Want a fun decorated cake that’ll put a smile on your friend’s faces, that’s also delicious and chocolatey? Check out my Nailed It Emoji chocolate cake recipe!
Note: This recipe was updated on December 18th, 2021. My old video still shows the process for the vegan chocolate cake base, and the marshmallow fondant. I’ve kept it up, but I recommend this new method instead.
Here’s my Nailed It emoji cake recipe! I recently binged the Netflix series Nailed It! recently, and it’s been an absolute hoot.
One of my new aspirations is to appear on this zany reality baking show, especially as a baker with not a lot of experience decorating. Oddly enough, looking up the recipe for an emoji cake yielded few to no good results. This cake is originally made by Yolanda Gampp, who has her own unique formula.
So to create this cake, I’ve reorganized my own cake from scratch, using Rose Levy Berenbaum’s chocolate layer cake base, almond buttercream, and Satin fondant.
The Emoji Cake Recipe Components
I took the cake base from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Basic Chocolate Layer Cake from her book Rose’s Baking Basics. This cake is melt-in-mouth, though the downside is that it is a little softer and harder to decorate with buttercream. But the taste is absolutely worth it. Because the original cake is fit for two 9×2 rounds, you may have about a third of batter left over.
I adapted the buttercream from this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I’ve made a quick change to her buttercream since I’m a huge fan of almond. This is an almond-vanilla hybrid buttercream. Yum!
As for the fondant, I found that Satin Fondant yields a very professional result. Originally, I tried this cake with a marshmallow fondant. In order to get the right color, you’ll have to use professional food coloring rather than the cheap kind you get in supermarkets for that vivid bright color. To do it all yourself, you can check out this online recipe from Bigger Bolder Flavor.
Otherwise, Satin Fondant is affordable and tastes surprisingly good for something that came in a plastic container. You’ll only need about 4oz in black and white, and I bought 2lb in yellow, which is more than enough.
And those are the three components that make up my version of the Nailed It Emoji Cake recipe!
The Emoji Face
Rather than using the laughing, heart eyes, or sunglasses faces from the show, I’m going to do my own unique challenge… Let’s recreate the “bottom eyes” “yes sir” “uwu face” emoji which I love the most. (Don’t judge. This is a judgment-free zone, unlike Nailed It!) You’ll only need yellow and black food coloring, with the white being the natural color of the fondant.
My First Emoji Cake Attempt
I first made this in the amazing span of about an hour and 30 minutes, while hosting my monthly baking show, on Twitch. It was a little rushed towards the end, and hard to get my fondant color right — I had to use a lot of yellow food coloring and for some reason, the black color kept diluting. Plus, it didn’t help that my buttercream wasn’t cold enough and the fondant was far too warm in the summer!
Look at that fondant face! 
Ta-da! Nailed it!
This was also before I had access to an xacto knife, or a cake decorating stand! D’oh! After this, I decided to try using store-bought fondant to avoid the same food coloring issue.
My 2nd Attempt (and the recipe you see here today)
Wanting to rectify the mistakes I made earlier, I decided to go with a different recipe that would be appealing to your typical Nailed It! cake audience. I decided to try a more standard chocolate cake recipe from the Baking Bible writer herself, Rose Levy Berenbaum. This cake is from Rose’s Baking Basics, which I highly recommend for any beginner or novice baker. She has great tips, without having the recipes be too intimidating for newbies.
I found that this cake was softer and crumblier, so a little harder to decorate with buttercream. You’ll want a decorating spatula or a sharp nice to round off the top for decorating, as you’ll see below.
The finished chocolate cake 
Shaved to get it ready for decorating
But wow, was the the taste worth it! I made a snack out of the extra chocolate cake shavings and leftover buttercream after I gifted the finished product. As for the buttercream, my recipe largely stayed the same, though I increased the proportions so there would be enough to use.
Emoji Cake Buttercream Tips
This buttercream is simply heavenly, and I love the almond taste. You won’t be able to get enough of it!
One mistake I made during my second attempt was that I didn’t cool the cakes long enough so that they would be firm enough to withstand the decorating. I only cooled my cakes for 30 minutes, so I recommend sticking them in the fridge for 1 hour to really get them to harden, since it is a soft cake. As you can see in the pictures below, the fully decorated cake on the right ended up being messy and a little more than a crumb coat, since the chocolate kept breaking off! I didn’t want it to crumble more so my application was a little more messy.
Luckily, the fondant comes in to save the day.
Got to make sure to get a layer of buttercream in here. Yum! 
A little messy here, but if your buttercream is warm and cake is cold, you should be fine!
Fondant Application Tips
Using store-bought fondant was a game changer. While it was fun to make my own fondant, the Satin brand is easier to roll out, pliable, and has a rich color that you won’t have to worry about recreating on your own. Emojis are known for their yellow faces after all.
What I’ve learned about fondant over the years is this:
- Make sure your workstation, hands, and rolling pin is properly dusted. Seriously! Once sticky, fondant will stick everywhere, and it coming off on your table or hands will ruin the cake.
- It’s better to roll too much than too little. Trying to take it off your cake once it touches buttercream or frankenstein-ing the fondant together will be a mess.
