I know that I’m cutting it a little fine (okay…very fine), but I didn’t want to let Easter go by without sharing a little sweet treat to mark the occasion! Luckily, this recipe is super quick and easy, so it makes for a great, last-minute bake.

Today’s recipe is a combination of two of my all-time favourite treats: Easter Nests & Mars Bar Rice Crispy Cakes. These are my… Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests!

Imagine, if you will, a chocolate cereal nest, filled with Mini Eggs (as it should be), but, instead of straight chocolate, this mixture is made with caramel-y, nougat-y Mars Bars (and the nests are drizzled with extra melted chocolate, because it is Easter, after all). These Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests are sweet and delicious: a super fun spin on an Easter classic.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• How to Make Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests
• Tips & Tricks
• Recipe

Ingredients

To make these Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Mars Bars

The star of the show! You’ll need 4 x 39.4g bars (which, handily enough, equates to 1 multipack of the bars).

• Butter

I use unsalted butter for this recipe.

• Golden syrup

Golden syrup is melted together with the Mars Bars and butter to make a deliciously sticky, caramel-y mixture that holds the rice crispies together. I’ve given the amount in grams here, because wrangling golden syrup out of a measuring spoon is one of my biggest pet peeves: I won’t be inflicting that on you here— you can weigh the syrup right into the saucepan!

• Rice Crispies

These go by so many names: rice crispies, rice bubbles, rice pops… the list goes on! Basically, if you’ve got puffed rice cereal, you’re good to go. Theoretically, you should be able to make these nests with other types of cereal (shredded wheat and cornflakes are common alternatives for standard chocolate nests), but I’ve only ever tried this particular recipe with rice crispies.

• Mini Eggs

Mini Eggs are a vital part of any Easter Nest (apart from, you know, actual nests). I’ve used three eggs per nest here, but you can do as many or as few as you like.

• Milk chocolate

I like to drizzle the nests with a little chocolate because a) it’s Easter, b) it helps to secure the Mini Eggs in place and c) chocolate goes SO WELL with Mars Bar Rice Crispy Cakes! I’ve used milk chocolate, but feel free to use whatever chocolate you like: for an even sweeter treat, try white chocolate, or, for a slightly more grown-up snack, use dark chocolate.

How to Make Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests

These nests are SO easy to make! You basically just melt the Mars Bars, butter and golden syrup together, stir through the rice crispies, divide them between some fairy cake cases, add some Mini Eggs and drizzle the whole lot with chocolate. That’s it! They’re perfect for making with kids, because they don’t require any actual baking— just be careful with the warm Mars Bar mixture.

Start by lining a 12-cup fairy cake tin with paper liners and set it aside, ready for later.

Chop the Mars Bars into chunks, then dice the butter.

Put the Mars Bar chunks, diced butter and golden syrup into a medium saucepan and place over low heat.

Stir frequently while everything melts together. Eventually, you’ll end up with a smooth, thick and shiny mixture, like this.

Take the pan off the heat and immediately stir through the rice crispies.

The mixture will be quite stiff, so you’ll need to use a little bit of elbow grease for this! Work quickly, because the mixture will stiffen up even more as it starts to cool.

Still working quickly, use two dessertspoons to divide the rice crispy mixture between the 12 fairy cake cases (about a generously heaped dessertspoon’s worth of mixture per case).

Press 3 (or however many you fancy) Mini Eggs into the centre of each rice crispy heap, pushing them down a little to make sure they’re nicely stuck in and to help create that ‘nest’ shape. If your rice crispy mixture has cooled a bit by this point, the eggs might not stick firmly into it, but that’s okay: we’ll be adding melted chocolate next, which will help to keep them nice and secure!

The final step is to drizzle over some melted chocolate. I like to use a fork for this for ease (I think the tines help to get the drizzle effect!).

Drizzle the chocolate back and forth across each nest, then set them aside at room temperature to firm up for 1-2 hours before serving.

The finished nests can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. I recommend storing them in their paper cases, because the Mars Bar mixture can make them a little sticky.

Tips & Tricks

This is a super simple recipe to make, but I do have a few tips & tricks, particularly for working with the Mars Bar mixture, that I wanted to share!

• Don’t skip the paper cases

The Mars Bar mixture is significantly stickier than the classic chocolate mixture and won’t firm up as much, so the paper cases are essential for this recipe!

• Be careful not to let the Mars Bar mixture overheat.

Mars Bars are chocolate-y, so the mixture will seize up and split if it’s overheated. Stick to a low heat, stir frequently and make sure to chop up both the Mars Bars and butter beforehand to ensure they melt evenly.

• Use a flat-edged, wooden spoon to mix the rice crispies into the Mars Bar mixture.

Once the Mars Bar mixture starts cooling down, it will become increasingly stiff and hard to work with. Because of this, you need to use a strong utensil to stir through the rice crispies (along with some good old fashioned elbow grease!). I like to use a wooden spoon with a flat edge, because it means I can really scrape down to the bottom of the pan and ensure everything is mixed perfectly.

• Work quickly

Because the Mars Bar mixture gets harder to work with as it cools, you need to start working quickly as soon as you take it off the heat. That includes when you’re mixing in the cereal, dividing it between the fairy cake cases and adding the Mini Eggs. One of the reasons this recipe is so good to make with children is that it means you have a second pair of hands— you can be dividing up the mixture while they press in the eggs!

Recipe

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Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests

A fun twist on the classic chocolate rice crispy nests for Easter, these easy treats are made with a melted Mars Bar mixture and feature a melted chocolate drizzle.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword Chocolate, Easter, Mars Bars, Nests, no-bake, Rice crispies

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Set Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12 nests

Equipment

• 1 x 12-hole fairy cake tin, lined with paper cases.

Ingredients

• 4 x 39.4g Mars Bars, chopped.
• 40 g unsalted butter, diced.
• 25 g golden syrup
• 75 g rice crispies
• 36 Mini Eggs (approx. 120g).
• 40 g milk chocolate, melted.

Instructions

• Place the chopped Mars Bars, diced butter and golden syrup into a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir frequently until the butter and Mars Bars have melted completely and you have a smooth mixture.
• Remove the pan from the heat and immediately tip in the rice crispies. Working quickly, stir through the cereal until all of the rice crispies are completely coated in the Mars Bar mixture.
• Divide the mixture between 12 fairy cake cases (approx. 1 generously heaped dessertspoon per case).
• Press 3 Mini Eggs into the centre of each case, pushing them down to help form the rice crispy mixture into a 'nest' shape.
• Drizzle each nest with melted chocolate, then set aside at room temperature to firm up for an hour or two before serving.
• The Mars Bar Rice Crispy Nests can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. I recommend storing them in their paper cases, because the Mars Bar mixture can be a little sticky.

