Inside that luscious vanilla buttercream and layers of moist vanilla cake, there's a candy corn surprise just waiting to burst out and bring your Halloween party to life!
Preheat and prep: preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the bottom (not the sides) of three 6" round cake pans. On top of that, place a piece of parchment, cut to fit in the bottom of the pan, and again lightly grease the top of the parchment paper.
Divide and color your batter: divide the batter into thirds (weighing this on a kitchen scale is a great way to ensure accuracy if you have one!), leaving one-third un-colored, and coloring the other two portions orange and yellow respectively to your desired depth of color.
Pan and bake: pour each portion into its own pan and spread into an even layer using a spatula, offset spatula (my favorite!), or a dinner knife. Bake for 34-38 minutes until top is fully set, and the center springs back when lightly touched.
Un-pan and cool: allow cake to cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Then, use a knife or offset spatula to loosen the cake edges from the pan, un-pan the cakes, then allow to cool fully while preparing the frosting.
TO MAKE THE FROSTING:
Make the frosting: while your cakes cool, whip up a batch of Easy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (find the full recipe and post here!). Because we want a slightly stiffer frosting for this cake, you can add the powdered sugar all at once instead of in several batches.
Divide and color: divide the frosting into equal thirds, leaving one in your mixing bowl and placing the other portions in two small bowls. Color one bowl yellow, and one bowl orange to your desired depth of color and leave the last third in the mixing bowl white.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:
Level cakes (only if needed): if your cakes have a high dome, level by using a serrated knife and cutting horizontally across the cake while holding the knife level. (If your cakes came out naturally level-ish, feel free to skip this step).
Cut out the core: using a 3" round cookie cutter or tracing a 3" wide parchment circle with a paring knife, cut a circle out of the center of the orange and yellow layers (be sure to leave the “white” layer for the top whole!).
Fill piping bags and attach cake to serving plate: place each color of frosting in its own piping bag fitted with a large round tip or with the end cut off to form a ½" wide round hole (if you don’t have piping bags, you can use a zip top bag with the corner cut off to a ½” opening). Pipe a few little spots of yellow frosting on the bottom of the yellow cake ring and press it onto the center of your serving plate.**
Stack it up: pipe a full layer of yellow frosting (about ¼-1/2” thick) on top of the yellow cake ring. (Leave a little space towards the inner rim so the frosting doesn’t squish out into the core and make a mess of your candy!) Spread icing into an even-ish layer all the way to the outer edge. Top with the orange ring of cake, centering it and pressing it gently into the first layer of frosting.
Add in the surprise: you'll now have a cake stack with an empty core with the “white” layer on the side. If you see any frosting squishing out inside the core, just use a dinner knife or offset spatula to remove it or smooth it into the cake. Fill the center of the cake with the candy corn, as far up as you like (I filled mine right to the top which took about 1 cup of candy corn).
Seal off the cake: finally, pipe a layer of orange frosting on top of the orange cake ring, just as before (leaving a little room on the inner edge, but spreading into an even layer to the outer edge). Add the white cake layer on top, wiggle it to the center, and gently press down to fully adhere it to the frosting below.
Smooth it off: use a straight-edge cake comb or offset spatula to smooth the excess frosting between the layers on the outside of the cake. If the cake feels a little wobbly from the softened frosting, chill for 20-30 minutes in the fridge before finishing the outside.
Pipe on the stripes: when you're ready to finish the decoration on the outside, pipe yellow rings around the bottom yellow layer, pipe orange rings around the middle orange layer, and white rings around the top third (check out the video to see this in action!). Use a straight-edge cake comb or offset spatula to smooth the excess frosting between the layers on the outside of the cake.
Finish the top, then chill: use the remaining white frosting to frost and smooth out the top of the cake, and add as many or as few decorations on top as your heart desires! Chill the cake for at least 2 hours before serving.
Serve up a candy corn surprise! If possible, allow cake to sit for about an hour at room temp before service. Slice and share to watch the candy corn surprise put a smile on everyone's face, then enjoy the tasty cake that made it possible!
Notes
*Mini Candy Corn: I happened to find mini candy corn in my local grocery store and found it had a better “spilling out” effect when cutting the cake. But if you can only find classic candy corn near you, that will work too!
**Stack cake on the serving plate: for this particular cake with a candy core, you need to build your cake right on the serving plate or cake board. It will be easiest to smooth your cake out if your plate is flat and sits nicely on a rotating cake table if you have one.
It’d mean so much to me if you could please give the recipe card a ⭐ rating on the site and leave a comment to help others find this sweet recipe! Xo, Jocelyn @ Mint+Mallow