Hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake
This Hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake has a chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream and a hidden vanilla Easter Egg centre.
I have had the idea to make this loaf cake for a while now and when Whitworths Sugar asked me to be a part of their first-ever Easter Egg Hunt this year I knew that this recipe would be perfect.
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Hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake
So, this hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake is made of two separate cakes. The first one is the colourful easter egg in the centre, and the second is the chocolate loaf cake.
The colourful Easter Egg Cake in the centre is made using a vanilla cake. While the outer cake is, of course, chocolate. I tried so many different versions of this cake and how I should decorate the Easter Egg in the centre, and I absolutely love how it has turned out.
The outside of the cake is chocolate flavoured, as it shows the colours of the Easter Egg so much better. They look so much brighter in a chocolate cake than they did when I tested a Vanilla version of the cake. Plus, if you can’t have chocolate at Easter, then when can you?
Swiss Roll Tin
You need to make the Easter Egg Cake first, for this cake to work. To make the Easter Egg Cake I used a swiss roll tin and lined it with baking parchment.
It is the perfect size to create a fun design using the different coloured cake batter but it is the perfect size for cutting out your Easter Eggs.
Easter Egg Cake
To make this Vanilla Cake I used the same vanilla cake recipe that I used for my Party Ring Loaf Cake. The amounts make the perfect amount of cake to fit into the swiss roll tin. Just as if you were making a Swiss roll, you want there to be quite a thin layer of cake.
In the vanilla cake, I creamed together the butter with Whitworth’s Caster Sugar, until the mixture is pale in colour and fluffy. In this cake, you can use either Unsalted Butter or a baking spread, both work perfectly.
Add in the remaining ingredients and mix until they are smooth. The cake mixture doesn’t need too long to mix. I wouldn’t recommend putting the ingredients into your stand mixer and walking away and leaving it to get on with mixing while you do other things. Cake batter only takes around a minute or so to come together, mixing it longer can cause lots of problems including a dense cake and the cake sinking in the centre once it is baked.
Colouring the Batter
The beauty of this cake is you can make your Easter egg any colour you fancy. I went with three colours, yellow, pink and orange as I thought these would stand out the best against the chocolate background. You could do more colours if you prefer, or you could do less.
Split the mixture equally between the three bowls and add a little of each food colouring to each bowl. Remember, if you add too much food colouring at the very beginning then you are stuck with that colour. Add the food colouring a couple of drops at a time, mixing in between each addition until you reach the desired colour.
I made my Easter Egg Cake striped. I added each colour of cake batter into a separate piping bag and snipped around half a centimetre off the tip of each piping bag. Piping one colour at a time horizontally in my Swiss Roll tin in lines until all the batter was used.
Leave the cake to cool completely before using a small Easter Egg cutter, cut the Easter Eggs out of the cake mixture.
If your cake has gone brown on top this is just the sugar that has caramelised. It won’t make any difference to the taste or the look of your Easter Eggs, but if you prefer you can gently cut this off with a serrated knife.
Loaf Tin
My loaf tin holds around 2lbs of cake mixture. Annoyingly loaf tins aren’t a standard size so your loaf tin might be slightly deeper or shallower compared to mine.
When you are adding the chocolate mixture to the tin it should cover the Easter Egg in the centre but also be around ¾ full.
Chocolate Loaf
The chocolate loaf cake is made in the exact same way as the vanilla cake. The only difference is that we add cocoa powder and whole milk.
As always start by creaming together the butter and sugar. For the chocolate cake, I did make a slight change and used Whitworth’s Light Brown Sugar instead of Caster Sugar. Either will work perfectly but I like that the light brown sugar gives the chocolate loaf cake a slight hint of caramel flavour. It also makes it slightly fudgier.
I always find that cocoa powder dries out cakes so to counteract this I always add in some Whole Milk.
Once your chocolate cake mixture is lovely and smooth add it to a piping bag and leave to one side.
Related Recipes
Chocolate and Caramel Loaf Cake
Arrange your Easter Egg Cakes in a straight line down the centre of your loaf tin. You want to leave around 1cm at each end so that when you add in the chocolate cake it hides the Easter Egg.
