this really pretty mauve/pink/light purple display. I’m so happy I ended up getting this. It turned out perfectly and was such a great backdrop for pictures.
How I Made My Own Piñata Cake
Cake Decoration Details:
Disco Candle Holders // Sparkle Candles // Happy Birthday Candles
In addition to all the other sweets I had for my birthday, I wanted to try and create my own piñata cake. When I was in NYC, I had gone to Flour Shop and they had the cutest rainbow piñata cake. I actually have a blog post here all about my trip to NYC/details about the Flour shop here.
Rather than making the cake & frosting from scratch I decided to go with store bought cake & frosting because ain’t nobody got time for that. I’ll say that made this WHOOOOOLE process so much easier. I just mixed the cake mix, eggs, oil & water together and stuck it in the oven which is totally mindless. I ended up buying these 6″ cake pans, for a smaller version of a layered cake. They came in a 4 pack for like $35. Such a good deal. On William Sonoma I think 1 6″ cake pan was like 20 bucks, so not worth it. This was a way better deal!
Step 1: Bake Cake
I ended up using 2 boxes of cake mix and all 4 of the cake pans. 1 box fit into 2 of the cake pans. I probably could’ve made 1 box work for 3 cake pans though. I actually didn’t end up using the 4th cake that I made because the cake would’ve been too tall.
Once the cakes were done baking, I let them cool. Then I started to assemble everything. I didn’t have a biscuit cutter because when am I actually going to make biscuits?? If you have a round cookie cutter that would totally work. I ended up just using a lid from one of the spices in my spice cabinet because I’m resourceful like that.
Step 2: Make Holes & Assemble
I punched one hole in 2 out of my 3 cakes. I started by putting one of the cakes with a hole in it down. If possible, I would recommend using one of these cake boards underneath the cake, especially since their will be sprinkles that go through the cake. The cake board will make it easier to roll your cake in the outside sprinkles without the inside sprinkles falling out, if that makes sense?! Knowing what I know now, that would’ve been SUPER helpful but isn’t necessary if you want to decorate the outside without covering in sprinkles.
Once you have put the first layer of cake down I put some frosting on the top to help connect it with the next layer. I used this tool to help with the frosting and let me tell you- it was AMAZING. It made it so easier to frost everything. You just fill with your frosting of choice and attach whatever tip you want and VOILA. It comes with a bunch of tips and directions on how to use them all.
Your next layer will be your second cake with the hole in it. At this point is where the fun begins! You get to pour the sprinkles inside for the piñata effect. I used these sprinkles because I loved all the colorful options they had and that it had some bigger pieces as well as some smaller sprinkles. You could also use M&M’s, too for the inside!
Step 3: Frost!
Next, it is time to seal the cake up. Put a layer of frosting on the hole-y cake to attach it with your top layer. Once the cake is sealed, I did a light layer of frosting on the outside and stuck it in the fridge. I used my frosting tool as well as this scraper and a lazy susan and it worked perfectly. I felt like a real baker and these tools made the whole frosting process so much easier.
Step 4: Decorate
Once the cake had chilled in the fridge for a bit I took it out and did a final, thicker layer of frosting. Again I used my frosting tool, scraper, and lazy susan to get the frosting on the cake evenly. Then, came the outside sprinkles. Again, if I had the cake boards I could have just rolled my cake in a pan of sprinkles. However, I didn’t so I had to get creative. I poured my bag of sprinkles into a bowl and applied them in big fistfuls to the cake. This did make for a MUCH messier process, but it worked. I’d highly recommend the cake board, though, because I think it would’ve gone smoother/less messy with them.
Once all outside sprinkles are applied VOILA! You are done and have your very own sprinkle cake! With bake time and decorating the whole process took a few hours, but it was worth it. You could also cut off some decorating time by not putting sprinkles on the outside if you are wanting it to be quicker.
I hope you all enjoyed and found this helpful! Especially if you are trying to plan a party of your own. I loved being able to share my baking tools/ experience so let me know if you liked that and I can always share more of my baking finds. Hope you guys have a great day!
