My super-easy Easter Mini Egg Chocolate Cake will be a great addition to your festivities. This richly flavoured, moist chocolate cake is made even more special by topping it with whipped cream marbled with melted dark chocolate. The cake is then decorated with the Easter favourite, Mini Eggs. The ideal cake to serve as part of your Easter celebrations.
3tablespoonDutch Process cocoa powderSee Notes 2 and 3
1teaspoonbaking soda/bicarbonate of sodaSee Note 4
1teaspoonvanilla extract See Note 5
1largeegg
1cup(240 g) full fat sour cream
For the Chocolate Whipped Cream:
100g(3.5 oz) dark chocolate -70 % cocoa solids - broken/cut into even pieces
1cup250 ml whipping/thickened cream - 35% milk fat
125g(4.5 oz) Cadbury Mini Eggs - to decorate, or decorations of your choice
Instructions
For the Cake:
Preheat your oven to 180 Degrees C (355 F).
Line the base of a 9” (23cm) round spring-form tin with baking paper, and grease the sides.
Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer or place them in a bowl and use a handheld electric mixer. On medium speed, mix them all together until the batter is smooth, but do not overbeat.
Turn the mixture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. A few crumbs are okay but there should not be any batter.
Place the tin on a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the side of the cake tin. Cool a further 10 minutes before carefully removing the cake to the rack to further cool. The cake is very fragile at this point so leave it to cool further if necessary.
Add the Marbled Cream and Easter eggs shortly before serving.
For the Chocolate Whipped Cream:
To melt the chocolate, place the chopped chocolate pieces in a bain-marie/double boiler or heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Stir with a metal spoon or spatula until the chocolate has almost melted. Remove from the heat – the residual heat will melt the remaining chocolate. See Note 6.Once the chocolate has melted, leave it for five minutes to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in a medium-size bowl, using hand-held electric beaters on a medium speed, whip the cream until it holds a soft peak. That is, it holds a peak, but the tip is soft. Be careful to not overwhip, or you may end up with butter.
Add the melted chocolate to the whipped cream and gently give it a few turns with a spatula to roughly combine the two.Don’t completely combine them, they will mix more when you add them to the cake. You want a marbled effect on the cake.
Add the marbled mixture to the cold cake and roughly but evenly distribute it over the top. Do not attempt to smooth the cake or you will lose some of the marbled appearance. To the centre of the cake, add the Easter eggs of your choice.
Video
Notes
Our gluten-free flour blends contain either xanthan or guar gum to stabilise and provide structure to our recipes. If your flour blend already contains either of these gums, there is no need to add more. If you don’t need to make these gluten-free, you can use regular plain/all-purpose flour.
Use a good quality, unsweetened cocoa. I use Plaistowe Dutch Processed Cocoa, available in supermarkets. It gives the cake a lovely, rich, chocolatey colour.
Tablespoon: We use a standard Australian Tablespoon that is 20ml or 4 teaspoons. You may have to adjust your measurements accordingly.
This is not the same as baking powder. Be sure to use baking soda, which works with the sour cream as a raising agent.
For the best flavour, use vanilla extract/essence which has been naturally extracted from the vanilla bean and not one which is synthetically flavoured.
If you prefer to use a microwave, add chopped chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl. Melt in 20-second increments, stirring frequently. When most of the chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the microwave and stir until it is completely melted. If possible, melt your chocolate on a low power setting. As each microwave functions differently, you will need to keep an eye on the chocolate so it does not overcook.