I’ve been making this cake for years, for a long time it was my “go to” chocolate cake recipe. It was originally a recipe cut out of a magazine, long before I ever knew about computers, never mind blogs! It was an Easter recipe and the cake was meant to be more like a nest but I have made a few changes over the years. I hadn’t made it for a long time but when I saw Julia’s (from A Slice of Cherry Pie) Easter Cake Bake I knew this was the cake I would enter.
Chocolate Easter Cake
For the cake
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 225g light soft brown sugar
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 3 eggs
- 70g cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tsp espresso coffee powder
- 150ml warm water
- 150ml natural yoghurt
- 225g plain flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
For the filling and icing
- 175g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 75g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 70ml double cream
For the decoration
- 200g milk chocolate, chilled
- 100g plain chocolate, chilled
- 50g white chocolate,chilled
- mini eggs
- Preheat oven to 150C ( 300F, Gas 2)
- Grease and line a 23cm, 9 in round cake tin.
- Cream butter and sugar
- Add golden syrup,mix.
- Add eggs to mixture one at a time, beating well between each addition
- Blend the cocoa powder and water to a paste, stir in the yoghurt and fold into rest of mixture.
- Sift flour and baking powder together and gently fold into mix about a third at a time.
- Spoon mix into prepared cake tin, level the top, make a little hollow in the middle.
- Bake for 1 1/4 hours or unti la skewer inserted into middle comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in tin for 20 mins then turn onto a cooling rack to cool.
For the filling and icing
- Put the broken chocolate into a bowl and melt over a pan of lightly simmering water.
- Remove from heat, add the butter stirring until melting.
- Add the cream, stirring until incorporated and chill until its firm enough to spread.
- Cut the cake into 2 layers, spread bottom layer with a 3rd of the chilled chocolate cream and sandwich layers together.
- Spread rest of chocolate cream over top and sides of cake.
- Using a potato peeler run along the sides of the milk, plain and white chocolate bars to make curls, arrange on top and sides of cake.
- Decorate with mini eggs.
#1 by LiztheChef on May 1, 2011 - 22:30
I love this cake that does, indeed, remind me of a springtime bird’s nest! ps Having trouble “liking” your post – how could my user name be incorrect??
#2 by jaynerly on May 2, 2011 - 10:54
Im not sure why you wouldnt be able to “like” the post, I will see if I can find out about that.
#3 by James on May 17, 2011 - 13:31
Now that is what you call a chocolate cake!!
#4 by Choclette on May 18, 2011 - 18:45
This is one great looking Easter Cake and represents a nest really well. I’ve bookmarked this one for next year.