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Looking to go all out with a decadent, deliciously rich Easter dessert? Celebrate the season with this showstopper Easter Chocolate Cake. Topped with Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, Mini Eggs, Caramel Eggs, white chocolate drizzle and bunnies, it’s the ultimate homemade indulgence.
When it comes to indulging at Easter, there are cheesecakes, tray bakes, puddings and chocolate eggs, but sometimes we need good old chocolate cake don’t we?
This Easter Chocolate Cake focuses on the wow factor, because sometimes we need something a little more special.
Why you’ll love this Homemade Easter Chocolate CAke recipe
⭐️ Foolproof easy-to-follow recipe (even for beginners)
⭐️ Chocolatey rich indulgence
⭐️ Perfect for celebrating Easter in style
Sarah’s notes
If you feel a little overwhelmed at cake making, rest assured there are plenty of tips and tricks below to make sure this Easter Chocolate Cake works, every time.
This cake as it’s super simple and great fun to make with the children.
It’s also fantastic to make after Easter to use up all of that chocolate (because what you need then is more sugar, right?!)
Easter Chocolate Cake Ingredients
- Butter – I use unsalted, room temperature butter. Do not even THINK about using margarine! It tastes grim and just doesn’t behave in the same way
- Caster sugar – Be sure to use caster sugar, not granulated. It melts and reacts differently as the grains are larger
- Eggs – Free-range and medium or large sized is best
- Cocoa – I feel that one non-negotiable to make this cake amazing is VERY good quality cocoa powder. I use Green & Blacks cocoa, which I love
- Self raising flour – This flour contains a raising agent so there’s no need for baking powder too
- Dark chocolate – If you’re a regular baker or treat-maker, it’s so worth buying good quality chocolate in bulk like I do. I use Callebut Chocolate from Amazon, and it works out about the same price gram-for-gram as regular chocolate. You can really tell the difference
- Milk – Full fat or semi-skimmed is fine. Do not use skimmed milk as your cake will be very dry
- For the icing – Butter, icing sugar and dark chocolate
- To decorate – A mountain of Easter chocolate goodies! And some melted white chocolate
How to make Easter Chocolate Cake
- Cream your room temperature butter with your sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating really well after each egg.
- Mix in your flour and cocoa. If you’ve been using a mixer, do this bit by hand. It helps to keep the sponge light. Stir in the melted and slightly cooled chocolate and milk.
- Spoon into your greased tins and smooth out. Make a bit of a dip in the middle to account for rising.
- Bake as per the full recipe below.
How to make Chocolate Icing
- Beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy, followed by the icing sugar and the melted and cooled dark chocolate. Mix well.
- If the buttercream is too stiff, beat in a teaspoon or two of boiling water to soften and lighten the texture of the icing. (See the note below about splitting!)
- When your cakes are completely cold, use a carving knife to level them. Top each layer with a spread of your chocolate buttercream, stack up and then smooth over the sides and top.
Easter Chocolate Cake Toppings
When the cake is iced, top it with your Easter treats, using a little of the melted white chocolate to stick them on if needed. Then drizzle the white chocolate all over!
Storing
Keep this in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or up to a week in the fridge. It may go a little hard in the fridge so try to serve at room temperature.
Top TipS!
➡️ It really helps to use good tins for baking. I use and recommend something like these as they are a great investment: Masterclass 7″ Deep Round Tin.
➡️ As always, don’t trim and ice the cakes until they are completely cold.
➡️ The two things that will improve the look of your cakes the most are these little beauties; an angled palette knife and a cake side scraper. Honestly, they make SUCH a difference!
➡️ This icing can be a bit temperamental as it is so fudgy. If it looks like it has split a bit DON’T PANIC! Just continue and put it onto the cake. As soon as it goes harder it will come back to a lovely consistency.
More easy Easter chocolate desserts…
Easter Ideas
Mini Egg CHOCOLATE Pudding {Slow Cooker Recipe}
Sweet Things
Chocolate Easter Nest Cornflake Cake Recipe
Cheesecakes
Creme Egg Cheesecake {No Bake Recipe}
FAQs
It’s important to trim the crust off to make sure it’s level. A cake of this size will obviously be wonky if you don’t. Don’t see it as a waste of cake (because the offcuts are still edible!)
Yes, you can either freeze it as one whole finished cake (although this will take up a lot of room and you’d have to be very careful with it) OR you can freeze the sponge and ice it when it’s defrosted again.
If you’d like to freeze leftovers, simply slice and wrap them individually in greaseproof paper and another layer.
