NEEDED: See the Supply List for items you can purchase here, plus our Buttercream Icing recipe. You will also need:

• Your favorite cake mix or recipe (16 cups batter)
• Confectioners’ sugar (1 to 2 tablespoons)
• Large gumballs
• Toothpicks

Candy colors to be tinted. Combine melted white Candy Melts candy with the following candy colors to get colors shown:

• Teal: 2 oz. melted candy + blue + green
• Dark Coral: 2oz. melted candy + pink + orange
• Light Coral: 1 oz. melted candy + pink + orange
• Navy: 1 oz. melted candy + blue + violet + black
• Purple: 1 oz. melted candy + violet + blue
• Reserve 2 oz. melted white candy.

One day in advance, make candy shards. Melt white Candy Melts candy according to package instructions. Tint following color combinations above.

Using spatula, swipe rows of teal, dark coral and light coral candy onto cookie sheet. Drag swipe with icing comb to add texture. Let set at room temperature until set, about 10 to 15 minutes. Spread melted white candy on back of candy swipe; chill until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.

For swirled pieces, drop small amounts of melted candy on cookie sheet and swirl together with toothpick. Chill until firm, 10-15 minutes.

For solid pieces, swipe dark coral and teal candy separately onto cookie sheet and sprinkle with white nonpareils and bubblegum and blue raspberry sugar pearl sprinkles. Chill until firm, about 10-15 minutes.

Break candy into different sized shards, about 13 to 15 shards total.

Bake and stack cakes. Use your favorite recipe or cake mix to make 16 cups of batter. Bake and cool four 2 inch cake layers.

Prepare buttercream icing following recipe instructions. Prepare cake for stacked construction. Fill and stack cakes for 8 inch high cake, placing an 8 inch cake circle halfway between 4 inch high cakes. Using 11 inch spatula, ice sides of cake, leaving some texture. Ice top of cake smoothly.

Make sprinkle mixture. Combine small amounts of all sprinkles into a mixture, totaling about 1/2 cup. Gently press handfuls of sprinkle mixture into bottom of cake.

Make icing glaze. Tint cookie icing with royal blue and violet icing colors. If needed, thicken icing with confectioners’ sugar so icing, when stirred, goes smooth within 15 to 17 seconds. Cover top of cake with icing and allow icing to run over edge and down sides of cake.

Add candy shards. Position candy shards on top of cake. Use leftover icing to attach gumballs to cake.