Death by Mini Egg Gateaux

When deciding what to make for Easter this year, the only thing I knew it needed to contain was mini eggs and chocolate. I couldn’t decide whether to make chewy chocolate cookies, rich chocolate sponge cakes or gooey chocolate brownies… so I though sod it. Why not just make all of it? And then, why not make all of it in one amazing, indulgent gateaux, overloaded with chocolate?! After all, that’s what Easter is really about, right? So this, my friends, is my wonderful creation: Death by Mini Egg Gateaux. A chocolate cookie base, topped with a chocolate sponge cake, finished with a thick layer of chocolate frosting and oodles of crushed mini eggs. Seriously bad for you. But totally worth it.


Ingredients:
For the cookie layer:
85g unsalted butter
75g soft brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla essence
120g plain flour
25g coco powder
100g chocolate chips

For the sponge layer:
200g butter
170g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp almond essence
180g self raising flour
2tbsp coco powder
1/2tsp baking powder

For the frosting:

160g unsalted butter, softened

300g icing sugar 

100g dark chocolate, melted
50ml milk

1 big bag of Cadbury's Mini Eggs

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line the base of a loose bottomed cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Make the cookie layer first:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugars, and beat together until it's light and fluffy.

Stir in the egg and vanilla essence, before adding the flour and cocoa powder. Carefully mix it all until it comes together in a dough.

Tip the dough into the prepared tin, and press it out into a flat layer that covers the whole of the base. Scatter the chocolate chips over the cookie dough layer and gentle press them into the dough. Put the tin to one side.

Next, make the sponge layer:

In a clean bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk and almond essence and give it a good mix.

Sift in the flour, coco powder and baking powder, and gently fold it into the mixture.

Pour the cake batter over the cookie layer, and carefully spread it up to the edges, keeping the top as level as possible. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until springy to the touch, and skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for a few minutes in the tin before turning it out, upside down, onto a wire rack and leaving it to cool completely. 

While it's cooling, make up the frosting:

Cream together the butter, icing sugar and milk until it resembles creamy buttercream. Pour the melted chocolate into the butter cream and carefully mix it all together, until you have a smooth, spreadable frosting. 

To assemble the gateaux:

Place the cake onto your serving plate, with the cookie layer on the bottom, and the sponge layer on the top. Heap about 2/3 of the frosting on to the top of the sponge, and use a palette knife to spread it out into a thick, flat layer.

Put the remaining third of the frosting into an icing bag with a star shaped tip, and pipe little nests around the edge of the gateaux, as in the photo. Place a Mini Egg in the middle of each nest; crush any remaining Mini Eggs and scatter them in the centre of the gateaux, and you're done! Easy, but impressive, don't you think?!