Easter Chocolate Cake Recipe from ByRuby
Looking for a delicious celebratory cake for Easter weekend with the family? Our friends at ByRuby have delivered with this mouth watering chocolate buttermilk cake recipe that will be a hit with everyone.
Read on for the recipe and give this Easter Chocolate Buttermilk Cake a go and we're sure the kids will want to get involved with helping too!
This recipe makes a 4 layered cake. Use an 8 inch tin, or for a slightly taller cake use a 7 inch tin. If you only have two tins, divide the cake recipe ingredients in half and repeat instructions twice over.
Cake Ingredients (all at room temperature)
- 340g Salted Butter
- 750g Granulated Sugar
- 6 Large Eggs
- 360g (or ml) Hot water
- 360g Buttermilk
- 160g Cocoa Powder (preferably Dark)
- 565g Plain Flour
- 5 tsp Baking Powder
- 5 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- Preheat oven to 170c Fan.
- Grease and line your 8 or 7 inch baking tins.
- In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, or using an electric hand whisk, beat butter until light in colour and smooth. Change the paddle attachment to the whisk (if using) and add sugar. Whisk on high speed until very pale in colour and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl a couple of times to ensure everything is fully incorporated.
- Add eggs one at a time while whisking at medium speed, ensuring each egg is fully mixed before adding the next, and again scraping down sides after adding each egg. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and combine using a fork.
- In another bowl whisk the cocoa powder (sieved), hot water and buttermilk until combined and smooth.
- Add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter, sugar and egg mix, and whisk to combine. Again, scrape sides to make sure everything in incorporated.
- Next, add about half of the cocoa, buttermilk and water and whisk to combine. Don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowl and ensure all the batter is combined (even at the bottom if using a stand mixer).
- Repeat the above two steps with the flour and chocolate mixture until all are combined and the batter is smooth, finishing with the final third of the flour mix.
- Divide the batter between the cake tins and place in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out mostly clean and the cakes are starting to come away from the sides of the tin.
- Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes on a cooling rack.
- Whilst the cakes are still warm remove them from the tins and leave to finish cooling.
- Once cool cut the tops off to make them flat.
- If making cakes ahead of time wrap in clingfilm and put in the freezer.
Chocolate Buttercream icing
Ingredients
- 625g Salted Butter (at room temp)
- 100g Cocoa Powder
- 750g Icing Sugar
- 150g Melted Chocolate
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Put butter in a stand mixer with paddle attachment (or use hand whisk) and cream until smooth and pale in colour. Add icing sugar bit by bit until fully incorporated. We like the buttercream on the more savoury side, but if you like it sweeter do add more sugar to taste.
- Add the vanilla extract and cocoa powder and mix to combine.
- Add the melted chocolate and continue to beat until smooth.
- Sandwich the buttercream between the layers using an offset spatula. I like to add something in between the layers to add another dimension. Try one of the below ideas
- Chop up a chocolate bar and sprinkle in between the layers.
- Crush some mini eggs and sprinkle.
- Chop up some toasted nuts of your choice.
- Sprinkle a little crushed sea salt.
- Drizzle salted caramel
- Add some crumbled biscuits – oreos, biscoff, hob nobs etc.
- Add butter cream to the sides of the cake for the crumb coat and smooth out. Then place in the fridge to set.
- Add a final layer of butter creams and smooth out sides place cake in fridge to set.
- Once you have the cake to this stage decorate as you like, trying any or all of the below:
- Drip icing: 100g chocolate finely chopped + 75g cream. Method: Heat cream until just bubbling, add chocolate and leave to melt in. Stir until smooth. If ganache is splitting add a little extra cream until smooth. Pour onto chilled and set cake and smooth out to the edges until it starts to drip down the sides. Alternatively put the ganache in a piping bag or sandwich bag and pipe at the edge of the top of the cake so it drips down the sides – fill in the centre and smooth out using an offset spatula. Note: It is vital the cake is very cold and that the ganache isn’t too hot when you do this.
- Piped buttercream: using a piping bag or sandwich bag pipe buttercream on top of the cake using different piping nozzles or just by cutting the end off a sandwich bag.
- Roll cake in sprinkles: Put sprinkles in a walled baking tray and roll the sides of the cake in the tray. Once the sides of the cake are covered place up right again and put sprinkles on the top of the cake.
- Add small pieces of whatever you might have put in between the layers of top of the cake