Chocolate Easter Egg Nest Cake

Chocolate Easter Egg Nest Cake

Who doesn’t love a simple, yet tasty dessert for Easter? Especially when decorated accordingly to Easter theme! Making this cake was the perfect excuse to buy these delicious and pretty good looking mini candy coated eggs. Don’t you think they look perfect? And they really taste amazing.

How and where did I find these cute eggs? As a matter of fact, I bought these from Italy, just one day before returning to Denmark from a 16 days holiday spent in the country of pizza and pastas. Once I’ve seen them, I thought they will look good on a cake.

So, after I eventually decided on the turquoise colour (the decision was hard, as they had lots of beautiful colours) and I instantly thought on how my Easter Cake should look like: dark layers and egg nest, turquoise frosting and candy coated eggs. Below is the recipe I’ve used to make this cake and as for the egg nest, check out this amazing youtube tutorial on how to make it.  It’s a bit messy but quite easy to make. And now that I am talking about the nest, I am thinking that I should have done it smaller. Maybe next time! 🙂

The ingredients below are for a 4 layer 15 cm cake, however you can use any size pan and customise the quantities according to it.

Ingredients for Chocolate Easter Cake:

For the Chocolate Easter Cake sponges:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup water

For the turquoise Mascarpone  frosting:

• 500 g mascarpone
• 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1-2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• few drops turquoise or blue gel food colouring

To garnish:

• turquoise Easter candy eggs
• chocolate egg nest
• cocoa powder

How to make Chocolate Easter Cake:

For the cake sponges:

• Preheat oven to 160º C fan. Spray or grease four 15 cm (6 inch) pans. I’ve used this round Wilton cake pan set. You may want to also line them with parchment paper if you don’t have the non-stick pans. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Mix well and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, on medium speed, whisk egg whites until soft peaks (falls easily when removing the mixer beaters).
• While mixing, gradually add in 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Continue until stiff peaks form. Set aside
• In another mixing bowl, add egg yolks. Again, using an electric hand mixer (or a stand mixer if you have one), whisk the yolks for few minutes, until smooth and light. Add in 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla extract and whisk for 2-3 minutes more.
• Slowly alternate between flour mix and water (1/3 cup),  adding them to the egg yolk mixture and whisk until well incorporated.
• Using a spatula, gently fold in the chocolate batter into the egg whites, little at a time until completely incorporated.
• Spread this batter evenly into the 4 prepared pans. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and let them cool down before removing from the pans.

 For the frosting:

• Place mascarpone into a medium bowl and soften it using a spoon. Add in the icing sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and vanilla.
• Stir together, using a spoon, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
• Add in the turquoise food colouring and mix well.

Assemble the cake:

• Before assembling the cake, use a thin serrated knife or a cake leveler to slice the dome off from the top of each layer so that you have leveled layers.
• Onto a large plate (or a cake stand), place the first layer and spread with frosting. Add the second layer on top of it and repeat the process until all the layers are placed, having 4 layers and 3 layer of frosting. Cover the top and the sides with a bit of frosting.
• Place in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to allow the frosting to harden a bit.
• Remove from refrigerator and spread the remaining frosting on top and the sides of the cake. Using a large spatula, smooth out the frosting as much as you like, removing the excess.
• Additionally, dust the top with cacao powder to create the speckled effect.  Leave in the refrigerator to allow the frosting to set and harden.
• Before serving, fill up the chocolate egg nest with the candy coated eggs and place it on top of the cake.
• Enjoy!

Note: remove the nest before cutting the cake.

And this is how it looks after we have had 2 pieces of this delicious cake 🙂

See more desserts here