Easter Goodies

Easter Goodies

For a quick and easy Easter treat make some cup cakes or muffins and decorate with coloured icing and a few chocolate eggs, or use small slices of iced chocolate cake in colourful cup-cake cases. For an extra impressive presentation wrap in some cellophane or arrange in a small box to give away as a personalised Easter gift.

Recipe 1: Simple Cup Cakes

Makes 24 muffin sized cakes. Use large muffin cases in muffin trays.

Measures: 1 cup = 250ml

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter
• 2 cups caster sugar
• 2 sachets of vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups self-raising flour

For icing:

• 3-4 cups icing sugar
• a few tablespoons of water, or juice of 2 lemons
• optional - a few drops of food coloring, yellow or another pastel colour

Method:

Set oven to 180 c fan or 200 c non-fan. Line muffin trays with paper cases.

Melt butter in a small saucepan and set aside.

In a medium bowl mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy, about 4-5 minutes using electric mixer.

Add melted butter with mixer running on low, then mix on high speed for about 30 seconds.

Sieve flour on top, then fold in with a large spoon.

Using a large serving spoon, place mixture into paper cases. Do not overfill, about half way up is correct.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Check they are cooked, using a cocktail stick to test - it should come out dry, but try not to overcook them.

As soon as they are cooked remove the individual cakes onto a wire rack to cool - use a palette or other knife to lift them out carefully as they will be soft.

Once cooled, decorate with icing. To make icing use sieved icing sugar and add a few tablespoons of water or lemon juice. Use food colouring if desired, yellow goes well with the Easter theme, but other pastels work well too.

The icing will need to be quite firm as it will otherwise slide off the cake.

Apply some icing to cakes with a flat knife and place some sugar eggs or other decorations onto it before it dries.

Variations:

1. Use round cake tins to make this as a sponge cake. Sandwich the two cakes with some butter icing ( 100g softened unsalted butter mixed with 1 cup sieved icing sugar) or use jam, or both. For a simple presentation dust top with caster sugar and decorate as you wish.

2. Make as above but use good quality lemon curd to sandwich the cakes, then spread some lemon curd on top and decorate with some chocolate eggs or even an odd fluffy chick decoration.

3. For a really fancy twist, instead of vanilla add a juice and rind of 2 lemons to the cake mixture. Make the round cakes and sandwich together using butter icing made with 3-4 tablespoons of Limoncello (Italian Lemon liqueur). Decorate the top with some icing made using about a cup of icing sugar and a juice of half a lemon, with or without food colouring. Allow the icing to be a little runny and create some drips down the sides of the sandwiched cake. Decorate with eggs, chicks, or whatever takes your fancy.

Recipe 2: Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 250g unsalted butter
• 300g dark chocolate
• 2 cups caster or unrefined sugar
• 1/2 cup marmalade or jam
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup self-raising flour

Icing:

• 300g dark chocolate
• 3-4 tbsp milk
• optional - 2 cups desiccated unsweetened coconut

Method:

Grease and flour a square or rectangular pan, about 30cm square. Preheat oven to 170 c fan or 190 c non-fan.

Melt butter and chocolate in a medium sized saucepan, add jam/marmalade and mix to blend and warm through but it does not need to be smooth. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

Add sugar and mix in with a wooden spoon. Lightly beat the eggs (just with a fork) and mix into the mixture until well blended. Add sifted flours and mix in well.

Pour into prepared pan and cook for approximately 15-20 minutes. Use a cocktail stick to test if done, but do not overcook. However the stick should not be coated in wet cake mixture.

Allow to cool in the pan.

Icing:

Combine milk and broken-up chocolate in a small saucepan and keep mixing with a wooden spoon until smooth and thick. If adding coconut you should add at this point, then spread mixture on top of the cake.

If not adding coconut the mixture will need to thicken a little. Keep mixing it every few minutes to prevent it from crusting and to ensure smooth icing. When thickened enough (only takes 5-10 minutes) spread onto the cake.

If you prefer a sweeter icing you can add 2-3 cups of sieved icing sugar once mixture is cooked, then keep mixing as above until ready to use.

Best to wait a bit before cutting the cake, if you can. Decorate each cake square with a colourful chocolate egg, a piece of chocolate flake or other decoration, if desired.

Variations:

1. Use round cake tins and sandwich the two cakes with some of the icing, then spread the rest on top (the middle only if not enough icing!) and decorate with some chocolate eggs or even an odd fluffy chick decoration.

2. Make as cup cakes and decorate as above.

3. Make the chocolate icing as above (but do not add the coconut) and use as a dip to serve with some fresh fruit - strawberries, banana slices, grapes, pear and apple slices - or even an odd marshmallow or two!

Enjoy and Happy Easter!

With Love, Diana x