It is that time of year again. The supermarket aisles have been taken over by chocolate eggs, Spring is in the air and parents across the country are gearing themselves up for a 2 week half term. Yes, Easter is almost here, or eat-chocolate-for-breakfast day as I like to call it. Although most of us enjoy just stuffing ourselves silly with the obligatory chocolate egg or five on the big day, a bit of Easter inspired baking is always fun too. I have my nieces and nephews coming over for tea this evening and I thought I would make them a cake as an early Easter treat.
I like to call this cake the Peek a boo bunny cake and, although it may look like your average sponge cake, it is stuffed full of Mini Eggs and Minstrels. This cake is very easy to make as it is just a traditional sponge recipe with a bit of fancy decoration.
Easy and fun Easter cake recipe.
Ingredients
For the cake
4 eggs
8oz self raising flour
8oz caster sugar
8oz butter
2tsp baking powder
For the icing
10oz icing sugar
5oz butter
A few drops green food colouring
Splash of milk
For decoration/filling
Strawberry jam
3 Malteser Bunnies
Cadbury’s Mini Eggs, large bag
Galaxy minstrels
Method.
(This is my favourite sponge recipe from
Mary Berry.)
1. Preheat oven to 180c and grease your cake tins and add baking paper to the base, if you have any.
2. Measure out all the ingredients and put in an electric mixer.
3. Mix all ingredients until evenly combined, it only takes a couple of minutes if you are using a mixer and a little longer if you are mixing by hand.
4. Evenly distribute the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 25 minutes.
5. While the cake is baking, prepare your buttercream icing. Mix the butter with half of the icing sugar. Once combined, add the rest of the icing sugar and a splash of milk. Once the right consistency, add a couple of drops of green food colouring and mix well. If the buttercream is a bit too runny, slowly add more icing sugar until you get a stiff yet durable consistency.
6. The sponge is ready when a knife comes out clean when put through the middle and when the top is brown. Also, if the cake is starting to come away from the side of the tin then it is done.
7. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack.
8. This is the part of the recipe I had never done before. In order to fill the cake with Easter treats you need to hollow out the middle. Using a sharp knife, cut a circle on the underside of each cake, do not cut all the way through though. Once you have cut you circle, scoop out some sponge so there is a little well in each cake.
9. Spread jam around the edge of one cake and buttercream icing on the other. On the jam cake, fill the well with your Mini Eggs and Minstrels, or any other Easter treats you want.
10. Carefully place the buttercream cake on top of the base, line up the hole as best as you can.
11. Now your cake is assembled it is time to get decorating. Add your remaining buttercream icing to a piping bag and attach the large star nozzle.
12. Pipe the icing over the whole of the top of the cake, see picture above.
13. Once the cake is iced, scatter the wafer flowers around anyway you like.
14. Cut the base off the 3 Matleser bunnies and add them to the middle of the cake. They will sink slightly as the sponge is weak here due to the hollow. I like this look though as the bunnies look like they are peeking out of the ground!
There you have it, a traditional sponge cake with an Easter twist. It is a bit hard to cut open due to the eggs in the middle but nothing a sharp knife and a strong cake craving can’t solve. It looks pretty and tastes great, even if I do say so myself. Now all I need to do is not eat it all before the kids arrive tonight.
What do you like baking at Easter time? What do you think of my Peek-a-boo bunny cake? If you have any fun Easter recipes please feel free to share them in the comments.
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oh I am super obsessed with those malteeser bunnies, I have to buy on every time I see them. This would actually make a great b'day cake for my daughter as her birthday is right near Easter and we are doing an Easter theme . Thanks for sharing with me at #mg
Wow, that's really good! As hubby is Portuguese we tend to make a lot of traditional Portuguese desserts (hard to pronounce but all super yummy!). I think I might have a go at your recipe though, it looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing. #bigpinklink
looks delicious – my younger daughter adores baking with me so will be trying this one with her #bigpinklink
Sooo…I bought a large bag of mini eggs to use for Easter baskets and some Easter baking…and they're gone. Not one left. Your cake looks great 🙂 #mg
Oh yuuuuuuuuum!! That looks absolutely delish! What a simple idea and yet it has total wow factor, I have a feeling you are going to be very popular with the kids! Thanks for linking up, (and making me drool!), with us #bigpinklink
Ahh I love this! What a great idea and relatively simple to do though it looks impressive. I bet my littles would love this! Thanks for sharing on #TwinklyTuesday x
This looks so nice, I would love to try this but im rubbish at icing #abitofeverything
I loe your Easter twist and the lovely chocolaty centre too. #abitofeverything
Omg yum!! That is so cute! #abitofeverything
Wow this looks yummy! Definitely some easter bakes coming up in our house #abitofeverything
Yum! That does look nice.
This is my idea of chocolate heaven! I love the inside! #abitofeverything
This looks absolutely gorgeous. I only wish I had the skills to make it. I'm rubbish at baking etc #bloggerclubuk
This looks yummy!!! I am going to have to try this out #abitofeverything xx
Cute – the kids will love it! HAPPY EASTER! #BloggerClubUK
Ooh what a great cake. I love this. A little bit of Easter Heaven xx Thanks for linking up #abitofeverything
This looks so yummy and it turned out gorgeous! I hope you had a lovely Easter. Thanks so much for linking up with us! #bloggerclubuk x
I love the malteser bunnies too!I never thought of this as a birthday cake but it would be good as there are so many variations you could do xx
Thank you, hope you like it. I have actually never tried Portuguese food xx
Happy baking!xx
Haha, they are really addictive!xx
Haha thanks. It is so easy to make, much more so than I was expecting. The kids loved it xx
It is so easy, you should definitely try it xx
You could just do a cake full of sweets and not bother with the icing? Would still taste good xx
Thank you xx
Thank 🙂 xx