This is such a simple bake that it barely even warrants a recipe (truthfully, we never used to use one and just did everything by eye), but I do like knowing the exact ratios, so I wanted to share the exact recipe here anyway.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• How to Make Easter Nests
• Substitutions & Variations
• Recipe

Ingredients

You only need 3 ingredients to make these Easter Nests:

• Milk chocolate
• Rice crispies
• Mini Eggs

After a bit of trial and error, I found that the ideal ratio for these nests was a 2:1 ratio of chocolate to rice crispies (i.e. half the weight of rice crispies to that of the chocolate). With this combination, there’s enough chocolate to hold the nests together, but not so much that the nests set super hard (and are, as a result, super tricky to eat!).

You can absolutely tailor these nests to your preferences by changing up these basic ingredients. Check out the Substitutions & Variations section below for some ideas!

How to Make Easter Nests

Line a 12-hole fairy cake tin with paper cases and set it aside while you make the nest mixture.

You can serve the nests in the paper cases (handy for bake sales and keeping little fingers slightly less messy) or you can take them out of the cases before serving them (for maximum nest-iness), but definitely don’t skip the paper cases, or the nests will be a nightmare to get out of the tin!

For the nest mixture, start by melting the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl. I do this in the microwave (on the lowest heat setting for 1 minute bursts at a time, stirring between each burst, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth), but you can also do it on the hob, by setting the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stirring frequently until the chocolate is melted, if you prefer.

As soon as the chocolate is completely melted, add the rice crispies and mix everything together thoroughly.

You want every bit of cereal to be nicely coated in the chocolate. Make sure you work quickly though, because you don’t want the mixture to set at this point!

Once everything is well-combined, divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases in the fairy cake tin (about 1 heaped dessertspoon of mixture per case).

Use a spoon to gently push the mixture to the edges of each case. This will create a slight dip in the centre of each one, which gives the treats a more nest-like shape (and makes the perfect little space for the Mini Eggs!).

Press 3 Mini Eggs into each nest, placing them in the little dip you just made. Make sure to press them in gently, rather than just setting them on top, so that they stick to the chocolate and won’t fall out later.

Then, set the nests aside at room temperature for 1-2 hours, until the chocolate has completely set and the nests have firmed up, before serving. You can speed this process up by putting the nests into the fridge to harden, but I prefer to leave them at room temperature, because the chocolate can sometimes bloom in the fridge, which isn’t very pretty!

Substitutions & Variations

It’s super simple to customise this recipe to suit your personal preferences! Each element can be easily swapped/adapted, so you can make any kind of Easter Nest you feel like:

• Chocolate

Swap the milk chocolate for dark chocolate, or a 50:50 mix of milk and dark for a slightly less sweet version (you could also use white chocolate, but it wouldn’t look quite so nest-like!).

• Rice Crispies

You can also swap the rice crispies for another type of cereal: Shredded Wheat, cornflakes and cocoa pops are all popular alternatives (Shredded Wheat, in particular, gives a very nest-like appearance, though I don’t think the finished nests taste quite as nice as the rice crispy ones!). Just remember that different cereals have different surface areas, so you might need to increase/decrease the amount of cereal you use. I’d recommend starting with less cereal than you think you’ll need, then gradually adding more as needed, while you stir it into the chocolate, until you have a good balance of chocolate to cereal.

• Mini Eggs

I’ve used Mini Eggs here, because a) they’re delicious and b) they really help drive home the whole nest vibe, but you can absolutely use different sweets on top. There are loads of other small egg-shaped sweets around these days (particularly this time of year), or, if you’re not too bothered about maintaining the nest-iness, you can use any shape of small sweet! You could even add some fun sprinkles, if you like.

And that is my not-really-a-recipe recipe for Easter Nests! Let me know if you try them out!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Easter Nests

A super easy, no-bake, chocolate-y treat, perfect for making with kids this Easter!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword 3 ingredient, Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Mini Eggs, Rice crispies

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Setting time 1 hour hour

Servings 12 nests

Equipment

• 1 12-hole fairy cake tin lined with paper cases.

Ingredients

• 180 g milk chocolate
• 90 g rice crispies
• 36 Cadbury Mini Eggs (approx. 120g).

Instructions

• Start by melting the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl. You can do this in the microwave (heat for 1 minute bursts on the lowest temperature setting, stirring in between each burst, until chocolate is smooth) or by placing the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
• Once the chocolate is completely melted, add the rice crispies. Stir well until every bit of the cereal is coated in the chocolate, working quickly so that the chocolate doesn't set.
• Divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases in the prepared fairy cake tin (about 1 heaped dessertspoon of mixture per case). Use a spoon to make a slight dip in the centre of each nest.
• Before the chocolate sets, place 3 Mini Eggs into the central dip of each nest, making sure to press them in gently so that they stick.
• Set the nests aside at room temperature for 1-2 hours, until the chocolate has hardened. Once set, the Easter Nests are ready to be enjoyed!

Table of Contents

• Choosing your Tin
• Chocolate Rice Crispy Base
• Speckled White Chocolate Cheesecake Filling
• Decorating the Cheesecake
• Make-Ahead
• No-Bake Mini Egg Cheesecake Recipe

Choosing your Tin

Because this cheesecake is set in the fridge instead of being baked, it’s super adaptable. With a baked cheesecake, the depth of the cheesecake layer will affect the baking time, so it’s trickier to adjust. With this no-bake version, you can make it whatever size, shape and depth you would like! I opted to use a 20 cm round tin for my cheesecake, which gave me a nice, tall result. However, you could also use a 23 cm round tin (with the same ingredient quantities)- this would give you a slightly flatter, more traditional cheesecake. You could even use a mini sandwich tin and make little individual cheesecakes- it’s completely up to you!

Whatever tin you choose to use, just make sure it has a removable base- otherwise you might not be able to get your cheesecake out of the tin! I prefer to use loose-bottomed tins, because I find they give a neater finish than springform tins, but you can use whatever you have on hand. You also need to make sure that the tin you are using is deep enough to hold all of the delicious filling- the one I used was 7 cm deep.

Once you have selected your tin, you need to line the base AND sides with baking paper (this will help you to get the cheesecake out later). Lightly grease the tin with a flavourless oil before pressing in the baking paper, to help it stick. Then, set the lined tin aside while you get on with making the cheesecake base!

Chocolate Rice Crispy Base

Typically, cheesecakes have their iconic Buttery Biscuit Base– that is, ground-up biscuits (usually digestives or ginger nuts), which are mixed with melted butter and pressed into the base of the tin to form a crunchy, crumbly base. Don’t get me wrong- I love a Buttery Biscuit Base. However, I wanted to do something a bit different with this cheesecake, so I opted to use a chocolate rice crispy base. Growing up, we made chocolate rice crispy nests every Easter, so they’re super nostalgic to me.

For the rice crispy base, you will need the following ingredients:

• Rice crispy cereal

I like to use rice crispy cereal, because I think it gives the best taste and it the cereal what we always used for the nests growing up, but you can use any plain cereal, really. Shredded wheat is also commonly used in the nests and would work well here, too.

