How to make a Money Cake

Its my niece’s birthday in September and my brother in law was giving her money. So he asked whether I could make a money cake. I had never heard of a money cake!! I did some research and found a few different ideas on how to make it work. Some good, some not so good. I decided to combine a few different things, whilst also keeping my fingers crossed. The thing with this cake is you really can’t test it properly. What you should remember about my cake posts is that I am not a professional at all!!! I am winging my way through just like you. I will let you know when I do something that goes wrong too!!

The money roll mechanics

For the mechanics of the cake I decided to use a lidded container, cotton reel, bamboo skewer, cellophane bags and a happy birthday sign with a flat bottom.

I put each note into a cellophane bag and then used tape to attach the bags together. Once I had all the money in bags I then attached the first bag to a plastic cotton reel with tape. I then rolled until I had a tight roll of money and stuck a bit of tape to stop it from unraveling. The next step was to drill a hole in each side of the container so that I could insert the skewer later. A utility knife was then used to cut a slot slightly longer than the width of the money roll. You can see from the pictures that I had the choice of two happy birthdays signs. I went with the clear one because of the flat bottom as I thought it would be easier to attach the roll with tape. It turned out to be the right decision as it was very secure when pulled out.

The cake

My niece loves chocolate so I went with a basic chocolate cake. When making a cake like this I usually go with a packet cake. The reason is that I find them a lot more stable to carve out then the ones I make fresh myself. I needed two boxes because I wanted to make two layers. If you want to make your own cake you can try my easy chocolate cake recipe. You will need to make two.

The icing

I chose to make Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream this time as I find it very stable. The recipe I used can be found here. I changed the quantity of the recipe to three cups as I was going to naked ice the side of my cake so didn’t really need a lot of icing.

Preparing the cake for icing

Once the cakes are cooled choose the one that will be the top and then carve out the shape of the container you’re using. Just make sure that the hole is deep enough so the container lid is level with the top of the cake as shown in the pictures. The cake doesn’t have to look pretty and smooth at this stage as it will be covered in icing and decorations.

Putting it all together

The next stage is icing and decorating the cake. This stage is where you can be really creative and make the cake suit the recipient. As I said earlier my niece loves chocolate so I just ran with that through the whole cake. I sandwiched the cakes together with a layer of buttercream and then naked iced the side. Put the container without the lid into the carved out section of the top cake.

You then need to measure the skewer to the width of the cake and shorten with a pair of scissors. Then insert the skewer into the side of the cake being careful to line it up as close as you can to the hole in the side of the container. Manoeuvre the skewer through the cotton reel and out the other side. This effectively anchors the container into the cake so that when the money is pulled the whole thing doesn’t come out. Remove the tape from the money roll so that its now a loose roll and pass the end through the lid. Push the lid in place and then attach the cellophane edge to the bottom of the happy birthday sign. Be careful to ensure that it is well attached and sitting easily on top of the container. If you’re unsure the tape will hold attach with hot glue.

The final product

I then added icing to the top of the cake. When doing this be careful not to get any icing near the money slot as this will cause issues with being able to pull it out easily. At this stage you can add a ganache drip around the side of the cake like I did but it’s not necessary. Use buttercream to attach your chocolates or other items.

Once finished put in the refrigerator so that the icing sets hard and holds everything in place. This is particularly important if the cake is being transported to another location. In regards to the decorations just make sure they are clear of the Happy Birthday sign so that its pulling action is not impeded. I added some very small light chocolates (eg Maltesers & M&Ms) around the edges if something was required to hide the container. PLEASE NOTE – at this stage it’s important not to pull the sign up because you will not be able to get the money back in. You could also unravel it too much so that it jams inside of the container.

Chocolates used to decorate the cake

• Cadbury Favourites
• Mars Pods
• Cadbury Fingers
• Corinthians Chocolate Wafers
• Original Tim Tams
• Arnotts Royals
• Freddo Frogs
• Maltesers
• Mint M&Ms
• Giant Caramello Koala
• Cadbury Dream Chocolate block (broken into long strips
• Kinder Surprise (broken in half)

Now time to see if the money cake actually works

My niece sent me this video. I was so relieved to see that the money cake actually worked the way it was supposed to!!