Leftover Easter egg cakes!

I hope everyone has had a lovely, albeit very different Easter this year? Ours was very chilled in comparison to other years, but we still managed to make it feel very special. Despite not going out much, we seems to have an extraordinary amount of leftover chocolate. I guess Mama was feeling a bit sorry for herself when she was shopping and stockpiled the chocolate eggs! Oops. I swear that’s all though – I haven’t managed to buy pasta or rice for weeks! We’ve also had lots of eggs lovingly dropped off for this year by family, which has been lovely, but sometimes it gets a bit sickly and it’s nice to have fun ways to use them up. Who doesn’t need some extra child friendly activities at the moment!!!??

Smashing Eggs is therapeutic!

Figuring out what to do with our surplus of chocolate was easy! Melt them and make cakes with the kids! I also thought it would look lovely if we smashed up part of the egg and used the bits to decorate fairy cakes. I had a willing volunteer to give it a good whack and it turned into quite a therapeutic release of stress too. Win win!

Chocolate buttercream cupcakes

My favourite fairy cake recipe is one that I’ve adapted from my dear nana’s Victoria sandwich sponge recipe. I definitely get my love of baking cakes from her and absolutely love baking with my children now, especially my little boy who loves being with me in the kitchen.

Here’s my recipe and method for 10 fairy cakes:

1. 115g soft butter, 115g golden caster sugar (or white – I just always use golden) creamed together. Then add 2 medium/ large eggs and beat in. Add 120g self raising flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder. If you have a mixer then leave it on a medium speed for 10 mins and you’ll have a gorgeous silky batter. If not just beat until your arm feels like it will drop off!! :)
2. Divide your mixture between paper cases (I use an ice – cream scoop to get the same amount of batter in each case.
3. Bake for 12 – 14 minutes (depending on your oven I need to turn my cake tray around after 10 minutes to get them all baked evenly!) To test if they’re done, pop a knife into the centre and see if they come out clean!

Chocolate buttercream cupcakes frosting recipe:

1. Melt around 100g of your left over chocolate eggs (I do this in 10 second blasts in the microwave and give it a good stir in between. Usually only takes 30 seconds)
2. In a mixer add 100g soft butter, 200g icing sugar, the melted chocolate, 3 desert spoons of cocoa powder (not essential but really helps!) and a good splash of milk. Beat until well mixed. If its a bit stiff, add more milk – you want it to be thick but silky and spreadable.
3. Wait 10 minutes for your cakes to cool and then add the buttercream frosting. I love piping mine on. Using disposable bags or ziplock bags is easiest – I just cant get the others clean. I have small nozzles and just like to practice piping as I go.

Decorating them is the best bit!

We decorated our cakes with edible flower wafers and shards of smashed up eggs. I even used my Nana’s china to let them decorate the eggs on. Seeing as we were using her recipe, it seemed fitting to have a bit of her with us. The kids loved decorating them and choosing what to add. Mostly they loved smashing up the egg and licking the spoons of the cake mix and frosting though. of course! As usual, they were a mess by the end of it but seeing as Messy play is my thing, I’m used to bathing them in the middle of the day! Ha! The cakes turned out lovely and I guarantee they will all be gone by the end of the weekend. When this lockdown business is over we will be whipping up another batch and sending them off to grandparents for the weekend with the kids. :)

I hope you enjoy making Easter Egg cakes/chocolate buttercream cupcakes with your little ones too! Tag me in your pics so I can see them @littlelearnersSouthport :)

Check out our Messy Play classes Southport here!

Holly xxx