• Chocolate

Because the cheesecake filling is quite sweet (it is a white chocolate cheesecake, after all!), I opted to use a 50:50 mix of milk and dark chocolate for the rice crispy base. You are absolutely welcome to use all milk chocolate, or all dark chocolate, if you would prefer, but I quite like the combination of the two here.

• Unsalted butter

Adding a small amount of butter helps to keep the base together (and makes it easier to slice through- though you will still need a large, sharp knife to slice this dessert!).

• Golden Syrup

The golden syrup works with the butter to keep the base firm, but sliceable. If you can’t find golden syrup, you could use honey (though this may affect the flavour slightly).

Once you have everything ready, the base is super quick and easy to make. Put all of the ingredients, bar the rice crispy cereal, into a heatproof bowl and melt together until completely smooth.

I do this in the microwave, in 1-minute intervals on the lowest heat setting, but you could do it over a bain-marie, if you prefer.

Once everything is smooth, mix in the rice crispy cereal, making sure every piece is completely covered in the chocolatey mixture. It’s important to cover each individual puff of rice, as this will prevent them from going soggy in the fridge.

When everything is combined, tip the mixture into the lined baking tin and smooth it out into an even layer.

At this point, I like to use the back of spoon, which I grease lightly with oil, to really compact and smooth out the base. Not only will this give a more even, professional finish, it will help the base stay together when the cheesecake is sliced.

Once you are happy with your base, put the tin into the fridge so that it can firm up while you make the cheesecake filling.

Speckled White Chocolate Cheesecake Filling

I wanted to bring some Mini Egg vibes to the cheesecake itself, so I opted to create a speckled filling, as an ode to the iconic, speckled, candy shells of the eggs. This is so easy to do, but I think it makes the cheesecake look extra special.

This no-bake cheesecake filling only requires 5 ingredients, making it super simple to whip up! You will need the following:

• White chocolate

The white chocolate is an important ingredient for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it lends its iconic, vanilla-y flavour to the cheesecake filling, making for a super delicious dessert. However, it is also vital in helping the cheesecake to set in the fridge, without the need for any eggs/baking. It also lends sweetness to the filling, which contains no additional sugar. This is great, because it ensures that the cheesecake is super smooth and silky, with no hint of graininess from undissolved sugar crystals!

• Cream cheese

Cream cheese is a standard ingredient in any cheesecake recipe. Make sure to use full-fat cream cheese, or the texture/set of the cheesecake may be affected. It’s very important that the cream cheese is at room temperature- this will ensure your finished cheesecake is super smooth and silky.

• Mascarpone

Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese, made with cream (as opposed to whole milk). It has a creamier taste and thicker texture than regular cream cheese, which helps to make sure the cheesecake filling is velvety smooth. Using a combination of the two cheeses gives the perfect balance of tang and creaminess. Like the cream cheese, it’s very important that the mascarpone is at room temperature.

• Double cream

Cream, the third and final dairy product in this cheesecake filling, helps to make the cheesecake extra light, fluffy and super silky. If you’re in the US, use heavy cream.

• Dark chocolate

This is what gives the cheesecake its speckled appearance- by finely chopping a small amount of dark chocolate and folding it into the mixture at the last moment, you can achieve a speckled effect that not only looks great, it actually helps to temper the sweetness of the white chocolate filling as well. Make sure you chop the chocolate super finely, though, to maintain the silky smooth texture of the cheesecake as much as possible.

To make the cheesecake filling, start by melting the white chocolate. I do this in the microwave, again in 1-minute bursts on the lowest setting, but you could use a bain-marie, if you prefer. Once the chocolate is melted, allow it to cool to room temperature (about 10-15 minutes), while you prepare the other ingredients.

While the chocolate is cooling, beat together the cream cheese and mascarpone until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cream to soft peaks. Don’t over-whip it at this stage- you just want it to be slightly thickened and billowy, not necessarily holding its shape.

Once the chocolate has cooled to room temperature, mix it into the cheese mixture, until completely combined.

At this point, your mixture should be silky smooth, like in the photo above. If it’s not, then it’s likely that a) your chocolate was too warm, or b) your cheese mixture was too cold. Don’t worry though! You can fix both of these problems. if your chocolate was too warm, and your mixture has become loose and curdled, put the whole thing into the fridge to let it set back up, giving it a mix every 5 minutes or so, until it comes back together.

If your cheese mixture was too cold (i.e., you, like me, decided that you couldn’t be bothered to wait for the cheeses to come to room temperature before baking), then your mixture will probably look a little like this- a bit lumpy and super thick. This is because the cold cheese has set the white chocolate, leaving you with little chocolate lumps all through your mixture- not the vibe. Luckily, this is completely salvageable! You just need to warm the mixture very gently, until the white chocolate pieces melt back into the rest of the mixture. I did this in the microwave, in 30-second bursts on the lowest setting, stirring well in between each burst, but you could, again, use a bain-marie if you prefer. Just be sure to heat the mixture very gently when you do this- you don’t want it to get warm, just for the white chocolate to melt back into it. It only took me about 90 seconds of microwaving to bring the mixture back to a super silky texture, and it was still cool to the touch when it was done.

Once you have a smooth base (whether or not you needed to do a little bit of last-minute rescuing!), it’s time to add the cream. Start by vigorously beating in a large spoonful of the cream, to loosen the mixture.

Once that’s incorporated, add the rest of the cream and begin to gently fold it in. By folding in the cream, you’ll preserve as much of the air as possible, making the cheesecake super light and fluffy.

Just before you’ve finished folding in the cream, add in the finely chopped dark chocolate. By adding the chocolate at this point, you won’t have to over-mix the filling to incorporate it, but you also won’t be mixing the chocolate in for so long that it starts to leave streaks in the batter, ruining that lovely, speckled effect.

Once everything is fully incorporated, you can spoon the mixture into the baking tin, right on top of the chilled rice crispy base, before smoothing out the top. If, like me, you are making a taller, 20 cm cheesecake, I would recommend adding 1/3 of the mixture and smoothing it out, then the next 1/3 and smoothing that out, then the final 1/3 (and smooth (instead of just smoothing the whole lot at the end). This will help to prevent air pockets which might ruin the lovely, smooth edges of your dessert.

When everything’s smooth, put the whole thing back into the fridge to set for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.

Decorating the Cheesecake

Once the cheesecake has finished setting in the fridge, you can remove it from the tin. I like to set the tin on top of a can, then apply gentle, even pressure to both sides of the tin and push the outer frame downwards, to reveal the cheesecake. Peel off the baking paper and transfer the dessert to a serving plate.

To decorate the cheesecake, I roughly chopped some Cadbury’s Mini Eggs (I found it was easiest to ‘crush’ the eggs with the side of a large knife first, a bit like garlic- as they have a tendency to roll otherwise!) and sprinkled them around the circumference of the cheesecake, but how you finish off the dessert is up to completely you- you can arrange whole mini eggs in concentric circles, pile up a handful in the centre of the cheesecake, or even leave them off entirely, if you’re not a fan!

