Chocoholics Rejoice – it’s Easter!

Hop into this Chocolate Easter Indulgence from Monday Morning Cooking Club

It’s that time of year when our minds wander, over and over, to chocolate. Some of us buy and devour blocks of it, some of us indulge in our favourite Easter eggs, and some of us think, “yay, another chocolate cake to bake!”

So here’s our favourite chocolate cake recipe, primped and preened to majestically entertain at Easter time.

You will need two cakes, and a double batch of chocolate buttercream or ganache (recipes below) plus a bag of pastel candy coated Easter eggs.  Once the cakes have been baked and cooled, slice each one crossways in half. Stack the cake halves together using the buttercream or ganache. Coat the stacked cake in buttercream or ganache. Decorate with the easter eggs. Beautiful!

Celebration Chocolate Cake

This is a recipe for 1 x quantity of the cake.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Course Sweet Things

Servings 10

Ingredients

  

• 250 g Unsalted Butter
• 200 g best quality dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) hot water
• 460 g caster sugar
• 185 g self-raising flour
• 75 g plain flour
• 30 g cocoa powder best quality
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 150 C. Grease and line the base and side of a 24 cm springform cake tin.
• Melt butter in a saucepan on a low heat and add the chocolate, stirring to melt. Add the coffee and water mixture and sugar, stirring to dissolve.
• Remove the pan from the heat, stir to combine, and pour into a large mixing bowl. Cool for 5 minutes. Sift the flours and cocoa into the chocolate mixture and stir through. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine with an electric mixer until smooth.
• Pour the mixture into the preapred tin. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until the cake is cooked through (this is a very moist cake). The top will be crusty and cracked. If you prefer a smoother top, cut a piece of baking paper the size of the cake top and place it on top of the mixture before baking.

Thanks to David Morgan for styling our cake so beautifully, and to Alan Benson for the fabulous shots.

GANACHE ICING:
1 cup cream
350 g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
20g butter

Heat the cream until it comes to the boil. Remove immediately from heat. Pour cream over chopped chocolate and butter and stir until mixture is combined and smooth. Place ganache in the refrigerator for around 45 min to thicken and then spread over cake.

BUTTERCREAM ICING: (Thanks to Savoury Sweet Life for the recipe)

250 g  unsalted butter, softened
480 g  icing (confectioners) sugar
60 g (½ cup) cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
80 ml (4 tablespoons) milk

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the K beater attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 400 g of the sugar and the cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed  until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase to medium and add vanilla, salt, and milk and beat for 3 minutes. If your icing to be stiffer, add a little more sugar. If it needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.