Push a skewer or sharp, thin knife into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it means it’s cooked.
It’s not crucial but it will be so much easier to make if you have a stand mixer or a handheld one, so do use it if you own one.
This should ideally be unsalted. Also, use your butter at room temperature, or if it has come straight from the fridge, microwave for a few seconds until slightly softened.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Easter Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 350 g Unsalted butter, Room temperature
- 350 g Caster sugar
- 6 Eggs, Medium, free range
- 40 g Cocoa, See notes
- 270 g Self raising flour
- 90 g Melted dark chocolate
- 4 tbsp Milk, Full fat or semi-skimmed
For the icing:
- 300 g Unsalted butter
- 600 g Icing sugar
- 150 g Dark chocolate
To decorate (optional):
- A mountain of Easter chocolate goodies!
- 50 g White chocolate, Melted
Instructions
- Grease 3 x 7″ round sandwich tins (or 2 x 8″).
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan/200℃/Gas Mark 6.
- Cream your room temperature butter with your sugar until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
- Next, mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating really well after each egg. Don’t worry if it starts to look a bit curdled, it’ll all come good.
- After this, mix in your flour and cocoa. If you’ve been using a mixer, do this bit by hand. It helps to keep the sponge light.
- Stir in the melted and slightly cooled chocolate and milk.
- Spoon into a your tins, smooth out with the back of a spoon. Make a bit of a dip in the middle to account for rising.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You might need to adjust the time by 5 minutes either way depending on your oven.
- Meanwhile, make your icing. Beat your butter until it’s pale, light and fluffy.
- Beat in your icing sugar and then add the melted and cooled dark chocolate. Mix well.
- If the buttercream is too stiff, beat in a teaspoon or two of boiling water to soften and lighten the texture of the icing. (See notes below about splitting.)
- When your cakes are completely cold, use a carving knife to level them by trimming the top crust off.
- Top each layer with a spread of your chocolate buttercream, stack up and then smooth over the sides and top.
- Top with your Easter treats, using a little of the melted white chocolate to stick them on if needed. Then drizzle the white chocolate all over!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m hoping to make this for Easter Sundaythis year. I’ll be making it the day before. Do you think this will be okay to store in the fridge the night before and get out early on the Sunday? Or will go all hard and horrible? Thank you x
Hi Leigh, no need to store in the fridge (unless the weather is very hot!). Just keep covered in a cool place. Enjoy!
Since i don’t have the round tins. Can i make this in a 13×9 pan and still get the moistness ?? Also can you share the ounces instead of grams. I’m old school. What about making this in 2. 8 or 9 inch square pans.?? Thank you
Hi Sarah,
What a gorgeous cake! Great presentation. Do you always use cocoa in your chocolate cakes? I find instant coffee can do the job quite nicely too if you don’t have the budget for high end cocoa.
Great tip for cake trimming and icing. I should heed this one as the cake is a billion percent easier to work with when cooled but I am sometimes quite impatient, hehe.
Thanks for the recipe, it does look great and I will definitely be making this soon, although I am not sure I will be getting mine to look as great as yours,
Lee
Hello! This looks amazing – going to try it next week! Can you tell me where you got the tiny colourful rabbit heads for the decoration? Thanks
Are you in the UK? They were from Home Bargains! They are fab!
Wow! That’s a chocolate masterpiece…. Love it! x
Sarah – I LOVE this cake! Awesome! I’m going to try it too. I just made my version of the Cadbury cheesecake and I had a question. What brand white chocolate are you melting to drizzle? I ordered the yellow gel you suggested from England and it still made my white choc seize. I tried it with chips then a white choc baking bar and even yucky white bark – ALL of them seized when I added the yellow so I ended up with just choc and white drizzle. Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth, sorry you had that trouble! You can add some more liquid to it, or warm it up a little more again. There’s some info here: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5712-how-to-fix-seized-chocolate I use a chocolate all Callebaut (this one: http://amzn.to/2o85h9n) it’s great, but even that still seizes sometimes. I add a little water or even cooking oil, and warm it a touch more, to smooth it out. Hope that helps!
THANK YOU!!! Although mine wasn’t nearly as beautiful as yours, it was a BIG HIT with my book club, and I had to fight to save a single slice for my hubby. I’ll make it again for my family at Easter and try the tips for the yellow.
Amazing cake Sarah can you tell me where the tiny bunnies where from. x
They are the gold foil wrapped mini Lindt bunnies, just unwrapped 🙂