I found the easiest way to do this was to pipe a small amount of chocolate cake batter in the front and back of my loaf tin. That way the vanilla Easter Egg on each end sticks and makes it easier to pipe the chocolate batter around the sides of the Easter Egg.
Slowly pipe the chocolate cake mixture around the edge of the egg but not in between each individual egg. The weight of the chocolate batter might push the Easter Egg off to one side to try and keep the egg in the centre as straight as possible.
The Easter Egg centre should be covered completely by the chocolate cake mixture.
Baking
Bake the chocolate loaf cake as you normally would. It takes the normal 50-55 minutes and should be springy to touch when you remove it from the oven. You should also not be able to see the hidden Easter Egg in the centre.
If you are using a cake skewer to test if the cake is baked in the centre just remember that your hidden Easter Egg is in the centre so if you hit this the skewer will come out clean. It is probably best to test just off to the side of the centre of the cake if that makes sense so you are checking the chocolate cake rather than the vanilla cake.
The cake needs to cool completely before you can decorate it. Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream
As this is a chocolate loaf cake, I went with chocolate buttercream. To make the buttercream beat the butter for 5-10 minutes until it is lovely and smooth and supple before adding in the icing sugar and cocoa powder.
If the buttercream is too thick add 1tsp of whole milk and mix again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency.
Decoration
I piped the buttercream onto the top of my cooled loaf cake using a 2D piping tip and these piping bags. To decorate I used a range of different Mini Eggs and I just had to finish it off with some sprinkles.
Alternatives
If you would prefer to make the loaf cake vanilla, just remove the cocoa powder and replace it with self-raising flour.
Equipment
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Hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake
Ingredients
For the Easter Egg Cake
- 200 g Whitworths Caster Sugar
- 200 g Unsalted Butter or Baking Spread
- 200 g Self-Raising Flour
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Pink Food Colouring
- Yellow Food Colouring
- Orange Food Colouring
For the Chocolate Loaf Cake
- 200 g Whitworths Light Soft Brown Sugar
- 200 g Unsalted Butter or Baking Sprea
- 175 g Self-Raising Flour
- 25 g Cocoa Powder
- 30 ml Whole Milk
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
For the Buttercream and Decoration
- 200 g Unsalted Butter
- 375 g Whitworths Icing Sugar
- 25 g Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3-4 tbsp Whole Milk (optional)
- Variety of Mini Eggs
- Sprinkles
Instructions
To Make the Vanilla Easter Egg Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160Fan) and line a swiss roll tin with parchment paper. Leave to one side.
- Cream together the butter and Whitworths Caster Sugar until pale and creamy.
- Add in the flour, eggs, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix until combine and completley smooth.
- Split the mixture equally between the three bowls.
- Add the food colouring to each bowl a little at a time, mix in between each addition until you reach the desired colour.
- Add all three colours into individual piping bags with either a round piping tip, or if you are using a disposable piping tip, snip around half a centimetre off the end.
- Pipe the cake batter into your Swiss Roll Tin in any pattern you fancy.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the cake springs back when touched or a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool fully before cutting out your Easter Eggs using an Easter Egg Cutter. Leave to one side.
To Make the Chocolate Loaf Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160CFan) and line a loaf tin with baking parchment. Leave to one side.
- Cream together the butter and Whitworths Light Brown Sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add in the flour, cocoa powder, milk, eggs, baking powder and vanilla extract an mix again until combined.
- Set your Easter Egg cakes in a line down the centre of the cake. Leave a small gap around 1cm at the front and back of the loaf tin.
- Fill the loaf tin with the chocolate cake, ensuring that the Easter Egg centre is completley hidden. Remember and fill the gaps at the front and back of the loaf tin with chocolate mixture.
- Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes or until springy to touch.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completley.
To Make the Buttercream and Decorate
- Add the unsalted butter to a large bowl and beat for 5-10 minutes until soft and supple. Add in the icing sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and beeat until it is combined.
- If the buttercream is too thick add a tbsp of milk and beat again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency. Put into your piping bag and leave to one side.
- Put the loaf cake onto your serving plate and pipe the buttercream over the top of the cake. Decorate with Mini Eggs and sprinkles.
Notes
- This Hidden Easter Egg Loaf Cake will last 3+ days in an airtight container.
- Visit Whitworh’s Sugar for their full range of sugar.