Description
This simple Neapolitan-inspired vanilla bean snacking cake is decorated with a fresh strawberry frosting and solid chocolate bunnies for an easy Easter treat for kids of all ages!
Ingredients
Scale
For the Vanilla Bean Sponge
- 120g (4 1/4 oz) soft margarine
- 120g (4 1/4 oz) golden caster (granulated) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- seeds of 1 vanilla pod
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 120g (4 1/4 oz) self raising flour
- 1–2 tbsp water from a just boiled kettle
For the Decoration
- 85g (3 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 300g (10 1/2 oz) icing (confectioners) sugar
- 65g (2 oz) fresh strawberries
- 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 12 Hotel Chocolat City Bunny chocolates
- pink, white and purple sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (355 fahrenheit) and grease and line a 20x20cm cake tin (or whatever you’ve got that is the closest) with a square of baking parchment.
- Beat together the margarine and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, followed by both types of vanilla, then the baking powder, then the flour. Add the boiling water, a spoonful at a time until your cake batter reaches ‘dropping consistency’ – essentially, a good dollop of it lifted up with your wooden spoon drops satisfyingly back down into the bowl.
- Scrape the cake batter into the prepared tin and smooth down the top. Knock the tin on the worktop a few times to knock out any unseemly air bubbles before baking in the oven for 20 minutes until the top is springy and a cake tester or sharp knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Once the tin is just about cool enough to touch, turn the cake onto a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- To make the frosting, beat together the butter and half the icing sugar until smooth. Remove the green tops from the strawberries before blitzing them in a blender or mini food processor until smooth along with the lemon juice. Gradually add the strawberry mix, bit by bit along with the icing sugar to the prepared frosting until everything is smooth and combined. If you feel like the mixture is splitting, add a little more icing sugar.
- Using a palette knife, smooth the icing in swirls over the top of the cake before decorating the cake with Hotel Chocolat City Bunnies so that each of the 12 small square snacking slices this cake yields comes with its own bunny. Scatter the cake with pink sprinkles, if using.
Notes
This cake will keep, covered, for up to 4 days, if it lasts that long!