There’s no other time of year when you can indulge in quite as much chocolate as Easter! If you’ve managed to give it up for lent, well done, you’ve got a great deal more will power than me. This is an Easter Chocolate Cake that I love making for my family and it makes the perfect Easter Sunday centrepiece. You can decorate your cake any way you like – mini eggs make the perfect topping and I’ve used some of Heston’s edible hay from the inside of one of his golden eggs, but you could get a similar effect with some shredded wheat or with edible rice paper. The main thing is to bake it, cover it in chocolate frosting and enjoy it this Easter!
- For the chocolate sponge
- A little butter, for greasing
- 225g/one cup soft brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 250ml/one cup vegetable or mild, light olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175g/ 1 & ¾ cups self-raising or all-purpose flour
- 75g/ ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tbsp buttermilk
- 2 tbsp fresh coffee (made up)
- For the fudge icing:
- 100g/ ⅔ cup good quality dark chocolate
- 150g/ ⅔ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 450g/ 2 & ¼ cup icing sugar
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- To decorate
- Chocolate covered eggs
- Rice paper – sliced to resemble edible hay or use shredded wheat
- (I used the inside of Heston’s Golden Egg but you can buy edible rice paper online)
- Wooden Easter decorations – I used Waitrose wooden decorations
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease two 18cm sandwich tins and line the bases greaseproof paper.
- Using an electric whisk or a stand mixer, beat the soft brown sugar and eggs and together for about four minutes until pale and creamy. Slowly add the vegetable oil and the vanilla bean paste and mix again.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and stir together well with a metal spoon. Add a pinch of salt, stir in the buttermilk and coffee and, mix well.
- Divide the mixture equally into the prepared baking tins and bake for 30 minutes.
- Once cooked, take the sponges out of the oven. Leave to cool in the tins and then turn the sponges out onto a wire rack.
- For the fudge icing: Over a pan of gently simmering water in a heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate and set to one side.
- Whisk the butter until light and fluffy and gradually add the icing sugar. Add the melted chocolate and keep mixing until the mixture is smooth. Add the milk to loosen the icing slightly, if needed.
- Once the cakes have cooled, a little of the fudge icing over the bottom layer of the cake, reserving the rest for the topping. Place the second cake on top and spread most of the rest of the fudge icing all over the cake. Smooth with a palette knife and then continue icing the cake until covered all over.
- Decorate your Easter chocolate cake with mini chocolate eggs, sprinkles, edible hay or shredded wheat and any Easter decorations you have to hand – wooden characters, bunnies, chicks etc
Easter cake decorations from Waitrose. Read all about their #goodegg campaign here.
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!
How will you be spending the holidays?
Lovers of cooking cakes like my niece here is your take “chocolate cake”
Thank you ,I will try to do it.
I have never tried cake , These cake looks awesome!
The photography on your site is just stunning, Ren. Talk about a feast for the eyes! Love reading your posts!
Thank you so much Dawn, hope you had a lovely Easter
What a good idea for straw – shredded wheat. Love those little wooden decorations they just make it. Happy Easter.
Thanks Denise, hopefully one to remember.
I love this cake. The edible hay makes it look so wholesome and straight from the farm. Would love to have this sitting on my Eastrt table. Happy Easter.
Yes, good description!
So pretty Ren… I love the shredded rice paper nest, that’s so effective. Happy Easter x
Thank you so much Dom! Have a lovely weekend 🙂