Easter Cake

I will apologise now for how late this post is as I know Easter has now well and truly gone, however I still felt it would be nice to post this Easter Cake... After all there is always next year!

This cake is by no means a complicated one, in fact, it's very much the opposite. My mum, after giving up chocolate for Lent was desperately in need of a slice of chocolate cake...so, no prizes for guessing, I made one!

The only thing that makes my cake 'Eastery' is that i have decorated it using mini eggs therefore if you want to use this cake for another occasion it would be very simple to change and adapt the decoration to suit the situation.

Also I would not normally encourage using a mixer, however in this recipe, for the frosting I myself do. I don't believe there is anything wrong with mixers and they are perfectly good at their job but I do think it takes away the whole 'DIY' approach of baking which does after all add to the fun. The large quantity of frosting in this recipe, I feel requires the use of the dreaded mixer but at the end of the day it is up to you and your personal preferences. 

Makes: 1 large, round cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 18cm/7inch cake tins

225g self raising flour

225g caster sugar

225g butter

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

Decoration:

600g Icing Sugar

200g Butter

80g Cocoa Powder

80ml Milk

Mini Eggs (enough to go round the outer edge of the cake)

Directions:

For the cake:

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 
• Prepare the two tins by greasing with butter and then lining the bottom of the tins with baking paper.
• Add the flour, sugar, butter, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl.
• Mix together.
• Add the eggs (one at a time) stirring thoroughly each time.
• Once all the eggs have been added, keep stirring until the mixture is of a smooth consistency.
• Spoon equal amounts of the cake mixture into the prepared tins. 
• Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer, when stuck into the cake, comes out clean.
• Once cooked, leave to cool on wire racks.

For the frosting:

• In a mixer place all the ingredients (from the decoration list-apart from the mini eggs)
• Turn on the mixer, slowly at first, and then gradually increase the speed. For this I cover the mixer with a tea towel to prevent a cloud of icing sugar and a mess!
• The frosting should be smooth and reasonably easy to mix.

For the assembly:

• Place one of the cakes onto a flat cake board, sandwich the cakes together using around half of the frosting.
• Use the other half of the frosting on the top of the cake, making sure it is spread smoothly and evenly.
• Place the mini eggs all around the edge of the cake.

Enjoy!