Easter Nest Cake

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

It's been a while since I've shared a baking post with you, and I thought what better reason than with Easter just right around the corner. I came across this recipe last Easter and will be making it again for us to enjoy again this coming Easter Monday.

Let's get Easter baking!

Ingredients:

Chocolate Sponges:

200ml Vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

250g Plain flour

6 tbsp Cocoa powder

2 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

280g Soft light brown sugar

250ml Buttermilk

2 tsp Vanilla extract

3 Large eggs

Nest:

200g Marshmallows

100g Butter

2 tbsp Cocoa powder

75g Salted pretzels, crushed

4 shredded wheat biscuits, crushed

Chocolate eggs, to decorate

Icing:

150g Slightly salted butter, softened

2 tbsp Cocoa powder

300g Icing sugar

4 tbsp Milk

Start off by pre-heating your oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4, then grease and line two 20cm
round cake tins.

Next add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and a large pinch of salt into a bowl. Mix with a whisk, squeezing any large lumps of sugar through your fingers, until you have a fine sandy mixture.

Next whisk the oil with the buttermilk in a jug.

Stir in the vanilla extract and eggs.

Next pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no more streaks of flour.

Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake for 25 minutes, after 25 minutes test the cakes by inserting a skewer into the centre - there there is any wet mixture, return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes and check again.

Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 15 minutes, then transfer to cool completely.

Next, it's time to make the nest. If you don't have a spare 20cm cake tin, clean one of the used tins and then line it with some oiled parchment paper.

Put the marshmallows and butter into a pan and gently heat until you get a runny mixture.

When runny, stir in the cocoa powder, pretzels and shredded wheat until well combined.

Next tip the mixture into your lined tin and use the back of a spoon to make a nest shape, then leave to cool at room temperature for a few hours, or pop it in the fridge to chill for it to set faster.

To make the icing, beat the butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar and milk together until smooth, adding more milk if the mixture is too stiff.

Once the icing is done and the nest is ready, it's time to assemble your cake.

Assemble your cake by stacking the sponges with icing in between and topping with more icing and the nest.

Fill your nest with as many chocolate eggs as it will hold and then serve.

You can remove the nest to make it easier to cut the cake and chop up the nest to serve on the side.

Me and Skye absolutely loved this cake, I'm not usually fussed about chocolate cake but this was really nice. Even the icing and nest tasted really nice too. This is the perfect cake to have as an Easter treat and is the perfect centre piece if you have any Easter gatherings, it's definitely a cake that everyone would enjoy.

This cake is also really easy to make, I think sometimes cakes like these look like they're really hard, difficult and time consuming to make, but the recipe is easy to follow and I wasn't left flustered making it.

As I said at the start, I will be baking this cake again this Easter and I can't wait to enjoy it again.

If you want to checkout the original recipe that I followed, then head over to the BBC's Good Food Easter Nest Cake recipe page.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Happy Memory School Sponge

Hello

Annyeong

Konnichiwa

Ni Hao

Wow it's been 5 months since I shared my last baking post as well as about 5 months since I last did some baking, for some reason I've actually not felt like doing too much baking, it's like I've lost my love for it. but I'm wanting to change that and start back up again. I have gone baking posts planned, so hopefully I stick to it and restart the fire of my love of baking. Today's post is something that takes me back many many years and reminds me of all the seconds I used to have of this sponge cake back in Primary School, Skye says they don't have this at her school so I thought I'd let her try this simple but amazing pudding.

Ingredients:

300 g baking butter

275 g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence/ 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

(up to you which you choose)

4 eggs

300 g self raising flour

Icing

Water

coloured/sugar strands

Pre-heat your oven to 160 C/ 325 F.

Once you've weighed out all the ingredients you need, put the sugar and butter in a large bowl and cream together.

Next add the eggs, I always add my eggs one at a time to mix them together.

Next I added the vanilla bean paste, I used vanilla bean paste because I didn't have any vanilla essence, and then mixed it together.

Next I added the four and combined, I sieved the flour half at a time.

Next I greased my cake tin and poured in the sponge mixture and then placed it into the oven for 30 minutes, checked it and popped it back in for a further 15 minutes as it wasn't baked properly. The sponge is done when your skewer or knife comes out clean.

While your sponge is cooling down start making your icing, you could either follow a recipe or do what I did, which was put the icing sugar in a large bowl and adding water and icing sugar till it reaches the consistency you desire.

Once your icing is ready pour it onto your cake and sprinkle in the coloured sugar strands and leave the sponge for the icing to set for a while.

Once your ready to serve heat up some custard and pour over a slice of the sponge and enjoy.

This sponge brought back some amazing childhood memories of being in primary school and that I always had seconds when they came round offering it. I think this recipe is really easy and quick to make and was enjoyed by everyone. The sponge was so soft and moist and the custard melting the icing tasted really nice, if you want to relive your youth with this dessert then I highly recommend trying out this recipe.

Old School Sponge

Did you have this sponge when you were in primary school?

Have you made it since for your own children?

Let me know in the comments below.

See you soon!

Annyeong
Sayonara
Zai Jian
Bye