Learn how to make an M&M anti-gravity cake using a straw. One of the easiest cake decorating techniques out there!

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I have seen these “anti-gravity” cakes all over on Pinterest and I have to admit, I found them quite intimidating. I mean, how cool does it look to have your candy pouring out into the cake?!

However, once I actually made the cake, it turned out to be one of the easiest cakes I’ve made.

Bake your cakes. For this cake I used 4-8 inch layers of chocolate cake. I used cake mix cake, because that’s what the birthday boy likes, but feel free to try using this chocolate cake recipe, which is my other go-to chocolate cake.

I like to chill my cakes at least overnight in the refrigerator. (Sometimes I’ll make them way ahead and freeze them). I think cold cake is easier to work with than room temperature cake. Why? Cold cake isn’t as soft as room temperature cake so it’s easier to frost without crumbs falling off everywhere.

Do I need to make a cake that is 4 layers high? Absolutely not. I personally like the look of at least 3 layers but I was also filling this cake with M&M’s in the middle. I wanted the extra layers since most of the middle was cut out and filled with candy. Since I was using so many layers, I popped a few straws in the cake to hold it steady (cut off the tops of the straws and push them down into the cake before frosting).

Frost your cake. I used basic chocolate buttercream between my layers and on the outside of the cake. (Check out my post on how to fix an ugly cake if your layers look bananas and you think there is no possible way you can stack them and make them look decent).

If you’re going to do the drip portion of this cake like I did, chill your cake. For at least 2 hours if not overnight. You want your buttercream to be very very cold. If you’re not going to do the drip portion of the cake, skip to step seven.

Prepare your drips! There are a couple ways you could do this. I made several different drips using different colored candy melts because, quite frankly, I didn’t know what I was doing. Were I making this cake again, I would make 1 batch of drip and color it the different colors using gel food coloring or candy food coloring (regular grocery store water food coloring won’t work here).

Basic drip ratio/recipe: 9 ounces white candy melts to 1/2 cup heavy cream. Heat heavy cream to a simmer. Pour over candy melts. Allow to sit 1 minute. Whisk (the whisk is important, we’re making an emulsion here) the chocolate and the cream together. If your chocolate isn’t quite melted, microwave for 5 second intervals and whisk in between until ganache comes together. Divide into bowls and color as desired. I made the M&M colors obviously but you do you.

Upside down drip time! I thought this would be much much harder than it was. The trick? Very cold buttercream. Basically all you do is take your chilled cake. Take an unused cake circle and place it on top of your cake. Flip your cake over and remove the “bottom” cake board that is now on top of your cake. Spoon drip onto edges of cake. Put “bottom” cake circle back on top of cake. Flip again. Remove other cake circle and chill until drips are set. Chels Sweets has an excellent photo tutorial on how to do this. I promise, it’s not hard, you just need a little bit of confidence.

Apply top drips. This one is easier. Remove chilled cake from the fridge. Spoon top drip colors around the edge of the cake. Return cake to the fridge to chill.

Build the anti-gravity portion of your cake. Take a clean straw. I used a bendy straw because I liked the angle it created. Other people suggest using a boba tea straw so you have a thicker candy “stream” but I found a regular ‘ole bendy straw to work just fine. Melt a handful of candy melts in a piping bag or zip lock bag. Snip the very tip off. Using the melted chocolate as “glue” stick M&M’s over the body of the straw. You only need to do about the top 1/2 of the straw since a good portion of it will be stuck into the cake. Allow to dry. Melted chocolate doesn’t take that long to dry so you probably only need a couple hours try time max.

Pipe the top border on your cake. I used a Wilton 1M tip and piped a spiral border on the top. You can pipe whatever kind of border you like, just make sure it’s big enough to hold in the M&M’s.

Add the M&M’s. Pile those M&M’s on top of your cake. Don’t be stingy. Place the straw in the middle of the cake and the place an empty M&M wrapper on the top of the straw.

Enjoy your M&M anti-gravity cake!

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