Make-Ahead

This is a great dessert to make in advance, because you can keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and just take it out before you need to serve it! If you do plan to make it advance, I would suggest waiting to decorate it with the Mini Eggs until just before serving it. The colouring from the candy shells of the Mini Eggs can sometimes run, particularly if they are left in contact with the filling for too long, or exposed to the moisture of the fridge for a long period time of time. You could, however, chop up the Mini Eggs in advance and store them in an airtight container, at room temperature, ready to sprinkle onto the cheesecake at the last minute.

No-Bake Mini Egg Cheesecake Recipe

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No-Bake Mini Egg Cheesecake

A chocolate rice crispy mixture replaces the traditional buttery biscuit base in this seasonal, no-bake cheesecake. The white chocolate cheesecake layer is speckled with dark chocolate shavings, before being topped with chopped Cadbury's Mini Eggs for the ultimate, easy Easter dessert.

Course Dessert

Keyword Cheesecake, Chocolate, Easter, Mini Eggs

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Chill Time 6 hours hours

Total Time 6 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Servings 10 people

Equipment

• 1 20cm round, deep, loose-bottomed cake tin (see Note 1).

Ingredients

• A small amount of flavourless oil, for greasing.

For the Rice Crispy Base:

• 100 g rice crispy cereal
• 75 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 75 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup

For the White Chocolate Cheesecake:

• 400 g white chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 300 g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature.
• 250 g mascarpone, at room temperature.
• 300 ml double cream
• 40 g dark chocolate, finely chopped.

To decorate:

• Cadbury's Mini Eggs, roughly chopped.

Instructions

Make the Rice Crispy Base:

• Lightly grease and fully line your chosen cake tin with baking paper, then set aside.
• Put all of the chocolate (milk and dark) into a large, heatproof bowl. Add the butter and golden syrup, then melt gently (either using a microwave on the lowest setting or over a bain-marie) until smooth.
• Once melted, tip in the rice crispy cereal and mix well until completely combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out into an even layer. Lightly oil the back of a spoon and use to compress the mixture to form a solid base, then place into the fridge to chill while you make the cheesecake filling.

Make the Cheesecake Filling:

• Begin by melting the white chocolate (I do this in a microwave, in 1 minute bursts on the lowest setting, but you could use a bain-marie, if you prefer). Once melted, allow to cool to room temperature (about 10-15 minutes).
• In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and mascarpone together until well-combined. Add the cooled white chocolate and mix together until smooth and silky.
• In a separate bowl, whip the double cream to soft peaks. Add a small amount of cream to the cheese mixture and beat well to incorporate- this will loosen the mixture. Then, add the rest of the cream mixture and fold in until almost combined.
• Add the dark chocolate shavings to the bowl. Finish folding in the cream, incorporating the chocolate at the same time.
• Remove the tin with the rice crispy base from the fridge and spoon the cheesecake filling on top. Smooth out the filling using the back of a knife/a spatula, then return to the fridge to set for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Decorate the Cheesecake:

• Once the cheesecake has set, carefully remove it from the tin and transfer it to a serving plate. Decorate with the chopped Cadbury's Mini Eggs, then serve.

Notes

1. Using a 20 cm cake tin will yield quite a tall cheesecake- like the one in the pictures. Your tin needs to be deep enough to allow for this- the one I used was 7 cm deep. If you would prefer a slightly thinner cheesecake, use a 23 cm cake tin instead. 

Make-Ahead:

If you want to make this cheesecake ahead of time, you can keep it in the fridge for 3-4 days. I would, however, recommend decorating it just before serving, to prevent the colour from the Mini Egg shells from transferring to the cheesecake. 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food.

Today’s post is another cake recipe, because it is the season for copious amount of sugar. This time, it’s my Easter Nest Cake, a celebration of the quintessential Easter treat, Mini Eggs. It’s 4 layers of vanilla cake, sandwiched together and covered with white chocolate buttercream (in Mini Egg colours!), decorated with a cocoa speckle, a chocolate Rice Krispy nest and many, many, Mini Eggs. Surprisingly, it’s not sickly-sweet like you would expect! Don’t get me wrong, it is on the sweet side- it’s a Mini Egg cake after all. But it’s not overwhelming! Weirdly, the Rice Krispy nest actually helps to balance out the sweetness. However, if you’re really worried, there are some adjustments you can make to tone down the sweetness a little bit. I’ll touch on those as we go through it.

Just a quick note before we get into it: there are a couple of things I did that I would do differently if I were to make this cake again and I have made sure that the recipe below reflects that. I’ll talk more about these things throughout this post. Baking is a learning curve, particularly when the appearance of a baked good is the main focal point. Some things work and some things don’t, but, ultimately, I figure if there’s sugar, it’s bound to taste okay in the end. And taste is what really matters, right?

This cake is made in 4 stages: the nest, the cake, the icing and the assembly. We’ll go through them in order.

Stage 1: The Nest

Growing up, we made chocolate nests for Easter basically every year. They were 3 ingredients: milk chocolate, Rice Krispies and Mini Eggs. I wanted a nest to go on top of my cake, but making them like we used to, with straight milk chocolate, would have caused problems. Once nests made with straight chocolate set, they are basically rock solid. Trying to cut through that, with soft cake underneath, would inevitably have caused havoc, so I opted for a rocky road-style chocolate/butter/golden syrup combo for my nest instead. This softens the nest a little bit, making it easier to cut through on top of the cake, without squishing the cake/icing layers.

Some notes here: if you want to make this cake a bit less sweet, you can substitute the milk chocolate in the recipe for the same amount of dark chocolate. You can also substitute different cereals for your nest- we have always used Rice Krispies in my family, so that is what I did here. Shredded wheat gives the most authentic ‘nest’ look (we’re just not as crazy about the taste of it), but cornflakes are also a good option! Whatever you have available will be great. Finally, be careful not to overheat the chocolate mixture when you’re melting it- this will cause the chocolate to seize, rendering it useless- you’ll have to start all over again! Finely chopping the chocolate, dicing the butter, heating the mixture very gently and stirring often will help to prevent this.

You want your nest to be slightly smaller than the surface of the cake. My cakes were 6 inches in diameter, so I made my nest a circle that was about 5 1/2 inches in diameter. To do this, I used a pencil to draw a circle on some baking paper, then flipped it upside down (you don’t want the pencil to touch anything you’ll be eating!) and put it onto a baking tray to use as a guide. When you’ve made your Rice Krispy mixture, you can use a spoon to press it into the shape you want. Ideally, you want to build the sides of the ‘nest’ up higher than the centre (perhaps even more so than I did, so you have a much thinner layer of Rice Krispies in the centre)- this way you’ll be able to fit more Mini Eggs in later!

