I’ll be straight with you – I was trying to come up with
a more interesting name for this cake, but then I thought I’d just say what it
is: a big chocolatey sponge covered with enough mini eggs to feed a horde of
children. It’s the perfect thing to serve at teatime on Easter Sunday, after
the big post-roast walk (if necessary, use as a bribe to keep the
aforementioned kids walking).
Ingredients
For the cake:
3 large eggs
Approximately 180g margarine
Approximately 180g granulated sugar
Approximately 180g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
For the icing:
Approximately 250g margarine
Approximately 200g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp Fluff
To decorate:
A ‘family bag’ of mini eggs – they’re about 300g
A few notes, first of all – if you’ve made one of my
cakes before, you’ll know that I use my mum’s foolproof method, which is to
weigh the eggs, and then add the same weight of margarine, sugar and flour.
This means that no matter what size the eggs are, the cake will be perfectly
moist and fluffy. The second thing is that I always use margarine rather than
butter for baking, because I think it gives you a lighter cake. Finally, if you
haven’t come across Fluff before, it’s an American marshmallow spread in a jar.
I like to add it to my buttercream for cakes like this because it makes it very
light and easy to spread.
First of all, preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
Weigh the eggs, in their shells, then crack into the bowl and mix with the
margarine, then the sugar, and finally the flour and baking powder. You should
have a lovely smooth, pale yellow mixture. Grease a pair of sandwich tins and
line the bottoms with greaseproof paper, then divide the mixture between the
two and spread out roughly (don’t worry about making it too neat, just get the
mixture to the edge all the way round). Place in the oven and bake for about
twenty minutes.
Once the time is up, test the cakes with a fork (when you
prick them in the middle the fork should come out clean), allow to cool in the
tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool
completely.
When the cake is completely cold, you can go ahead and
decorate it. To make the buttercream, beat the margarine and icing sugar
together until you have a nice smooth mixture. It should be slightly less sweet
than you would usually make it, as the Fluff will add extra sweetness. Put the
cocoa powder in next and finally the Fluff, and have a taste to make sure it’s
all perfectly delicious (you might need to add a little more sugar, for
sweetness, or cocoa, for chocolateyness, depending on your preference).
First, top one of the cake halves with buttercream and
spread out neatly. Don’t be tempted to put too much in, as the finished cake
will have a lot of icing on it. Place the other cake on top, and then spread
the remaining buttercream over the top and sides. You should have just the
right amount, provided you don’t make it too thick.
Finally, arrange the mini eggs as shown (remembering to
try one or two for quality control purposes). Serve with a big mug of tea.
