One Last Sweet Surprise for the Holiday

For the last dinner of Hanukkah, I recommend a cakey surprise—good in itself but over the top in showmanship.  Here’s how to pull it off.  The kind of cake is entirely up to you—chocolate or white, packaged mix or inherited family recipe.  The only requirement is that you make enough for four nice 8- or 9-inch round layers, of a sponge with a nice crumb, and plentiful buttercream frosting to hold it all together.

Start by centering an intact layer on your serving plate. (You’re not going to want to move it to another plate after it is assembled.) Top with layer of frosting.

For the next two layers, cut the centers out, leaving at least a 2-inch wide ring of cake. (Save the cut-out centers to make cake pops later!) Stack the two layers with frosting between them on top of the solid bottom layer. You should now have something that looks rather like a bowl.  And don’t worry if your rings break when you lift them Just paste them back together in place

. That’s what frosting is for.

Fill that hole in the middle with gold-foil-wrapped chocolate coins. You can find them, usually in a mesh bag, in any good candy shop this time of year. And you will be surprised at how many of those coins will fit into the center of your cake.

Now you top the whole with another intact layer, and cover the whole cake—top and sides—with frosting and whatever decorations you prefer.  

Bring it to the table, and do the cutting of the first wedge yourself—because you will be the only one who knows what is about to happen. 

When you slide a cake knife under the wedge and pull it out of the cake, those coins will spill out like a little waterfall. You’ll want to make sure everyone gets a coin along with a slice of cake.