It’s Easter time again! I plan to spend the day on a serious sugar high…
And what better way to celebrate all things sugary than with a cake full of all the chocolatey goodness of Mini Eggs – my favourite Easter treat!
Inside is a gorgeous gluten-free chocolate cake sandwiched with the smoothest chocolate buttercream! It’s finished with an ombre style speckled buttercream, coloured to match with the pretty pastel shades of mini egg shells! I’ve also added some more chocolate buttercream on top to create little chocolate nests for the mini eggs to sit in. It’s a decadent treat and so perfect for the Easter Holidays!
Of course, if you don’t require a gluten-free diet, you can easily swap out the gluten-free self raising flour for normal and you don’t need to include any xanthan gum as this acts as a replacement for gluten. The ground almonds and apple sauce help to keep the cake really moist!
This recipe makes a three layer 6″ cake and can take up to 3 hours to make. If you have the time, I suggest increasing the chilling times during the assembling and decorating stages to ensure the buttercream sets nicely, making it easier to handle.
Ingredients:
For the sponges:
- 300 g unsalted butter, softened
- 300 g light brown sugar
- 200 g gluten-free self raising flour
- 100 g ground almonds
- 1 tsp gluten -free baking powder
- 1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your flour blend already contains it)
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp apple sauce
For the chocolate buttercream:
- 200 g unsalted butter, softened
- 375 g icing sugar
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 60 ml double cream
For the decoration:
- 350 g unsalted butter, softened
- 700 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- yellow, pink and purple food colouring
- for the speckled effect, mix 1 tsp cocoa powder in 2 tbsp water or 1 tsp brown food colouring powder in 2 tbsp vodka
- mini eggs to decorate
Useful Equipment: three 6″ cake pans, baking paper, weighing scales, mixing bowls, hand/stand mixer, spatula, sieve, wire cooling rack, angled spatula, palette knife, cake scraper, piping bags with piping tips (I used Wilton 1M), clean food-safe paint brush
Method:
Making the chocolate cake:
- Preheat the oven to 160 °C fan/320 °F and grease and line three 6″ cake pans.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If you’re using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.
- In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and cocoa powder. Add the ground almonds and mix to combine.
- Whisk the eggs into the creamed butter mixture one at a time, alternating with portions of the dry mix. (This prevents the creamed butter mixture from separating when the eggs are added). Add the apple sauce, vanilla and any remaining dry mix and fold until combined.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the lined cake pans and bake for 25-30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Once baked, leave to cool competely on a wire rack.
- While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate buttercream. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and whisk together until smooth and creamy.
- To assemble the cake, place one of the sponges on a cake board and add a quarter of the chocolate buttercream and spread evenly. Repeat this for the second sponge and top with the third. Use some of the remaining buttercream to seal the edges of the cake (crumb coat). Place the leftover chocolate buttercream into a piping bag with a star tip (I used a Wilton 1M tip). Refrigerate the assembled sponges for at least 15 mins.
Decorating the cake:
- Next, make the ombre buttercream. Beat the butter until softened and gradually add the icing sugar whilst mixing (a paddle attachment on a stand mixer is good for this or a powerful hand mixer). Add the vanilla bean paste (or extract) and whisk until smooth and creamy. You can add either milk or boiled water to thin your buttercream as needed. It needs to be soft and silky.
- Divide your buttercream into three bowls and add pink colouring to one, purple to another and yellow to the final one. Add the colouring a small drop at a time to achieve the desired pastel shade. Mix well to ensure a consistent colour is acheived and then place each coloured buttercream into individual piping bags. Snip off the end to give a large hole. If you don’t want to use piping bags, the buttercream can be directly applied to the cake with an angled spatula.
- To decorate the cake, pipe the purple coloured buttercream around the bottom third of the cake. Pipe the pink buttercream around the middle third and the yellow buttercream around the top third and on top of the cake.
- With a palette knife or cake scraper, smooth the edges of the cake and blend the colours together (a cake decorating turntable really helps for this bit otherwise find a plate or stand that’s easy to spin!). Lots of buttercream will probably come off but this is the best way to ensure a smooth finish. Run the pallete knife over the top of the cake to remove any excess and level out the top. (A good tip for getting a smooth finish is to heat up your palette knife with hot water). You can spend a lot of time on this step getting the desired finish – patience is key!
- For the speckled effect, mix together 1 tsp of cocoa powder with 2 tbsp of water. Alternatively, you can use brown food colouring powder and vodka. Using a paint brush, flick the mixture at the cake until you’re happy with the amount of speckling. This step is messy but a lot of fun!
- Finally, pipe nests of chocolate buttercream on top of the cake and place 3 mini eggs in each nest. I piped 4 large nests and joined them together with 3 small nests. You can refrigerate the cake for at least 10-15 mins to ensure the buttercream sets but make sure you bring it to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!
This cake will keep up to 5 days in an airtight container.
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