Surprise Sunflower Cake

It’s Friday!!!! Woo hoo! It’s also my daughter’s birthday. She is fourteen years old today. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. I know. I know. Everybody says that. Here’s where my story diverges. I have another daughter who is fourteen also; they are not twins but they are biologically mine. What? You may want to go back and read that slowly. Here’s how that works. I’m one of the few people on the planet to have kids less than a year apart: to be exact, 11 months apart. So, for 20 days each year, my daughters are the same age.

But, wait, there’s more! I also have a son who was born 10 years after my daughters! I remember my dad saying to me, “you don’t do anything like anybody else”. It’s true. I definitely march to the beat of my own drum. It’s ok with me; I like surprises!

So, it seems fitting today that I share my Surprise Sunflower Cake. Have you seen the piñata cakes where someone cuts a circle out of the center of cake and fills it with candy? Then, they cover the hole with a bit of cake. This surprise cake is like that but without a bunch of hassle.

My daughter specifically asked for a Funfetti cake but no cupcakes. Since she’s getting a pair of Van Gogh Sunflower shoes by Vans, I thought it would be fun to make a sunflower cake for her.

Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:

Funfetti Cake mix plus ingredients to make the cake according to the box (oil, water, eggs)

Non-stick baking spray

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa

Vanilla Funfetti frosting

Yellow food coloring

Small bag of candy (I used Skittles)

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips divided

Green sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a stand mixer, prepare cake mix batter according to directions.

3. Spray a 9 inch Bundt pan with non-stick baking spray. Spray 1 well of a cupcake pan.

4. Remove 1/3 cup of cake mix batter and place in a small bowl. Mix in 1 tablespoon of cocoa. Place chocolate mixture into prepared well of cupcake pan.

5. Place the rest of the batter into the prepared Bundt pan.

6. Bake Bundt cake for 40 minutes on the middle oven rack. Bake cupcake for 20 minutes on the middle oven rack. You can bake these at the same time.

7. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes then finish cooling on a cooling rack.

8. Divide frosting into two containers. Using food coloring, create a light and a dark yellow frosting. Microwave each for 20 seconds so that it is pourable.

9. While cake is on cooling rack, pour dark frosting from the hole to the edge of the cake creating “slim petals”. Repeat with light yellow frosting. Allow frosting to harden.

10. Remove cake and place on a decorative plate. Pour candy into the hole of the Bundt cake.

11. Place chocolate cupcake upside down in the center of the Bundt cake.

12. Microwave 1/2 of the chocolate morsels and stir until melted and spreadable, about 30 seconds.

13. Pour slowly on top of chocolate cupcake and spread with the back of a spoon. Cover the part of the cupcake that is showing.

14. Using the rest of the chocolate morsels, stick morsels one by one into the melted chocolate.

15. Add green sprinkles around the perimeter of the chocolate center.

There you have it! A cake with a surprise. Easy peasy. Oh wait! I have to show what it looks like when you cut the cake!

Here’s my parting shot of the birthday girl’s sunflower cake. Let me just say she loved it and was pleasantly surprised that is was filled with her favorite candy.