On the topic of Mini Eggs, when I made this cake I actually put some Mini Eggs into the nest before I let it set in the fridge, so they would be stuck in there. I wouldn’t recommend doing this for 3 reasons:

1) Mini Eggs don’t love being in the fridge- their sugar coating tends to absorb moisture from the air, so you’ll end up with little damp patches on the surface of the eggs, as you’ll probably be able to spot in some of my photos. Not cute.

2) A single layer of Mini Eggs in the nest ended up feeling a little flat on the cake (see photo below). When I piled more of them on top, I felt it looked much more nest-y and fun. Seeing as you can’t stick them all down by pressing them into the chocolate when they’re piled up, you might as well just skip that stage.

3) As I’ll talk about later on, it’s better to stick the nest into the final layer of icing when it’s still soft, to avoid having a gap between the edges of the nest and the top of the cake. This means you’ll have to add the cocoa speckle while the nest is on the cake. You won’t see any stray speckles on the chocolate nest, but you will definitely see them on the Mini Eggs! Better to leave them off until the messy part is over and done with.

Anyway, you’ll need to set the Rice Krispy nest in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes to firm up completely. While it’s chilling, you can get on with the rest of the cake.

Stage 2: The Cake

The cake itself is just a plain vanilla cake- super simple. It’s a 3-egg cake, baked in 2 6-inch tins, each of which is then levelled (I did not do this, and it cause problems for me later on, so, I guess, do as I say, not as I do?) and cut in half, horizontally, leaving you with 4 thin layers. You could do any flavour you want for the cake- it doesn’t have to be vanilla, chocolate or coconut would also work really well!

I use a cake leveller to cut cakes horizontally- once you get the hang of them it makes the whole process so much easier! I like to put a cake layer on a flat chopping board, then hold the top of the cake with the palm of my hand as I gently wiggle the leveller through. When I get near the other side of the cake, I’ll move my hand so it rests against the side of the cake that is furthest away from me, then wiggle the leveller carefully until it meets my hand. This way, the cake won’t break off as the leveller comes out the other side. Most levellers are just wire, so this won’t hurt at all, but if yours has a sharper blade, you might want to use a different method.

Stage 3: The white chocolate buttercream

This was a last-minute addition to my cake. There’s something about vanilla buttercream that just… doesn’t do it for me? It feels very sweet-for-the-sake-of-being-sweet, and I was worried about this cake being too sweet. (It makes perfect sense, then, that I chose one of the sweetest possible buttercream flavours on the planet. Good job, Gemma- actually though, when you eat this buttercream with the cake, it isn’t overwhelmingly sweet- but it really does fit with the Mini Egg vibe! Success!). Anyway, like the cake, you can use whatever flavour buttercream you want, including less sweet alternatives- it just needs to be a pale one so that you can colour it later.

I’ve made white chocolate buttercream a couple of times before, and I could never get it to work. It always firmed up super quickly into a dense, almost fudge-y texture. Not what I was looking for. Anyway, I did some research and apparently the way to combat that is to use a lower proportion of icing sugar than you normally would in a buttercream. This works because, as the chocolate sets, it firms the buttercream up, so you don’t need as much sugar to get a stiffer consistency. The added benefit of this is it helps tone down the sweetness (slightly, a little, hopefully?), which is definitely a good thing when it comes to white chocolate! I also found that adding a little bit of salt (something I very rarely do in my buttercreams) helped to counteract the sweetness a little too.

Some tips for the buttercream:

1. Make sure your chocolate has cooled to room temperature after you have melted it. Adding warm chocolate to butter will just melt the butter!
2. Similarly, make sure your butter is at room temperature before beating it. Not only will it beat up more smoothly, but if you add the melted chocolate to cold butter, the chocolate will set super quickly and you’ll be left with a very lumpy buttercream!
3. Don’t be afraid to really whip the icing. The longer you whip it, the lighter, fluffier and paler it will be (which is ideal not only for a delicious texture, but also for ensuring you get accurate colours from your food colouring later on!).

Once you have your buttercream, you’ll need to split it up for colouring. I wanted to get all 4 of the Mini Egg colours into my cake somehow, so I used 3 of them to sandwich the layers together, and the final colour to decorate the outside of the cake. To do that, you’ll need to take out 3x100g portions of the icing, place them into separate bowls and colour each one either yellow, purple or white. (To get a super white buttercream, you can add a tiny bit of purple food colouring. This will neutralise the yellow tones in the buttercream, leaving you with a whiter icing). You then want to colour all of the remaining icing pink. With the icing done, you’re ready to assemble.

Stage 4: Assembly

To assemble the cake, place one of your 4 cake layers onto a serving plate (this cake will be pretty tall- make sure you don’t make the same mistake as me and build it on an equally tall cake stand, or you’ll never be able to fit it in the fridge for the chilling stages!) Spread all of the yellow icing on top, smoothing it into an even layer. Add another layer of cake, then repeat the process with the purple icing, then add another layer of cake, the white icing, then a final layer of cake. Use an offset spatula to smooth out any excess icing on the sides. Once the cake is layered, you can crumb coat it.

To crumb coat, cover the whole cake (top and sides) in a thin layer of pink icing. If your cake is feeling very unstable- don’t worry! It’s probably because of the high icing to cake ratio- just pop it in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up, then do your crumb coat. Once you’ve done the crumb coat, put it back into the fridge for another 15 minutes to set.

Once your crumb coat is set, you can cover the cake in a thicker, final layer of pink icing. Use an offset spatula to get the icing as smooth as you can (cleaning off the spatula using warm water, then drying it well before using it, can help you get a smoother finish). When you’re happy with the cake, take the chocolate nest out of the fridge, peel off the baking paper from the bottom and place the nest on top of the cake,. When I made this, I waited until after the icing had set to put the nest on top. The problem with that was that my cake was not perfectly level (I mean… I did not level them at all, so I don’t know what I expected), so the nest did not sit flush to the cake. If I were to do it again, I would definitely put the nest on top at this stage- it’ll also be more securely stuck down if you do this! Once the nest is on, put the cake back into the fridge for an extra 15 minutes.

With the icing done, it’s time to speckle the cake! To do this, you’ll need cocoa powder, vanilla extract and a pastry brush with firm bristles. Don’t bother using a super good quality vanilla extract- you’ll need a relatively large quantity of it (as vanilla goes), and you’ll barely taste it, so it would be a waste! Mix the cocoa powder and vanilla extract together in a small bowl (I used an egg cup), until completely combined. Dip the pastry brush into the mixture, then use your finger to pull back on the bristles, ‘splattering’ it onto the cake. You might want to practise against a plate before going straight onto the cake, just to get the hang of the technique. You’ll definitely want to move any important documents/items out of the way when you do this, and make sure your cake is on a wipe-clean surface, with a wipe-clean backdrop, because this can get messy. Make sure to wipe off any speckles that have landed on your serving plate, as well.

