Name: Mini Egg Nest Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 120 min
Ingredients: 425 g Light Brown Sugar; 425 g Unsalted Butter or Stork; 375 g Self-Raising Flour; 50 g Cocoa Powder; 8 Large Eggs; 1 tsp Baking Powder; 1 tsp Vanilla Extract; 50 ml Whole Milk; 700 g Icing Sugar; 50 g Cocoa Powder; 375 g Unsalted Butter; 1 tsp Vanilla Extract; 3-4 tsp Whole Milk; 300 g Mini Eggs; 60 g Flakes (3 individual bars); Sprinkles

This is the ultimate Easter Cake. This mini egg nest cake is three layers of moist chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, a chocolate Flake nest and Mini Eggs.

I love how this cake turned out, because I was going for a nest look I didn’t want it to be too neat. You can still see a little of the cake through the buttercream and I haven’t smoothed the top edges of the cake either.

I decided to make this cake chocolate because chocolate is everywhere, and in my opinion you can never have enough. If you don’t want to make a chocolate cake why not make it vanilla like my Vanilla Cake or a chocolate chip cake like my Cookie Dough Showstopper Cake.

Before You Start Baking

Before you start baking line your baking tins and preheat the oven. These are such important steps. I used 8” loose-bottomed cake tins because I find it makes the perfect sized cakes and the loose bottom makes it super easy to get the cake back out.

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I would always advise lining your cake tins before you start that way once your cake batter is ready you can pop it straight into the oven.

Normally, I would pre-heat the oven just before I start baking that way by the time I need to put the cakes in the oven it is the perfect temperature.

Chocolate Cake

So I decided to make this cake three layers because I think it is the perfect height. If you want to make a smaller cake I will pop the ingredient quantities in the Alternative section below.

I started by creaming together the butter and sugar. I used light brown sugar in this sponge because it makes the cake lovely and fudgy and a little caramelly. Once the butter and sugar is light and fluffy I add in the self-raising flour, cocoa powder, eggs, baking powder, vanilla and milk and mix again until it is all incorporated.

I mix the cake batter in my KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the paddle attachment but you could also use a hand whisk or a wooden spoon. You shouldn’t need to mix for too long before the mixture starts to come together. Once all the ingredients and incorporated and smooth you can pop the mixture into your cake tins.

Bake the cakes in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

How do I know my Chocolate Cakes are Ready?

It can be quite difficult to tell when a chocolate cake is ready because it is dark in colour it can be hard to tell if it is golden. I find the easiest way to tell if a cake is ready is by gently pressing on the top of the cake. If it springs back then it is ready. You can also test the thickest part of the cake with a cake tester. If it comes out of the cake with batter on it then pop it back into the oven for 3-4 minutes and then check again. Repeat until the cake skewer comes out clean.

Once the cakes are baked leave them to cool in the cake tins for 15-20 minutes before putting them on a wire cooling rack to cool fully.

Making the Chocolate Buttercream

I normally start making the buttercream before the cakes are fully cooled but it is completely up to you, you could wait until the cakes have cooled fully and then make the buttercream.

To make the buttercream pop the icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter and vanilla and mix until it is all incorporated. You might find that the mixture is a little thick if it is add 1tsp of milk and mix again. Repeat until your buttercream is the desired consistency. Pop it into a piping bag with a large round nozzle or just snip the tip of the piping bag off.

Putting it all together

I find the easiest way to decorate this cake is using a turntable and a cake drum. Place your first cake on the cake drum and pipe some buttercream onto the top of the cake. Using an angled palette knife smooth the buttercream onto the top before adding the next cake. Don’t worry if it splodges over the side we will use this for the crumb coat. Repeat until all of your cakes are stacked.

Pipe the buttercream onto the top layer of the cake, again don’t worry if it goes over the edges. Using your cake smoother smooth around the sides of the cake. Don’t worry if you can see the cake through the buttercream, this is just the crumb coat, we will cover the cake fully soon.

If there are any gaps, pipe buttercream into them and then smooth again using the cake smoother. When there are no gaps and your buttercream is smooth pop it into the fridge until the buttercream has hardened. Once the buttercream has hardened, pipe the remaining buttercream around the sides of the cake.

Using your smoother, smooth around the sides of the cake. If you don’t want to see the cake through the buttercream make sure you add a thick layer of buttercream. You will most likely take some of the buttercream off the cake, if you do pop this back into your bowl and we will use this for the top of the cake.

I just stopped here but if you do want a smooth top on the cake using an angled palette knife smooth any buttercream into the top of the cake.

Mini Egg Decoration

To decorate the cake break your Flakes up into smaller pieces and place them around the edge of the cake. You could even crush them up completely and sprinkle them around the sides of the cake. You are wanting to create a barrier to stop the eggs from rolling away.

If you have any buttercream leftover, pipe it on top of the cake in the centre of the nest. It doesn’t need to be too neat it is just to give the Mini Eggs something to sit on and it will also make them lovely and domed.

Fill the centre of your nest with Mini Eggs and sprinkles. I used these sprinkles from Sweetapolita.

Alternatives

If you want to make this a two layered cake reduce the ingredients too 325g light brown sugar, 325g unsalted butter or Stork, 275g self-raising flour, 50g cocoa powder, 6 Large Eggs, 1tsp Baking Powder, 1tsp Vanilla Extract, 30ml Whole Milk. You would also need to reduce the buttercream too. I would recommend using 450g Icing Sugar, 50g Cocoa powder, 250g Unsalted Butter, 1tsp of Vanilla Extract and 3-4tsp Whole Milk.

You don’t need to use Mini Eggs you could use any Eggs you like to decorate the top. I decided to use Mini Egg in this recipe because they are absolutely delicious and along with Crème Eggs are my favourite Easter treats.

Equipment

Large Round Piping Tip

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5 from 4 votes