Playland Cake!

I’ve had the idea floating around in my head for a while of a cake inspired by a ball pit. It would be a cake covered in chocolate ganache, with a pile of multicolored cake balls on top.

Thematically, I think a butter cake with sprinkles throughout it (like a fancy confetti cake) would be best, because it would fit better with a kid’s birthday party theme. But I felt like making a chocolate cake, so I did that instead.

I made my favorite recipe, which is the “Double Chocolate Cake” from Miette by Meg Ray. I always add coffee to the hot water, and swap the vegetable oil for olive oil. The recipe makes two cakes, so I had one cake for decorating and one to make cake balls.

As usual, the process of making cake balls was tedious and annoying. I crumbled up the cake added a tablespoon of butter and some ganache until it was wet and moldable. Then I sculpted it into balls, and left them uncovered in the fridge all night.

I then covered them in candy coating. I pre-bought all of the colors except for orange and purple. The orange turned out well, but I’m disappointed in the purple. No amount of red or blue could seem to make a decent purple color. I added some food coloring to try to fix it, and it made the texture way too thick.

I cut the cake I was actually using into two layers, and poured chocolate ganache over it. Then I just randomly piled the cake balls on top.

The edges were still looking a little rough from transferring it onto the cake board. I considered piping a boarder, but wanted to avoid making any more frosting. I pressed rainbow sprinkles into the bottom of the cake. It was pretty imprecise and a bit messy, but I like the result in the end. The sprinkles make it feel more like a party cake.

I really like the end result. I hope someday I can make this for a children’s birthday cake, because I think it would be a really fun cake for kids.

If you know a kid who wants a birthday cake, let me know!