Makes: 6-inch cake

Time required: 2 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Easter has always been one of my favourite holidays growing up – treating yourself to a few Cadbury creme eggs and Lindt Easter bunnies approaching Easter and then buying so many more chocolates at half-price come Easter Monday!! However since moving to Hong Kong it has been much more difficult to find Easter chocolates … my local supermarkets sell a few Easter teddies or headbands but Easter eggs are much harder to find. So I was very excited last week when I checked Marks & Spencer and found they have a whole section of different sized chocolate bunnies and eggs.

With the past weekend being my last chance to bake before Easter (as I will be travelling the next few weeks) I wanted to make a fun/playful cake using the Easter eggs as decorations. I decided to make a black forest cake as I’m still dreaming about the amazing one I had at L’Eto during my London visit several months back.

The components for this cake are:

• rich, moist chocolate cake
• cherry sauce
• Chantilly cream
• Easter eggs and chocolate flakes for decoration

Ingredients

Chocolate cake:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 60g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Cherry topping:

• 300g cherries, pitted
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 sheet gelatin
• 60ml brandy

Chantilly cream:

• 300ml cream
• 1 cup pure icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste

Decorations:

• 3 medium sized chocolate Easter eggs
• Easter quail egg chocolates
• Chocolate flakes

Instructions

Chocolate cake:

1. preheat oven to 160C and grease cake tins
2. sift together the dry ingredients into a bowl
3. add the butter, milk, egg, vanilla and mix on medium speed until well combined
4. slowly add the boiling water while mixing on low speed
5. distribute the batter into two 6inch cake tins
6. bake for 20-25mins

Cherry sauce:

1. puree cherries in a food processor or with a stick blender
2. place cherries and sugar in a pot over medium heat until simmering. Allow to simmer for 10mins until the liquid has thickened
3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin sheet
4. stir in the brandy and set aside to cool

Chantilly cream:

1. whisk together the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form

To assemble:

1. cut the chocolate cakes in half so we now have four discs
2. place the first disc onto a cake board and brush with a light coat of brandy
3. pipe a circle of Chantilly cream around the edges of the cake
4. now fill the insides of that circle with cherry sauce
5. coat with a thin layer of Chantilly cream
6. repeat with the remaining layers of the cake then coat the entire cake with the remaining Chantilly cream
7. decorate with the chocolate flakes and Easter eggs

 

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