Chocolate piñata cake

Melt 400 g dark chocolate chips in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, then set aside to cool.

Beat 12 large eggs.

Cream 620 g room-temperature unsalted butter with 930 g light muscovado sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla extract on medium speed for two to three minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl down.

On low speed add the beaten eggs a little at a time in a steady stream, mixing well after each addition.

Mix in the cooled melted chocolate.

Add 415 g all purpose flour and mix on low speed until just combined.

Divide the batter between three lined and greased nine inch cake pans and smooth the surface.

Bake at 350F for 45 to 55 minutes, until a tester comes out clean; all three came out at 45 minutes and were still overbaked.

Cool the cakes completely in the pans.

For the buttercream, work in two batches: cream 453 g of the softened cubed butter with vanilla for one minute on medium until fluffy.

On low speed add 922 g of the icing sugar a third at a time, then repeat with the second batch and combine everything together.

Spoon one quarter of the buttercream into a separate bowl and reserve it.

Level the sponges with a cake leveler so they are all the same height, trimming off the burnt sides.

Stack two sponges, place the circle card in the centre and cut around it to cut the cavity out.

Heat an offset spatula in hot water or with a blow torch, dry it, and spread the reserved buttercream while it is hot so it smooths out.

Hold the layers in a cake ring and apply buttercream around the base; this layer is both the crumb coat and the buttercream layer.

Chill in the freezer.

Fill the cavity with the candy and gummies until there is no space left, then put the last piece of cake on top.

Apply a crumb coat of buttercream all around the sides.

Divide the remaining buttercream into thirds and colour them red, blue and white, adding food colouring drop by drop until the colour is right.

Load the coloured buttercream into piping bags fitted with petal nozzles.

Place the cake on a turntable. For the piñata ruffle hold the petal nozzle against the bottom of the cake with the wider point touching the cake and the thin part facing outward, and pipe around the base in a wiggly wavy motion, working up the sides one colour at a time.

Variation, his salvage: smooth the piped ruffles flat with an offset spatula to marble the colours over the whole cake.