Mini Egg Cake

It’s officially the Easter weekend and I know you have a truckload of chocolate – what are you going to make? I tell you, how about this mini egg cake?

It’s a quick and easy way of impressing your guests this Easter with a cake that uses some of those chocolates you have sitting around (or like me, since January when mini eggs were first back in store), get the cake tins ready – you’re about to get your bake on.

This cake looks somewhat festive due to the mini egg coloured buttercream, otherwise this cake consists of 3 layers of chocolate cake, filled with vanilla French meringue buttercream, coated in mini egg coloured buttercream, finished with a chocolate drip, rosettes and mini eggs.

Sound like something youd like? Give it a try today!

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

345g granulated sugar.

200g plain flour.

50g cocoa powder.

1.5 tsp baking powder.

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda.

200ml milk.

4 eggs.

45ml vegetable oil.

1.5 tsp vanilla extract.

185ml boiling water.

 

Buttercream:

250g granulated sugar.

65ml water.

70g egg yolks.

1 whole egg.

500g butter, room temperature.

 

Ganache:

60g dark chocolate.

40g milk chocolate.

100ml double cream

 

Decoration:

Mini Eggs.

 

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Starting by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚/350˚f and get any equipment you may need ready, such a mixing bowl and whisk. Don’t forget to line your baking pans with parchment.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to start by placing the granulate sugar, plain flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, passing though a sieve first to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Once they have been sifted, whisk together with a whisk – set aside until needed later on.

Into another mixing bowl you’ll want to combine the wet ingredients, which are the milk, vegetable oil, chocolate and vanilla extract, whisk them together until everything is fully combined.

You can then add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until everything is combined and you have a semi thick cake batter – it should look slightly granular, this is normal.

Now you can take the boiling water and add it into the cake batter – this may sound unconventional but for this recipe it works and makes the best chocolate cake recipe.

For ease, you can transfer the cake batter into a jug. This is optional and can be poured from a bowl if preferred.

Grab your cake tins that have been lined with parchment and pour the batter into them – distributing the cake batter equally between the can tins, as this  helps them raise the perfect amount once baked. Once all of your cases have been filled, you can transfer the pan into your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

For the French meringue buttercream, I have a recipe already typed up for it – so check it out here. The only difference is the addition of some food colouring to make the cake look a little more festive.

Once you have everything made and ready, you can start the assembly of the cake. To start, take a cake stand/board/plate and place a small blob of buttercream into the centre, then place your first layer off cake onto it, pressing down to secure it in place. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the outer edge off the cake then fill in the centre of the ring with the same buttercream. Repeat the process u until all of the layers of cake have been used up.

I then like to pipe the buttercream around the cake, as neatly as possibly but it doesn’t need to be perfect, as when we are smoothing it out, it will fill many of the gaps. Take your scraper and scrape around the edge, until you have a smooth enough finish, this is really up to you but most like quite a neat finish.

Around the bottom edge of the cake, take your sprinkles and make a boarder around, I used Easter sprinkles but you can use whatever you like.

Chill the cake in the fridge for a minimum of 30-45 minutes, it makes the cake easier to work with and less likely to move while decorating.

To help keep things simple, I have decided to make a basic drip, which is where I place my chocolates into a bowl and pour over the hot cream, allow to sit for a moment, then stir until smooth and glossy.  Transfer into a piping bag or or squeeze bottle.

Go around the outer upper edge and pipe your drips, a combination of both short and long ones will help enhance the look. Pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake, then top each with mini eggs.

Fill in the top of the cake with the remaining ganache, while its still stick. Chill in the fridge for a short while, before finishing it. slicing. Then you can go ahead and enjoy!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.