- Make sure it’s the right texture/flatness before it goes on the cake. If it’s lumpy and hole-y before you place it on the cake, it’ll only get worse once you’re trying to flatten it out. It’s okay to re-roll and try again.
Also, in the past I used confectioner’s sugar or even oil to make sure it didn’t stick. This time I tried cornstarch since it was the cheapest option anyway, and it worked like a charm! Even better, cornstarch comes right off when you are trying to dust it off to make it look presentable. It was so much easier the second time around.
Once you carefully place the fondant over the cake, flatten it out with your dusted hands, or fondant shapers, if you have them. This cake was easy enough so that I was able to flatten it out without shapers. Any lumps you see on the cake are largely due to the lumpiness underneath rather than the fondant itself.
Nice and rolled out 
Ta-da! A little lumpy, but no one’s perfect
Once you’re done covering the cake, you will likely have leftover fondant. Simply cut it off cleanly with an xacto knife and you can save the fondant for later. (I actually ate mine, it was delicious, and I’m not really a fondant person.)
Ready for the endeavor? Let’s begin!
Hennessy’s Nailed It Emoji Cake
Equipment
- 2 8-inch cake pans
- Parchment Paper
- stand mixer
- xacto knife
- icing spatula
- cake decorating stand
- Rolling Pin
- measuring cup
- Satin fondant in black, 4oz (found online)
- Satin fondant in white, 4oz (found online)
- Satin fondant in yellow, 2lb (found online)
- cornstarch or confectioner's sugar for fondant
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake Base
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup boiling water
- ¼ cup canola or safflower oil
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3⅓ cups cake flour
- 2 cups superfine sugar
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Vanilla-Almond Buttercream
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups confectioner's sugar
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- optional: food coloring of choice
- optional: fondant shapers
Instructions
Chocolate Cake Base
- First, preheat your oven to 350°F and set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Prepare the cake pans with baking spray and lined parchment paper.
- One hour before baking, in a glass cup measurer, whisk cocoa powder with the boiling water until smooth. Add the oil, and then let cool until room temperature. Make sure to also leave out the butter and eggs to room temperature.
- Add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into your stand mixer and then whisk on low until blended.
- Add the butter and cocoa mixture and manually mash the butter and cocoa before mixing so it doesn't get everywhere. Then, mix on low speed until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1½ minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
- In a small bowl, crack the eggs, and add water and vanilla extract. Whisk until lightly combined. On medium-low speed, add the egg mixture in three parts, waiting 20 seconds between each part to let the egg incorporate gradually.
- Pour the batter into each pan until they are about half full. (Don't overfill!)
- Bake for 38-40 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the cake comes out clean.
- Once done, let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in their pans on wire racks. Then, let the cakes cool in your fridge for 1 hour.
- Once the cakes are cool, run a spatula around the pans and carefully invert the cakes so they come out. The cakes have likely risen to domed tops in the oven, so gently slice the tops off so they are even and ready to decorate.
Vanilla-Almond Buttercream
- With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy.
- Gradually add 2 cups of confectioner's sugar, about ¼ at a time, as it blends with the butter. Then add heavy cream and beat together. Then add the extracts and beat on medium speed until the icing is soft and buttery. If you want the buttercream to be colorful, add two drops of food coloring of choice.
Decorating with Buttercream
- Spread room temperature buttercream over the top of the first cake, then set the other cake on top. Using a spatula, carefully spread buttercream around both cakes. Note that the cake will crumble if not cold. Set aside.
Decorating with Fondant
- Flour your work station with corn starch or confectioners sugar.
- Open your yellow Satin fondant container and take out about half of the fondant. Roll it out with dusted hands so it doesn't stick. The fondant will gradually soften as you knead it. If it is hot when you are baking, you'll have to work faster. Taking a dusted rolling pin, roll the fondant until it is evenly flat.
- Then gently pick up the fondant and hold it over the buttercream-covered cake. Lay it over the cake and flatten over the cake as well as you can. You can shape with fondant shapers but I was able to do this with my hands. Then cut off the excess pieces of fondant with an xacto knife.
- Tidy your workstation, and then open up the packet of white fondant. Roll out two large circles for the eyes, and two medium & small circles for the irises. Flatten the circles evenly, and then press them into the yellow fondant "face" of your cake. Set the other circles aside.
- Finally, open up the packet of black fondant and roll out medium circles for the slightly smaller blacks of the eyes. Once they are even and fit on top of the whites, press them into the eye whites.
- Then, roll out 3 small black cylinders for the eyebrows and the mouth. Evenly arrange them on the cake as well.
- Wash your hands, and then finally press the flattened white irises over the blacks of the eyes. Enjoy, and don't forget to take a picture!
What do you think? Did your emoji cake turn out like mine?
I would love to know what you think of this recipe!
For more of the popular baking show recipes that I’ve recreated, check out my desserts section here.
If you liked this cake recipe, please rate it below!
Working with fondant can be tricky. Great work on your 2nd attempt!
Great job! Love the expression on your emoji cake! 😊Fondant is a challenge and you really nailed it!