Easter Egg Nest Cake Made Perfect With Melting Chocolate From Kitsilano’s CocoaNymph

I am in charge of dessert for Easter dinner this year and my dining companions include a few very close, chocolate-loving friends, and a handful of wee ones.  I am going to make Nigella Lawson’s Easter Egg Nest Cake again this year.

Not only is it super cute decorated with little mini eggs, but when you use a really high quality chocolate, like the melting chocolate from CocoaNymph on West 10^th and Alma, it is absolutely divine!  I can’t emphasize enough what a difference the chocolate makes.  From my house to yours, I pass along a new recipe for your Easter dinner table.

The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, Feast.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 250   gram(s)   dark chocolate  chopped
• 125   gram(s)   unsalted butter  softened
• 6 medium  egg(s)  2 whole 4 separated
• 175   gram(s)   caster sugar  75g for yolk mixture 100g for whites
• 1 teaspoon(s)  vanilla extract

For the topping

• 125   gram(s)   dark chocolate  chopped
• 250   ml   double cream
• 1 teaspoon(s)  vanilla extract
• 1 packet(s)  egg(s)  (small)

Method

1.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C.

2.Line the bottom of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment, or better still, Bake-O-Glide but do not grease the sides of the tine.

3.Melt the 250g chocolate with the butter in either a double boiler or a microwave and then set aside to cool slightly.

4.Whisk the 4 egg whites until firm, then gradually add the 100g of sugar and whisk until the whites are holding their shape and peak gleamingly – but not stiff.

5.Remove this bowl (if you’re using a freestanding mixer, as I do, though a handheld job would do fine) and set aside while you whisk, in another bowl, the 2 whole eggs and 4 yolks with the 75g of sugar and the vanilla extract, and then gently fold in the chocolate mixture.  Lighten the mixture with some egg whites – just dollop a large spoonful in and stir briskly – and then fold in the rest of the whisked whites gently, in about three goes.

6.Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly on the surface.  Cool the cake in its tin on a wire rack;  the middle will sink as it cools and the sides splinter.  You want this to look like a cake with a crater in it, so do not panic at the vision of imperfection in front of you.  That’s one of the reasons this cake is so unstressful to make.

7.To finish the cake, carefully remove it from the tin and  place it on a plate or cake-stand, not worrying if bits fall off here and there.  Put them back in a loose fashion.

8.Melt the chocolate for the topping and leave it to cool a little.  Whip the cream until it is firming up and aerated but still soft, and then add the vanilla and fold in the melted chocolate.  Fill the crater of the cake with the chocolatey cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake with a rubber spatula, and then arrange the little sugar Easter eggs on top.

Photo credit: www.nigella.com

 

Last modified: March 29, 2013