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Gender Reveal Cake (Piñata-Style)

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By: Shinee

Published: Sep 14, 2015

Updated: Jun 08, 2021

5 from 2 votes

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Tall white layer cake covered with sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting and filled with colorful candies and sprinkles inside. Deliciously fun way to reveal the gender of a your sweet bundle of joy!

GENDER REVEAL CAKE

That precious moment of finding out the gender of your new baby… Full of anticipation, excitement, and pure joy!

Some wait till the day the little peanut makes its appearance into the world, but some of us simply weren’t gifted with that much patience.

But wait, who’s knocked up here??

→ THIS GIRL!!! ← That’s right, I’m pregnant!! Surprise!!!

Oh my gosh, I’m so excited to finally share this exciting news with you!

Every morning for the last couple of months, I wake up and say the same thing over and over again, “OMG, I’m pregnant! I’m baking a human being inside me!” Yep, despite my growing belly, I still can’t wrap my head around it. Because there is a terrified teenager trapped in my 29-year-old body!

Anyway, our sweet little baby is due in January ’16!! My husband and I are over the moon and counting the days to meet our little peanut!

WHAT’S THE BABY’S GENDER?

And as I mentioned earlier, I’m such an impatient soul. I had to know the gender of the baby just as soon as it’s available, right in the ultrasound room. I could NOT wait for another sec! But I wanted to make the reveal to my family a bit more special, so I made this piñata cake to announce the gender.

Now drum roll, please!

It’s a BOY!!

Though I’ve always dreamed of having a little girl as my first child, I’m already in love with my little man and couldn’t be happier! (Hang on a sec, let me wipe my tears of joy…)

Ok, enough about me. Let’s talk about the CAKE!!!

I was inspired by this beautiful piñata cake. I saw it way before I found out, and I knew I’d make it someday. And that day wasn’t too far away.

For my cake, I used classic white cake recipe from The Best Recipe cookbook by editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine and paired it with cream cheese frosting. This cake is insanely light and delicate, yet sweet and moist!

HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT WHITE CAKE

Bakers at Cook’s Illustrated truly know what they’re doing, and you know you can trust their method!

The following 2 techniques help us to achieve that fine-grained, soft white cake:

• Mixing the dry ingredients with butter before adding the liquid ingredients. This coats the flour particles with butter, which prevents developing too much gluten. Hence, soft and delicate crumbs!

• And adding the egg whites without beating them first. Unbeaten egg whites mix better with the dry ingredients and prevent large air pockets, created from beaten egg whites. That’s how you get fine-grained, velvety texture.

Here’s a step-by-step photos for cake layers:

HOW TO MAKE A GENDER REVEAL CAKE (PINATA-STYLE):

It turns out it’s super easy to assemble a pinata cake!! Plus, you’ll get the baker’s treat, aka cut-out cake pieces from the middle!!! 🙂

And here is a step-by-step photo tutorial how to assemble this piñata cake.

Sure, it’s a bit time-consuming, but the process is extremely fun and full of joy! I was smiling from ear to ear the whole time I was making it! Imagining the reaction of everyone when we cut into the cake. Oh joyful times…

So there you have it. A big news with surprise inside cake!

Hope you weren’t too bored with this long post. Thank you for being with me on this crazy journey, we call life! 🙂

5 from 2 votes

Gender Reveal Cake (Piñata-Style)

By Shinee

Tall 6-layer white cake covered with sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting and filled with colorful candies and sprinkles inside. Deliciously fun way to reveal the gender of a new bundle of joy!

Prep: 35 minutes mins

Cook: 25 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr

Servings: 10 -12 servings

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Ingredients

For the white cake:

• ▢ Cooking spray
• ▢ 1 cup 240ml milk, at room temperature
• ▢ 6 large egg whites about ¾ cup, at room temperature
• ▢ 2 teaspoons almond extract
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 ¼ cup 250gr cake flour
• ▢ 1 ½ cup 300gr sugar
• ▢ 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 12 tablespoons 1 ½ sticks/ 170gr unsalted butter, softened

For the frosting:

• ▢ 8 oz 225gr cream cheese, softened
• ▢ 8 tablespoons 1 stick/115gr unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 4 cups 450gr powdered sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ▢ Pinch of salt
• ▢ 1 cup blue or pink assorted sprinkles for filling
• ▢ ½ cup mix of blue and pink sprinkles for decorating

Instructions 

• To make the cake, spray 3 8-in (20cm) round cake pans with cooking spray. Line the pans with a parchment paper and spray the parchment paper lightly with cooking spray as well.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
• In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, egg whites, almond extract and vanilla extract.
• In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on low speed. Add butter and continue to mix on low speed until no dry ingredients left.
• Add half of the milk mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 ½ minutes. Add remaining milk mixture and continue to beat for another minute, scraping the sides of the bowl the half way.
• Pour the batter evenly into 3 prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Let the cakes rest in the pans for 3 minutes. If needed, loosen the edges with a knife and invert the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely. (At this point, cake layers can be wrapped and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)
• To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl with whisk attachment until smooth and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream and salt. Beat the frosting on low speed until sugar is absorbed. Then increase the speed to medium high and beat until nice and creamy.
• To assemble the cake, cut all 3 cooled cakes horizontally into 6 even layers. Reserve 2 layers for the bottom and top of the cake. Then cut out 2.5-in (5cm) circles in the middle of the remaining 4 layers.
• Place the bottom whole layer of the cake on a platter and spread about 1/8 of the frosting evenly all over. Place a cake layer with cutout center on top and spread the frosting evenly. Continue with the remaining 3 layers with cutout centers in similar manner. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the inside of the cake to smooth out the inner walls. Fill the hole with blue, or pink sprinkles and top with the reserved whole cake layer. Frost the entire cake with the remaining frosting and dust with the mixture of blue and pink sprinkles all over. If desired, print these little “Girl? Boy?” labels, secure them on toothpicks to set in the center of the cake. Store the cake in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before serving.

Tips & Notes

For step-by-step photos and additional notes, read the post above.

Nutrition

Calories: 762kcal

Carbohydrates: 111g

Protein: 8g

Fat: 33g

Sugar: 88g

Sodium: 521mg

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

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