What's the best thing you could find after slicing into a dessert? More dessert, of course! Colorful candy spills out of our pastel piñata cake in piles, delighting all party guests. Get the detailed recipe for the cake here, and use these step-by-step photos as extra guidance.

Photography by Matt Armendariz

We chose a classic vanilla cake as a crowd-pleasing blank slate for all that candy. Follow the specific instructions for the cake in the recipe here. You'll likely recognize them: Combine the wet ingredients, cream the butter and sugar, mix the dry ingredients, then beat everything together.

Once your batter is mixed, divide it evenly between two 9-inch round cake pans (which have been buttered and lined with parchment). Bake at 350 degrees F, until the cake bounces back when pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely in the cake pans on a rack.

Sugar, lemon juice, salt and egg whites get whisked together over boiling water until the sugar dissolves. Then the mixture morphs into frosting in a stand mixer as you slowly add butter. Get the detailed instructions in the recipe.