Easter Nest Showstopper Cake

Happy Easter everyone!

It’s such a wonderful time of year. The sun is shining, there is a 4 day Bank Holiday and it’s an excuse to enjoy a massive feast with friends. I think it’s safe to say that I really love a sweet treat, especially making show stopper cakes that are easy for others to make.

This Easter is no different. I’ve been exploring the Easter chocolates on offer at Elys, as well as the new cookware and tableware available on the third floor.

My top choices from the Easter goodies on offer have to be the Rococo Hazelnut Chocolate Quail Eggs. They are beautiful pastel blue with little spots that look incredibly realistic. They would work very well as the eggs for this cake as they are large enough to fill the nest and look very special too. Also on my list of what to try this Easter is the Rococo Hunting Bunny Eggs. The beautiful pastel colour foil wrapped eggs.  Absolutely perfect for an Easter egg hunt or grown up Easter present. Last but not least has to be the Charbonnel et Walker pink Marc de Champagne truffle eggs. This is a very grown up Easter treat in a beautiful box. It would make a wonderful present.

My Easter treat to share with you all this Easter is this beautiful Easter egg nest cake. A lovely vanilla sponge with lemon drizzle sandwiched together with a white chocolate butter cream. Then the crowning glory of the cake is a giant chocolate Easter nest filled with the beautiful speckled chocolate quail eggs. Although there are a few steps to this cake, it’s easy to achieve and it’s well worth the effort.

For serving this beautiful Easter cake I chose the Kitchen Goods and More coastal blue plate. The rich blue is so bright and looks gorgeous with a cake like this on top. The large plate is available on the Third Floor in Elys.

I used two 8 inch cake tins for this recipe. Elys has a range of cake tins in-store and online. I recommend the Prestige and the James Martin cake tins. They are strong and high sided so perfect for this recipe.

Easter Nest Recipe

 

For the cake

500g unsalted butter or baking block like Stork

450g golden caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 large eggs

500g Self-raising flour

200ml semi-skimmed milk

 

Easter Nest

150g milk chocolate

50g unsalted butter

6 tablespoons golden syrup

6 shredded wheat

 

Lemon Drizzle

6 tablespoons water

6 tablespoons of sugar

juice of 1 lemon

 

Buttercream

250g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

200g white chocolate

 

Method

 

The Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and grease and line 2x 8inch cake tins.
  • Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  • Add the vanilla extract along with the eggs. Mix until combined.
  • Sieve in the flour and stir in.
  • Gently add the milk and stir until a soft cake mixture.
  • Divide between the cake tins and bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown and spongey to touch. You can also test it’s cooked by using a cake tester and it’s done if it comes out clean.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Level off the cakes and prepare the rest of the recipe. (Eat the pieces you’ve cut off with a cup of tea while you work on the rest of the cake.)

Easter nest

  • On a piece of greaseproof paper draw around the cake tin you used for the cake. This helps you make the nest the correct size for the cake.
  • In a saucepan, on a low/medium heat, melt together the milk chocolate, butter and golden syrup. Remove from the heat when its melted.
  • Break up the shredded wheat and stir it to the melted chocolate mix. Give it a good stir to make sure it’s all combined.
  • Gently spoon out the chocolate shredded wheat mix into a nest shape on the greaseproof paper. Making the finished nest slightly smaller than the cake tin size.
  • Put the chocolate nest into the fridge or somewhere cool to set and harden.

Lemon drizzle

  • In a small saucepan add the water, lemon juice and sugar.
  • On a medium low heat bring the mixture to a simmer.
  • Keep stirring until the mixture has thickened and is more gloopy.
  • Gently drizzle the lemon mixture between the two halves of the cake on the cut open sides of the cake.
  • Leave it to soak in while you make the nest.

Buttercream

  • Break the white chocolate and add it to a microwave safe bowl.
  • In short 20 second bursts melt the white chocolate in microwave. Once melted leave to cool.
  • In a mixer or by hand, beat together the unsalted butter with 1 teaspoon of milk.
  • Gently add in a few tablespoons of icing sugar at a time.
  • When the white chocolate is cool but still molten, mix it into the buttercream on a low speed.
  • You are now ready to assemble the cake.

Assembling the cake

  • Place the first tier of the cake onto your plate.
  • Divide the buttercream into two and use the first half to sandwich the two tiers of cake together.
  • Use the remaining buttercream on the top of the cake.
  • Add the nest to the top of the cake.
  • Decorate with the Rococo chocolate quail eggs or your favourite Easter eggs from Elys.
  • It’s now ready to serve.

For more delicious recipes from Sisley follow her on Instagram here.