Easter Traybake Cake!

A fudgey delicious chocolate Easter traybake cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and ALL of your favourite Easter treats!!

Easter traybake cake

So you guys seem to love traybakes… and I am okay with that. I am more than happy with that. I am basically ecstatic about that! I love them just as much too. My chocolate traybake cake is as popular as ever – along with my Malteser traybake cake – so I thought it was about time to do an Easter version!

The good thing about a cake like this… is that they’re SO easy to do and so straightforward. No fancy decoration skills, no fancy equipment required as long as you can make buttercream easily enough – and that’s it!

Sponge

I decided to use my indulgent and over the top chocolate fudge cake style recipe because I just adore it – but this is optional. You can just make a regular chocolate sponge using a similar recipe to my gin and tonic traybake cake, but swapping out 50g of flour for cocoa powder! 

Buttermilk

I love using the fudge cake recipe because it really is so damn fudgey – but in such a good way. If you can’t access buttermilk, use whole/full-fat milk with 2tbsp of lemon juice whisked in!

Coffee

I personally am not the biggest fan of black coffee, but I still love this sponge. Basically, even if you hate coffee, PLEASE STILL USE IT! Honestly, you need to TRUST ME and use the coffee in the sponge. It just makes it a lovely deeper and chocolatey flavour and I insist you try it before hating on it!

Bake

Some people may struggle to bake this sponge – but if it sinks, it hadn’t finished baking. For me, this cake always bakes perfectly flat – but it does settle a little when cooling. As this cake is larger and in traybake form, you really do need to make sure it’s baked before removing it from the oven! 

The best way to test a cake is to see if the sponge is wobbling before taking it out – if it’s wobbling it’s not baked fully yet. You can test with a cake skewer – if it comes out wet, it’s not fully baked yet.

Listen to your cake!

You can also test by listening to the sponge – if it’s making a bubbling/crackling sound, it’s not baked fully yet! Listening to a cake is a little weird, but trust me – it’s a good tip for a cake like this! It does also help that you mix the cake mix as little as possible. I use a large glass bowl and a spatula, and mix till smooth and that’s it. You don’t need an electric mixer for this bit at all! 

Frosting

For the frosting, I was inspired again by my chocolate fudge cake is the frosting – however, it’s not chocolatey this time. I went along the same theory of using a basic buttercream – unsalted butter (the kind wrapped in foil please – do NOT use a spread) and icing sugar. Mix in a little vanilla. 

Now, this is where I would usually add in the cocoa powder, but this time I went for vanilla to make sure it was perfect. I then mixed in some evaporated milk. It’s the secret and key ingredient to the best frosting ever. It makes the frosting spreadable, perfect and delicious. 

All the Easter chocolates!

And the best part about this?! All the Easter chocolate you can cover the top with. You can use whatever chocolates you so fancy. I used Cadbury’s Mini Eggs, Galaxy enchanted eggs, Milkybar mini eggs, M&M mini eggs, Terry’s chocolate orange mini eggs and so on – if you have a preference, use more of those! It really is whatever chocolates you prefer. 

I hope you guys love this cake as much as I do – enjoy! x

Easter Traybake Cake!

A fudgey delicious chocolate Easter traybake cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and ALL of your favourite Easter treats!!

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Category: Cake

Type: Traybakes

Keyword: Chocolate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes minutes

Decorating Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 20 Servings

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Cake

• 250 g dark chocolate
• 250 g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 125 ml boiling water
• 200 g plain flour
• 50 g cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 250 g caster sugar
• 250 g light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 100 ml buttermilk

Frosting

• 250 g unsalted butter (room temp)
• 500 g icing sugar
• 75-100 ml evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Extras

• 500 g Easter chocolates

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

For the Cake

• Preheat your oven to 160/140C Fan, and line a 9x13" tin with parchment paper. 
• In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate and butter until melted – mine takes two minutes! 
• Pour the coffee granules into 125ml boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
• In a separate large bowl add the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, golden caster sugar, and light brown sugar and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other!
• Mix the eggs with the buttermilk
• Add the chocolate mix & the egg mix to the dry ingredients and stir together. (Try not to over mix it – you don't need to use an electric mixer, just use a bowl and a spatula.) 
• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens). Once baked, leave to cool in the tin and remove afterwards, or leave for 10-15 minutes and cool on a wire rack for a softer cake.

For the Frosting

• With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes)
  
• Gradually add the icing sugar with the evaporated milk, making sure to alternate between the two, until all is incorporated.
• Add the vanilla extract – beat for a couple of minutes so it's extra smooth & creamy.
• The more evaporated milk you add the more runny it’ll be, and I have found about 75ml-100ml is perfect for this one!
• Slather the buttercream onto the cake, and decorate with your favourite Easter chocolates! ENJOY!

Notes

• This cake will last for 3+ days at room temperature. 
• This is the cake tin I used 
• I 100% would stick with using the coffee in the cake, you can't taste it, but it helps the chocolate flavour so is important. 
• The cake can take longer to bake if its over mixed - be as gentle as possible with it. 
• If you can't access buttermilk, you can make your own by using 100ml of FULL FAT milk, mixed with 2tbsp of lemon juice! It will look curdled but this is fine. 
• Use whatever type of Easter chocolates you fancy on top of the cake - as many or as little as you fancy! 

ENJOY!

Find my other Recipes on my Recipes Page!