Mexican Celebration Cake

For the cake: Prepare the vanilla sponge cake batter. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160° fan) | 350F | gas 4. Grease a 900 g | 2 lb pudding bowl with a little butter and grease and line the base of a 18 cm | 7" cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Divide the batter between the prepared pudding bowl and cake tin. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes, removing the cake tin after 20 - 30 minutes, once golden and springy to the touch on top. A cake tester should come out clean when inserted in the centre.

To decorate: Remove to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, use a serrated knife to hollow out the cake from the pudding bowl, leaving about 4 cm | 1.5" thickness of cake at the border. Fill with most of the chocolate candies.

Turn out the cake from the cake tin and cut it to fit the top of the pudding bowl. Press the cake down on top, and then carefully invert the whole piñata cake onto a platter or stand.