Clodagh's Chocolate Easter Cake

With Chocolate Egg Nest

Makes 1 Cake

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

330g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

70g cocoa powder

250g caster sugar

170g unsalted butter

4 eggs

370ml milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate frosting:

150g unsalted butter, softened

400g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

400g full-fat cream cheese

100g cocoa powder

To decorate:

300g dark chocolate, melted

240g mini chocolate easter eggs

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Grease the sides of a 30cm cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

For the cake: Place the caster sugar and unsalted butter in a mixing bowl, and cream together until light and fluffy. Then crack the eggs in one by one, with your mixer on medium speed. Next sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Lastly add in the milk, vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Mix everything together until combined. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and tap the sides to release any air bubbles.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes. The cakes should be cooked on the outside but in the middle they should be a bit fudgy. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before removing them from the tin and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake is baking make the frosting and the chocolate twigs. To make the frosting: place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend together until it is light and fluffy.

For the chocolate twigs line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Drizzle the melted chocolate using a spoon in to shapes of twigs. Chill for 15 minutes.

Once the cake has cooled completely, place it on a cake stand and smear the frosting all around the edges and top. I put an extra dollop of the frosting in the centre of the cake to add height for the mini chocolate eggs. Assemble all the mini chocolate eggs in the centre of the cake, and layer them for height.

Position the chocolate "twigs" around the eggs to create a nest. Overlapping the twigs as you position them.