When you’re happy with your speckles, you can add the Mini Eggs! You can do this however you like, I added a row of eggs in a repeating pattern around the bottom edge and filled the nest on top of the cake with a pile of them. And there you have it: an Easter Nest Cake. As with all cakes, this is best eaten the day you made it, but it will last, at room temperature, for a few days if needed. Don’t keep it in the fridge though, because, as we have already discussed, the sugar shell of your Mini Eggs will absorb the moisture in the air, and discolour.

Let me know what you think of it!

Gemma

xxx

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Easter Nest Cake

A 6-inch, 4-layer vanilla cake, iced with white chocolate buttercream, decorated with a Rice Krispy chocolate nest, cocoa speckles and a multitude of Mini Eggs.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Cake, Chocolate, Easter, Milk Chocolate, Mini Eggs, rice krispies, Vanilla, White Chocolate

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Chill Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Equipment

• 2 6" round cake tins
• 1 pastry brush, with firm bristles

Ingredients

For the Rice Krispy nest:

• 30 g Rice Krispies (or other cereal, e.g. cornflakes or shredded wheat)
• 100 g milk chocolate, finely chopped (can be substituted with an equal amount of dark chocolate)
• 20 g unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 tbsp golden syrup

For the vanilla cake:

• 170 g unsalted butter, softened (I use Stork)
• 170 g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 170 g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk

For the white chocolate buttercream:

• 140 g white chocolate, melted and cooled
• 190 g unsalted butter, softened
• 210 g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbsp milk
• gel food colouring (pink, purple and yellow)

To decorate:

• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (see Note 1)
• 300 g Mini Eggs

Instructions

For the Rice Krispy Nest:

• With a pencil, draw a 5 1/2" diameter circle on a piece of baking paper. Flip the paper upside down and place onto a baking tray. Set aside.
• Place the chocolate, butter and golden syrup into a heatproof bowl. Melt gently (either in microwave or over a pan of barely simmering water), until smooth. Stir in the Rice Krispies until completely incorporated.
• Working quickly, tip the Rice Krispy mixture onto the lined baking tray, into the centre of the marked circle. Using the pencil as a guide, push the mixture into shape. Use a spoon to press the centre down and build up the sides to mimic a nest.
• Place the nest into the fridge to firm up while you make the rest of the cake.

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan). Grease and line 2 6" round cake tins
• Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on high until light and fluffy.
• With the mixer on a medium-low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to incorporate fully between each addition.
• Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture, and mix on medium-low speed until just incorporated.
• Add the vanilla extract and milk, and mix to combine.
• Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until cakes spring back when touched.
• Leave cakes to cool in tins for 5-10 minutes, then remove carefully and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, use a serrated knife/cake leveller to level each cake, then split each in half horizontally, to leave you with 4 even layers.

For the white chocolate buttercream:

• Place the softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for about 3 minutes, until very pale and fluffy.
• Pour the cooled white chocolate into the whipped butter, then mix on medium speed for a further minute to combine fully.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, until fully incorporated.
• Add the salt and milk, mix on medium speed to combine, then turn the speed up to high, and beat for a further 3-5 minutes, until fluffy and significantly paler. Turn the mixer down to its lowest setting, and mix for a further 30 seconds (this will help to reduce the air bubbles in the icing).
• Once the icing is ready, divide it into 4 for colouring. You will need 3x100g bowls of icing for filling, while the rest will be used for decorating. Colour one each of the smaller bowls yellow, purple and white (see Note 2). Colour the final, largest portion pink.

To assemble:

• Place one layer of cake onto a serving plate. Place all of the yellow buttercream on top and spread out into an even layer. Add another layer of cake, then repeat the process with the purple buttercream. Add another layer, top with the white buttercream, then add the final layer.
• Use an offset spatula to smooth out any icing that has squished out from the filling. Smooth a thin layer of pink icing all over the top and sides of the cake, to act as a crumb coat (see Note 3). Put the cake into the fridge for about 15 minutes, to allow the buttercream to firm up before proceeding.
• When the crumb coat has set, use the remaining pink icing to generously ice the top and sides of the cake, using an offset spatula to smooth it out as much as you can (see Note 4).
• At this point, you'll want to remove your chocolate nest from the fridge. Carefully peel the baking paper off the bottom, then set the nest on top of the cake, making sure to centre it. Once you have added the nest, put the whole cake back into the fridge for a further 15 minutes, to firm up the final buttercream layer.
• When the buttercream has chilled for 15 minutes, mix together the cocoa powder and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Remove the cake from the fridge, then dip the pastry brush into the cocoa mixture. Use your finger to pull back the bristles and flick the mixture towards the cake to make little chocolate speckles, reminiscent of a Mini Egg.
• The cocoa mixture will set relatively quickly, so you can move onto adding the Mini Eggs. Place a row of the eggs all around the base of the cake, then pile the remaining eggs into the chocolate nest on top of the cake.
• The cake can be served immediately, or left at room temperature until you are ready to eat it. As always, cake is best eaten on the day it is made, but it will last for about 2-3 days if necessary.

Notes

1. You don’t need to use a particularly good quality vanilla extract for this stage- it’s just to dissolve the cocoa powder and counteract the bitter taste.
2. To colour icing that has a slight yellow tinge white, add a very (very) small amount of purple gel food colouring. The purple will neutralise the yellow tone, leaving you with a much whiter icing. 
3. Because of the high icing-to-cake layer ratio in this cake, your cake may be a little unsteady when you come to crumb coat it. If this is causing you problems, smooth out any residual filling icing on the sides as best you can, then pop the filled cake into the fridge for about 15 minutes before crumb-coating. This will firm up the filling icing, making your cake a bit sturdier and easier to deal with. 
4. If you’re having trouble getting a smooth edge on your cake, try using warm water to rinse off your spatula. The clean, slightly warm spatula will make it much easier to smooth out the icing, and you can repeat this as many times as you need to when icing. 

I feel like carrot cake is one of those very marmite things- you either love it or you hate it. As a child, I just could not understand why anyone would want a) vegetables in their cake???? and b) cheese in their icing???? I was, to be perfectly truthful, all-round very suspicious of it. Now, however, I have grown up. My tastes have developed (barely- I would still eat my bodyweight in chocolate on a daily basis if left to my own devices). I am no longer horrified by the prospect of cheese in icing (in fact, my favourite icing ever is a marscapone icing! Go figure). My dislike for carrot cake, however, persevered. That is, until I tried out this recipe, by Cupcake Jemma (owner of my favourite bakery of all time, Crumbs and Doilies, in London). And it was magic. Moist, nutty, carrot-y but in a delicate, normal, not a why-the-heck-is-there-a-vegetable-in-my-dessert kind of way. Dreamy.

Anyway, long story short, I’m a carrot cake convert. Thank you, Cupcake Jemma.

