M&M’s® Beach Ball Cake

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Get ready to have a BALL this summer with this fun and delicious M&Ms -covered Beach Ball Cake! Colorful and festive, this is the perfect cake for a beach party or other summery fun!

This shop, featuring a delicious M&M’s® Beach Ball Cake recipe, has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareFunshine #CollectiveBias

Summer officially begins in two days! I don’t know about you, but I’ve already been out enjoying the longer days, sunshine and warmer weather! To me, Summer is all about being outdoors, having fun with friends and family, and eating good food at BBQ’s and group gatherings!

Speaking of good food, just wait until you try this delicious Beach Ball Cake that’s made with everybody’s favorite candy-coated chocolates, M&M’s®!

Most of the time less is more, but when making this delectable M&M’s® Beach Ball Cake, the opposite is true! You are going to need a lot of M&M’s® to cover the entire cake, and I found that the XXL bags are the perfect size.

In fact, these 56 ounce bags are big enough to last you all summer long – just think of all of the tasty treats you can make! They are also the perfect size for summer parties and gatherings, too!

How to Make a Beach Ball Cake

While this cake may look hard to make, it’s really not. In fact, this was my first time make any type of cake other than a typical sheet pan cake. If I can do it, you can do it!

So, are you ready to see how to make this fun-filled, candy-covered Beach Ball Cake ? You’ll find the complete recipe in the free printable recipe card at the end of this post. But first, below are some step by step instructions along with images so you can see exactly how to make this unique and fun cake.

Kitchen Tools You May Need

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Before you get started, you are going to need a few tools including a special cake pan to make this cake. However, I have read that you can use 2 regular oven-safe stainless steel prep bowls, but I have never tried it.

• Wilton Sports Ball tin
• 10-inch round cake board
• food-safe wooden skewers

Please note, the Wilton ball pans only make a 6″ cake – that’s small, but would be enough for a small party (I’m guessing you could get enough pieces for 10-12 kids) because it is 2 six inch cakes put together. 😉

M&MS Beach Ball Cake Ingredients

• 2 boxes of your favorite flavor, MOIST cake mix
• 2 tubs vanilla buttercream frosting
• 1 XXL (56 oz) bag of M&M’s® Original
• 1 XXL (56 oz) bag of M&M’s® Peanut
• Crisco – to grease cake pans
• All purpose flour – to flour cake pans
• Whatever ingredients the cake mix calls for (mine needed eggs, water, and vegetable oil).

Instructions to Make M&Ms Beach Ball Cake

First you will need to prepare the molds by greasing and flouring. Once the pans are ready, begin making the cake, following the instructions on the box. Although you need to use both boxes, you will have some batter left over. I had enough to make a another small sheet cake (another use for all those tasty M&M’s®)!

Once the batter is ready, fill each hemisphere at least 3/4 of the way full (the cakes need to rise to the rim and over a little bit). Place both pans in the oven on top of a cookie sheet and bake at 325° for anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle of each mold comes out clean.

Keep in mind these will take longer to bake than a regular sheet cake.

Once the cakes are finished, leave them in the molds until they have completely cooled. I chose to refrigerate mine overnight, although you do not have to.

When the cakes are cool, and before you remove them from the tins, use a serrated knife to slice the tops off each half so that they are even with the rims of the molds.

You should now have two perfect halves of a perfect ball.

Gently remove the cakes from the tins. Lay them both flat side down. Now take one of the halves, and cut off a little part of the dome in order to create a flat base for the cake to rest on.

This is a good time, if you have one, to place your cake board on a cake turntable (I actually used a Lazy Susan). Spread a little bit of buttercream frosting on the cake board, take the half that you just trimmed and position it on top of the buttercream, trimmed side down. This will act as a glue to hold the cake in place.

Now spread a layer of buttercream on top of the half you just placed on the cake board. Don’t go crazy with it, just add enough to effectively hold the two halves together.

I also chose to insert three wooden dowels to act as extra support, making sure they were cut to the needed length before inserting them.

Now gently position the other half of the cake on top, and carefully press them together until a sphere is formed.

Once you have the sphere assembled, take some frosting and give the entire cake a thin crumb coat. This is basically a thin layer of frosting that works to hold in most of the crumbs so you will have a nice, smooth surface to frost.

After applying the thin crumb coat, place the cake in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes so the frosting will set.

Once the crumb coat is nice and firm, add another layer of buttercream all around the cake, making sure it is thick enough to hold the candies.

Now the fun part…adding the M&M’s®! This is also the part that will take the longest – and the most patience!

I used the M&M’s® Original for the entire cake, and then used the M&M’s® Peanut for the ‘water’ around the cake.

Start by making a small circle on the top of the ball with whatever color M&M’s® you choose (I actually used some white candies I had leftover from Valentine’s Day).

Next, place six toothpicks, equal distance apart, around the outside of the circle.

Then, using another toothpick, ‘draw’ a gently curved line in the icing running from each toothpick down to the bottom of the cake (using these guidelines to mark each section makes it much easier to get the proper design).

Once the guide lines are drawn, remove the toothpicks.

Begin adding the colored M&aM’s®. At first I tried filling in one color at a time (like in the above picture), but I soon realized that was not going to work due to spacing. So instead, I started at the top of the cake and added one row at a time, working my way around the circumference of the cake, switching colors as I went.

So in other words, if you begin the row with red, when you get to the next section, switch to the next color, and so on all the way around the cake. Continue in that fashion until the entire cake is finished You will start at the top of the cake and work your way around and down.

Once the cake is completely covered, the last step is to add the “water” around the cake. Use the blue M&M’s® Peanut for this, and fill in any holes with the blue M&M’s® Original.

Pro Tip: spread a thin layer of frosting around the cake board, so the M&M’s will remain in place instead of rolling all around.

Once the ‘water’ is finished, store the cake in a cool, dry place for a few hours or even overnight so the frosting and candy will set. Then cut, serve and enjoy!

Pro Tip – do not place the cake in the fridge or the M&MS will loose their sheen. I learned this the hard way!

So there you have it – a fun and delicious M&M’s® Beach Ball Cake that is perfect for get-togethers, birthday parties, BBQ’s and all sorts of summertime fun!

Printable Recipe Card Beach Ball Cake Recipe

Do you have a favorite recipe using M&M’s® that you like to make? #ShareFunshine by telling us about it in the comments below!