Easter is now on the horizon, and with this brings all the yummy chocolatey goodies that fill the supermarket shelves. I recently bought a packet of the ‘Galaxy Golden Eggs’ and I love that rather than them just being a plain looking chocolate egg with some crunchy caramel inside, that they also reflect this on the outside with a shimmering golden coating to match. From a distance you almost think they’re all wrapped up in golden foil but no! I love how when you eat them, it also means you’re caught golden handed, as the eggs leave little golden, glittery evidence so you can tell if someone has been pinching your chocolate!
Inspired by the appearance and also their caramel/honeycomb pieces, I decided to make an eggs-tremely chocolatey Easter cake that’s perfect for all you chocolate lovers out there who love a bit of glitz!
I decided to use the light brown sugar rather than caster sugar as the taste of the brown sugar compliments and heightens the caramel/honeycomb flavour that I wanted to have at the forefront of the cake. I did originally have a look around for golden cake glitter, however who would’ve thought that the results of blitzing a Crunchie bar would be even better!
This cake is perfectly moist and super light and is the treat you most definitely deserve this Easter! Be a winner and go for gold!
Ingredients for the chocolate sponges:
200g unsalted softened butter
300g light soft brown sugar
3 large eggs
100ml milk
100ml vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract
250g gluten free plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp xanthan gum
1/4 salt
50g cocoa powder (I used Green and Black’s)
100ml boiling water
Method:
– Preheat the oven to 170c. Grease and line two sponge tins.
– Cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl until completely combined.
-In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, milk and oil.
-Slowly combine the wet ingredients with the sugar and butter, adding a little bit at a time. The mixture will look very wet at this point, but don’t worry!
-Sift the remaining dry ingredients into the mixture and you should now have a lovely looking cake batter.
-Lastly, add in the boiling hot water, again slowly, mixing after each small pour. The batter will be quite loose, but this is what it takes to give the cake a lovely moist texture in the end.
-Pour into the sponge tins, making sure there is an even amount in each. Place them in the centre of the oven (you don’t want them too high in the oven as they are more likely to crack), and cook for 35 minutes. If you want to check that it is cooked properly, put a matchstick into the sponge and if it comes out clean they are done and can be taken out of the oven.
-Leave to cool completely and take out of the tins when they have cooled down.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM:
75g dark chocolate (I used Green and Black’s 70% bar)
140g softened unsalted butter
280g icing sugar
2tbs milk
4 Crunchie bars
1x Galaxy golden Eggs pack
METHOD:
-Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling hot water and leave to cool down a little.
-Mix together the icing sugar, butter and melted chocolate. When it starts to combine, add in the milk, and carry on mixing until it is the right consistency to spread over the cake.
-In a food processor, blitz two of the Crunchie bars until you have very small pieces.
-Using a spatula, cover your bottom sponge with the chocolate frosting and sprinkle over the little piece of the Crunchie bars. Don’t worry about the frosting going out over the sides of the sponge, you want this because once you place the other sponge on top, you can decorate the side of the sponge with as much or as little of the little pieces of honeycomb that you desire.
-Keep any of the leftover Crunchie pieces in a small bowl and blitz the remaining Crunchie bars, this time keep blitzing as much as you can until you mainly have a Crunchie dust left.
-Place the other sponge on top and spread the remaining frosting over it. You can either leave it smooth, or do a pattern.
-Sift the Crunchie dust over the top of the cake, lightly covering the cake and giving it a shimmering glittery golden look.
-Place the Galaxy Golden eggs on the top of the cake in whatever form you desire, I decided to have them together in the centre, however you could dot them over the top of the cake as you wish.
