I stumbled across something online called a "pinata" cake. Apparently, you make a round cake, cut a hole in the middle (or I suppose you could use a bundt cake or angel food) and then put candy and toys or whatever in the hole. After that, you grease a mixing bowl (I think they said it had to be metal) and paint melted chocolate or candy melts on the inside, let it harden, invert it over the cake, and then decorate the shell. Then, the birthday child takes a hammer or other smasher-type-thing and breaks the shell open at the party. It sounds kind of neat. I tried googling it and didn't come up with a lot of results. I did a gallery search and found some really incredible cakes that actually look like pinatas, but nothing fitting this description. So I was wondering if anyone's ever made one before and what they're like and if you have any tips or anything? Pics would be great, too! Thanks!
The only thing I found on it is this site with recipe and instructions. Sounds like a cool idea.
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=43918
Oh....My....GOSH!!
I'd never heard of this cake idea before but I LOVE IT!! I was going to make a filled round cake this weekend for my sister-in-law's friend's little boy (he wants a Ninja Turtle, and I have a Bake N Fill pan that would work PERFECT for that!! I can make it look like the face of the Turtle and instead of pudding, I can fill it with candy! For the icing, I hope poured fondant will work (the stuff you use on Petit Fours) But I'll get candy melts for in case.
And dont worry, Im not selling the cake so its home use 
I'll defintely post pics if it works out! 
Please do post pics if you decide to do it! I'm really looking for an occasion to try one out now, too!
Ok, my Ninja Turtle Pinata Cake is about 60% done at this point. I've been taking pics as I've been working on it but forgot to take them at key times ( like when I put the candy in and sealed the two ends...I got a phone call from my sis at that time and forgot! ) Pics -are- forthcoming, once I find my cord that connects it to the USB drive. 
My journey thus far...
I used the Bake N Fill Pan. I only make the main cake and the round bottom cake. It takes a box and a half of mix to use this pan so I made cupcakes with the leftover batter. The instructions say 50 minutes but my cakes turn out perfect baking for 35 min. in my oven.
I let the cakes cool for about an hour on the counter, then I wrapped them and had them cool in the fridge for another hour. I left them in the pans while cooling. You have to with this pan, and as long as you use the cooking spray with flour in it there's no problems. The reason I keep it in the pan is it makes it so much easier to fill. After it was completely cool I filled the cavity with small, individually wrapped candies like bubblegum, starburts, and jolly ranchers. (It was a $1 grab bag assortment 
) I made a dam of icing around the edge of the cake, inverted the bottom cake onto the large one, sealing in the candy, and then flipped the full cake out onto a cooling rack.
I iced the cake with a smooth crumb coat of buttercream, then used a bag of green Wilton candy melts to make a ganache to pour over the cake. I put the cake over a roasting dish to catch drippings as I poured the ganache over the cake. I think my crumb coat was too thick cause the icing started to pool up at the bottom. After everything dripped off as much as it would, my brother used a large flat spatula to gently lift up the cake off the cooling rack while I slid the cake board underneath it. This part really is a two person job! There's no way to lift the cake without breaking it once it's iced. Thankfully the cake made the transition with little problem. There was one spot where the ganache cracked and you could see the icing underneath but it was easily fixed with a quick dab of leftover ganache and it smoothed right out. The bottom of the cake does puff out a little, but it still looks like a turtle head and that's all that matters. 
So right now, the cake is in the fridge chilling overnight so the ganache coating can set up. (and cause I'm dead beat tired from working on this cake for the past 4+ hours *lol*) Tomorrow morning, I will add the fondant bandana, the face details, and the border around the bottom of the cake. I'm so excited!! It's gonna be hard to sleep tonight.
I finally got around to uploading the pic!
http://cakecentral.com/cake-photo-1092543.html
This was the final result for my pinata cake. The little boy went wild over it and the kids were still talking about it for days. 
It wasn't a perfect cake by any means but I learned a lot from it and had a TON of fun making it!
This sounds like my description of the cake I made a very long time ago. I used an 8 inch cake pan and baked chocolate cake, carved out a small well then iced the cake with chocolate buttercream, placed a variety of candy like choc coins and covered rollos ect, things that were wrapped but I also put m&m's and smarties. I then used one of my big stainless bowls and made a chocolate shell and placed over top
here is the picture
someone else on CC is an expert at these:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=88717
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