Today, I’m bringing you my (significantly smaller) version of Cupcake Jemma’s cake. Instead of a 4-layer, 8-inch cake, mine is a 2-layer, 6-inch situation. I may be a convert, but I still have limits. Anyway, I’ve done all the required maths for this adaptation, so you don’t have to!

Oh, also- because it’s Easter soon, and because I think it’s funny when cake is made to look like other things, I made my cake look like the top of a carrot poking out of a bed of soil. Obviously, this is totally optional, but I think it’s cute! It’s also a pretty easy process, so it’d be great for an impressive Easter dessert for beginners.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Making the cake batter:

First up, the cake itself. I’m convinced that the reason this cake is so good is because of the ground walnuts. You’ll want to grind them in a food processor until they are pretty fine, like in the photo below. They act a little like ground almonds, giving the cake a lovely moist crumb and a toasty, nutty flavour. However, be careful not to overdo it when you grind the nuts- the more you process them, the more oils they will release and the more likely it is that you will be left with a bowl of walnut butter, instead of ground walnuts! Blitz them until they are finely chopped, but don’t worry if there are some bigger pieces- it will just add to the texture.

The other thing you’ll want to get ready before you start are the carrots. You need to peel and grate them- I used a food processor for this, because grating carrots by hand takes quite a bit of elbow grease (definitely not within my capabilities). With the food processor, the whole process took about 2 minutes at most. Big fan.

Along with the carrots and walnuts, the main flavour in this cake is ground cinnamon. It lends a lovely autumnal warmth and colour to the cake. I’ve also heard that fresh or ground ginger can be a nice addition in carrot cake- I’ll have to give that a go one day!

Making the cake batter is a relatively straightforward process. You start by sifting the dry ingredients together and combining with the walnuts (like in my Maple Pecan Cupcake recipe, coating the walnuts in flour will ensure that any larger pieces don’t sink during baking). After setting the dry ingredients aside, you beat the eggs and sugar together in a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, until pale and creamy. You don’t even need to take the egg/sugar mixture as far as you usually would for things like a Genoise sponge, where it’s imperative that the mixture reaches the so-called ‘ribbon stage’, where it is pale, creamy and tripled in volume. For this recipe, just beat the eggs and sugar on high speed for about a minute- the mixture should be pale and creamy, but won’t be overly voluminous. That’s fine! After that, with the mixer on medium speed, you slowly drizzle in the oil, then fold in the carrots and finally, fold in the dry ingredient mixture. That’s it! You just need to divide the batter between the two tins and then you can bake it.

Baking the cakes:

One thing to note about Cupcake Jemma’s recipes is that they all use a fan oven. This cake is baked at 175°C fan. Technically, this should be equivalent to 195°C in a conventional oven, but I have never tried this recipe using this temperature setting. If you do use a conventional oven, you might need to adapt the cooking time slightly and it might change the finished cake a little, so keep this in mind.

On the topic of cooking times, it can be tricky to figure out how long to bake something for when you are decreasing the size of the tins/the volume of the batter. Cupcake Jemma’s original recipe (with 4 8-inch layers) baked the cakes at 175°C fan for 25-28 minutes. While you would expect 2 6-inch layers to take significantly less time to bake, I have found that this often isn’t the case. My layers took the full 28 minutes to bake, despite being smaller! I’d still recommend checking your cake after about 20 minutes, just in case your oven is more powerful than mine.

Making the white chocolate carrot tops:

While your cakes are baking, you can work on the white chocolate carrot tops. To do this, you need to temper your white chocolate (I have a whole post walking you through how to do this, you can check it out here). Once your chocolate is in temper, you want to add a little green food colouring, then spread it out in a thin layer (about 1-2mm thick) on a tray lined with baking paper. Give it a couple of firm taps on the countertop to release any air bubbles, then set it aside at room temperature to harden up completely. Once hard, you can crack it into pointy shards, ready to decorate your cake.

A couple of notes on the carrot tops: first up, working with chocolate, particularly white chocolate, and especially in such small quantities, can be super tricky. Don’t panic if your tempering doesn’t quite work out- if this happens, just use a sharp knife to score out the shards, then place the tray into the fridge for about 30 minutes. When you take it out, the chocolate should be snappy enough to break cleanly along the score lines, giving you the required shards. If you do this, the shards will start to lose their snappiness after about 5 minutes of being out of the fridge- so you’ll need to work quickly when pressing them into the cake. Once they’re in the cake and you’re not putting applying any force to them, you shouldn’t have any problems! The second thing to note is that you need to use either a powdered or oil-based food colouring when colouring chocolate. A liquid colouring will cause the chocolate to seize up, while a non oil-based food colouring will give a speckled, uneven colour.

Carving the cake:

Once your cakes are baked, let them cool for about 5 minutes in their tins, then take them out and put them on a wire rack to cool completely. It’s really important that your cakes are completely cool when you come to assemble the cake for two reasons: 1) when you ice the cake, the icing will melt and run off if your cake is too warm (this is particularly icky when you’re using cream cheese icing) and 2) we’re going to be doing a little bit of cake carving to get that ‘carrot top’ shape- if your cake is warm, carving it without breaking it up/it crumbling apart will be practically impossible!

The carving part of this recipe is completely optional, but I did feel it helped to enhance that carrot top shape that I was looking for. You essentially want to trim off the corners, where the sides of the cake meet the top, at a 45° angle, right around the circumference of one of the cakes, to give a more rounded shape. You can see a picture of this below.

I used a large teacup to mark a smaller circle, about an inch in on all sides, then cut at an angle from there to the sides of the cake. Don’t worry about being too perfect here- the whole thing will be covered in icing in the end anyway! You just want to give it the beginnings of a slightly rounded shape, which can then be perfected during icing. That being said, if you are finding it very difficult to carve the cake without it breaking, even when it is completely cool, try placing it into the fridge for 30 minutes (or the freezer, for about 10), to help it firm up a bit.

Making the chocolate ‘soil’:

In this recipe, I use the offcuts from the carving process as a basis for the soil that surrounds the cake on the plate. Blitz it in the food processor with a few bourbon biscuits (or any other chocolate biscuit), until it resembles soil. If you chose to skip the carving step, just use a couple extra biscuits instead of the additional cake. You’ll get a drier crumb, but it will still be delicious.

Making the cream cheese icing:

With all of the decorations prepared, the only thing left is to make up the cream cheese icing (a staple of a traditional carrot cake). For ages, I really struggled with cream cheese icing- it has an unnerving tendency to get super sloppy when you start adding the icing sugar, before it eventually stiffens up like a proper buttercream. The quantity of icing sugar given in this recipe should be the perfect amount to bring it through that sloppy stage and give a lovely, thick and whippy icing, but, if you find your icing is still too loose for your liking, just add some more sifted icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.

