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Praline Easter Cake

This cake incorporates everything that is good about pralines - the chocolate, the sugar, the nuts - and turns it in to a show stopping Easter cake!
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Diet: Vegetarian
Keyword: butter, caster sugar, cream, dark chocolate, egg, hazelnuts, icing sgar, milk, nutella, self raising flour, vanilla pod
Servings: 16 people
Calories: 594.31kcal
Author: Emma

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

  • 300 grams butter
  • 300 grams caster sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 300 grams self raising flour
  • 1 pinch salt

For the buttercream

  • 175 grams butter
  • 175 grams icing sugar
  • 350 grams Nutella or other chocolate spread
  • milk optional

For the ganache

  • 75 millilitres cream
  • 100 grams dark chocolate

For decorating

  • Chopped hazelnuts
  • Praline Easter eggs
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

To bake the cake

  • Begin by lining three 6 inch cake tins with grease proof paper and place to one side.
  • In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar for the sponge until pale and creamy.
  • Add an egg and continue to beat well.
  • Keep adding the eggs one at a time (beat well each time) until the mix has become pale and fluffy.
  • Scoop the seeds out of the vanilla pod and beat into the sponge mix.
  • Next, sift the flour and salt into the bowl and fold through the wet sponge mix.
  • Divide the sponge mix between the three tins.
  • Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes at 180C or gas mark 4.
  • Take the cakes out of the oven once golden and springy to the touch or a skewer placed in the centre comes out clean.
  • Allow the cakes to cool completely before attempting to decorate.

To decorate

  • To make the buttercream, beat together the butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy.
  • Add the Nutella and beat until combined.
  • If the buttercream is too stiff to spread and pipe, add a little milk and beat again.
  • Stack the three sponge cake layers with a thin layer of the buttercream.
  • Cover the cake in a crumb coat before finishing with a smooth layer of buttercream.
  • Make sure you save some buttercream for piping the nest.
  • Take some chopped nuts in your hand and gently press into the base of the cake.
  • Repeat until you have chopped nuts around the whole cake.
  • Place the iced cake in the fridge while you make the ganache.
  • To make the ganache finely chop the dark chocolate and place to one side.
  • Gently heat the cream until not quite bubbling.
  • Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir.
  • Keep stirring until all of the chocolate has melted.
  • Remove the cake from the fridge and, using a spoon, drizzle the ganache around the top edge of the cake creating the drip effect.
  • Cover the top of the cake with the remaining ganache.
  • Using the leftover buttercream, pipe a nest on top of the cake.
  • Add a little sprinkling of nuts and the praline eggs.

Nutrition

Calories: 594.31kcal | Carbohydrates: 60.07g | Protein: 6.34g | Fat: 36.92g | Saturated Fat: 24.64g | Trans Fat: 0.98g | Cholesterol: 131.82mg | Sodium: 250.42mg | Potassium: 186.1mg | Fiber: 2.31g | Sugar: 42.91g | Vitamin A: 903.37IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 50.52mg | Iron: 2.17mg