I should have written this yesterday. If I had written it yesterday I could have told you that I was sitting at the table at mum and dad’s place looking out at the ocean, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face. Writing it today I can still tell you that I’m sitting at the table overlooking the ocean but the view is a little bleak and the breeze a little chilly. That’s just how it is up here, unpredictable but to me, it’s perfect weather for relaxing and eating hot cross bus.

Just like last year I had a last minute urge to bake something Easter-inspired. Easter to me means chocolate so an Easter cake had to have chocolate. Chocolate with chocolate icing and chocolate decoration of course.

There was a little bit of an Easter fail in there though. I was 99% sure that the eggs would sink into the cake but one can hope. I alternated blobs of chocolate and vanilla batter into the tin to create a zebra effect for a special surprise when you cut inside. Not as good a surprise as my piñata cake but a surprise nonetheless.

It was a case of the disappearing Easter eggs. One Facebook fan suggested that the Easter bunny bread must have eaten it. They didn’t stay whole, melting into the cake adding little chocolate chunks.

I used the food processor pound cake recipe for the batter with a little brown sugar instead of some of the caster sugar to give it a bit of a richer flavour and added cocoa to half the batter. I love the pound cake recipe because it results in a dense, moist batter that doesn’t dry out. It can be flavoured with just about anything and is so very versatile.

For my first attempt at a swirled cake I was pretty happy with the result. It reminds me a little of a rainbow paddle pop. I wish they made a choc-vanilla version. I topped it with a simple chocolate buttercream icing dotted with spekled eggs and took it over to my grandma to wish her a Happy Easter.

I hope that wherever you are or however you’re celebrating, you have a wonderful Easter. Enjoy!

ps I have a little bit of excitement coming up next week.

Chocolate swirl Easter cake

Yield: 10-12

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

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Ingredients

Cake

• 250g butter, chopped
• 200g caster sugar
• 50g brown sugar
• 4 free-range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g Self-Raising flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Icing

• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• Extra icing sugar for the outside of the cake
• Easter eggs to decorate

Instructions

Cake

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan-forced and grease and line a 24cm spring-form tin.
2. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.
3. Scrape down the sides then add the eggs, with the motor running, one at a time.
4. Add the vanilla and pulse it through then scrape down the sides again.
5. Add the flour and process for 1 minute.
6. Scrape down the sides then process for another 30 seconds.
7. Remove half the batter from the food processor.
8. Add the cocoa to the food processor and process for another 30 seconds then scrape dow the sides and repeat.
9. Starting with a blob of icing in the middle of the cake tin, spoon one blob of white cake batter and then top with a blob of chocolate batter (blob is about a tablespoon).
10. Keep alternating until you have used all the batter.
11. Bake the cake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
12. Leave the cake to rest in the tin for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

1. Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add the icing sugar and cocoa and mix then in.
3. Add water a little at a time to get the icing to a spreadable consistency and beat until fluffy.
4. Pour some icing sugar onto a plate and roll the outside of the cake in it to coat.
5. Spread the icing on the top of the cake and top with Easter eggs.