Assembling the cake:

Once the icing is made, use a little orange food colouring (or a combination of red and yellow colouring, like I did- ✨colour theory✨ and all that) to dye it a nice carrot-y shade. Then, you can start assembling. Place the uncarved cake layer down first, then use about 1/5th of the icing to cover the top, before adding the second layer on top, carved side facing up. For this cake, because of the sections of exposed cake left over by the carving, I did do a crumb coat. This is essentially a very thin layer of icing across the whole cake that locks in any crumbs, ensuring that you get a neater appearance in the end. You’ll need to put the crumb coat into the fridge to set up for about 15-20 minutes, until the buttercream forms a crust (you should be able to touch it lightly without any buttercream coming off on your finger), before you continue. Once it has set up, You can use the remaining icing to cover the cake all over with a thicker layer, taking care to smooth it out as best you can and rounding out the edges at the top.

Once the cake is iced, you can decorate it! Start by sticking the shards into the top, in the centre. Try to vary shape and sizes, to make it look more ‘natural’. If you’re having trouble inserting the shards without them breaking, use a small serrated knife to make small incisions into the top layer of cake- this will make it easier to push the shards in without putting to much pressure on them. Once your shards are in, fill in the empty spaces between them with any leftover smaller pieces of green chocolate. After that, simply spoon the biscuit ‘soil’ all around the bottom of the cake, pressing it a little way up the sides as you go. And there you have it, a carrot carrot cake (carrot-ception?), perfect for Easter, spring, and people who just really, really like carrots.

Because of the cream cheese icing, you’ll want to store this cake in the fridge, where it will keep for a few days.

I hope you like this fun Easter bake. Let me know if you try it out!

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Carrot Cake

Cinnamon-spiced carrot & walnut cake, decorated with cream cheese icing, white chocolate 'leaves' and chocolate soil to look like a carrot top.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Cake, Carrot, Cinnamon, Cream cheese, Icing, Nuts, Walnuts

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Bake time 28 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 28 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Equipment

• Food processor
• 2 6-inch round cake pans

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 140 g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 85 g walnuts, finely ground
• 2 eggs
• 160 g caster sugar
• 150 ml sunflower oil (or other flavourless oil)
• 125 g carrot, grated

For the icing:

• 55 g unsalted butter, softened
• 90 g cream cheese
• 310 g icing sugar, sifted
• orange food colouring

To decorate:

• 40 g white chocolate
• green food colouring (powdered or oil-based)
• 3 bourbon biscuits (see Note 1)

Instructions

For the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C fan (see Note 2). Grease and line 2 6-inch tins, then set aside.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon together. Mix in the ground walnuts until evenly distributed within the dry ingredients. Set aside.
• Place the eggs and the sugar into the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute, until pale and the consistency of double cream (see Note 3).
• With the mixer on a medium-high speed, slowly pour in the oil, allowing the mixture to combine fully.
• Add the grated carrots and, with the mixer on a low speed, fold in gently.
• Keeping the mixer on a low speed, add the dry ingredients, a spoonful at a time, into the mixture. Stop the mixer as soon as the dry ingredients have been incorporated- be careful not to overmix.
• Divide the batter between the two tins and bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, until cakes spring back when touched. Once cooked, allow to cool for 5 mins, then remove from tins and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the white chocolate 'carrot tops':

• Temper the white chocolate (see Note 4). Add a little green food colouring (see Note 5), mix well to ensure the colour is even, then pour onto a tray lined with baking paper. Using an offset spatula and working quickly before the chocolate sets, spread it out into a thin layer (1-2mm thick). Tap the tray firmly on the work surface to smooth out the surface and get rid of any air bubbles. Set aside at room temperature to set completely.
• Once the chocolate has hardened, snap it into large, pointy shards and set aside.

For the icing:

• Place the softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high for 2-3 minutes, until smooth, light and creamy. Add in the cream cheese and mix briefly on medium to combine.
• With the mixer on a medium speed, add the icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, to the butter/cream cheese mixture, allowing the sugar to incorporate fully after each addition. Do not worry if the icing goes a little sloppy at first, just keep adding the icing sugar and it will come back to a normal buttercream consistency.
• Once the icing sugar has been fully incorporated, add a little orange food colouring to the icing. Beat the icing on high for another 1-2 minutes to distribute the colour evenly and to ensure that the icing is light and smooth.

To assemble:

• Place one of your cooled cakes onto a cutting board. Using a small serrated knife, lightly mark out a smaller circle on top of the cake, about an inch in from the edge on all sides (I used a large tea cup as a guide- a small saucer or 4-inch cake tin would also work well). Once you have the inner circle marked out, use the same serrated knife to carve off a bevelled edge all around the cake (see photo in post and Note 5). The aim here is to mimic the rounded shape of a carrot top, but don't worry about being too precise, because this will be covered in icing later on!
• Place the offcuts of cake from the previous step into the bowl of a food processor, along with the bourbon biscuits (I used a mini processor for this, because it was such a small quantity). Blitz until you have a fine crumb, then set aside.
• Set your uncarved cake on a serving plate. Place 1/5th of the cream cheese icing on top and spread out. Carefully place your carved cake on top, with the flat edge facing down. Taking about 1/3rd of the remaining icing, cover the whole cake in a light crumb coat, following the bevelled edges along the top. Once done, place into the fridge for 15-20 minutes, until the buttercream has formed a crust.
• After the crumb-coated cake has chilled, take it out of the fridge and ice liberally using the remaining icing. Take your time smoothing out the sides and rounding out the bevelled edge. When you are happy with the icing, start positioning your white chocolate shards on top of the cake, in the centre, varying heights and directions. You may want to use a knife to create a small incision for each shard, instead of trying to force the chocolate in, which may break the thin shards. Fill in any gaps with smaller shards and splinters of the chocolate.
• Finally, use a teaspoon to scatter the cake crumb/biscuit 'soil' all around the base of the cake, pressing it up the sides a little as you go.

Notes

1. Feel free to use your favourite chocolate biscuit- I love bourbons, but you could also use Oreos, double chocolate cookies etc. 
2. Cupcake Jemma’s recipes all use a fan oven. The equivalent temperature for a conventional oven is 195°C, but I have not tested this recipe using this setup. 
3. Typically, you would whip eggs and sugar together using a whisk attachment, until thick, pale and fluffy – i.e. the ‘ribbon stage’. You don’t need to take the egg/sugar mix this far for this recipe (indeed, it would be difficult to get it quite as light and aerated with a paddle attachment). When the mixture is smooth and a little paler, it will be perfect!
4. I have a whole post about tempering chocolate! You can check it out here. White chocolate is notoriously difficult to temper- especially with such small amounts! If your tempering doesn’t quite work out, use a sharp knife to score the chocolate into crisp shards, then place into the fridge/freezer for a little while, until ‘snappable’. Your shards won’t stay crisp and snappy, but they will be firm enough to poke into the cake and give the ‘carroty’ impression. 
5. If you’re having trouble carving your cake, place it in the fridge for 30 minutes (or freezer for 10 if you’re in a rush!). This will firm up your cake, making it easier to carve without it crumbling.