Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake; two layers of moist malt chocolate cake, slathered in crunchy Maltesers spread, rich whipped malt chocolate ganache frosting, and a whole squad of Malteser bunnies, perfect for Easter!
I know Easter is supposed to be a time of remembrance and eating symbolic foods and such like. However, in our house, and likely many others, Easter is all about chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.
Call it capitalism, call it reckless commercialism. I call it yummy.
If you are making a big deal out of Easter though, and you’d like a special celebration cake to mark the occasion, I would thoroughly recommend trying out this Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake!
Two layers of moist malt chocolate cake, slathered in crunchy Maltesers spread, rich whipped malt chocolate ganache frosting, and a whole squad of Malteser bunnies, this cake is absolutely perfect for any Easter table. Whether you’ve just arrived back from the land of the dead or not. Religious banter, LOLOLOL.
Seriously though, this cake is ridiculously good. No dry chocolate cake, no overtly sweet frosting, just a great mix of texture and chocolatey flavour! I’ve been getting some lovely feedback on it so far, so I hope you’ll love it too.
To give a direct quote, my dear friend at work described this cake as:
“Like biting into a solid mass of parental love that we all crave and never receive. Then the cream kicks in and the whole experience changes into an exploration of layers upon layers of flavour.”
Can’t argue with that!
Aren’t Maltesers such an underrated treat??
To make this epic Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake, start by preheating your oven and thoroughly grease two round cake tins.
Place some butter/margarine, sugar and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat well until light and fluffy.
Crack 3 eggs in one at a time, beating really well between each addition. Don’t worry if it looks a little curdled, it will all come together.
Add some self-raising flour, cocoa, malt powder, hot water and salt, and mix gently until combined into a smooth cake mix.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tins and smooth the top with your spoon/spatula.
Bake this for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are springy to touch and a skewer inserted into their centre comes out clean of any mixture.
When baked to your satisfaction, remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing and allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Meanwhile, make your yummy whipped malt chocolate ganache frosting! (That’s a mouthful, eh?)
Pour some double or whipping cream into a small saucepan and place it over a medium heat until the cream just begins to steam and show bubbles at the edges, it should feel hot against your finger. Try not to heat it too much though, as this can cause the mixture to separate.
Once warmed, remove the pan from the heat.
Break some milk or dark chocolate into fairly small chunks and drop them into the cream.
Simply stir the chocolate and cream together until they transform into a thickened, creamy chocolate sauce. (Try not to slurp it all up and devour it yet)
Once smooth, stir in some vanilla extract and malt powder.
Allow the ganache to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you pour it over your cake, this will allow it to thicken and make sure it doesn’t run straight off the cake!
When the cake is cool and the ganache has thickened into a more paste-like mixture, use an electric whisk, hand mixer or just your good old elbow grease to whip the ganache into a lighter and fluffier frosting. This should take no more than 5 minutes.
To assemble this glorious Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake, place one of the cooled cakes onto your serving plate. Spread it generously with some chocolate Malteser spread. (The kind with the crunchy malt pieces!)
Spread a layer of the ganache on top of this, before sandwiching it with the other cake.
Slather the top cake layer in the same way with the Maltesers spread and ganache.
Spread some blobs of ganache around the side of the cake,
Smooth these out roughly with a knife or palette knife, this is known as the crumb-coat. You can chill the cake in the fridge for 10-15 minutes at this stage to help achieve a perfectly smooth outcome, I’m usually too lazy for this!
Add another few blobs of icing round the sides and the top of the cake, smoothing it out as best you can until you have fairly smooth sides to your cake.
Any remaining ganache can be either spread or piped on top of the cake (though you may not need it all).
Decorate the cake with Maltesers, Malteser bunnies and Malteser mini bunnies however you like, you can add sprinkles or chocolate sauce too if you like!
This cake tastes just as good, if not better, than it looks. I promise!
I know there are a lot of steps to this Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake, but I swear it’s an easy cake to whip up and it’s worth every second of your effort.
Scroll down for the full recipe to make this Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake.
Let me know if you make or get inspired by any of my Easter recipes such as this, my Giant Mini Egg Cookie Cake, my White Chocolate Easter Rocky Road or my Easter Tiffin.
I hope you all have a great Easter weekend, and eat WAY too much chocolate! I’ll see you soon for more foodie fun!
Easter Chocolate Malteser Bunny Cake
Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
- 200g (13tbsp) soft butter or margarine
- 180g (1 cup, not packed down) soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 160g (1 ⅓ cups) self-raising flour
- 40g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp malt powder (such as Horlicks or Ovaltine)
- 100ml (scant ½ cup) hot water
- Pinch of salt
For the whipped chocolate ganache frosting and decoration:
- 400ml (1 ¾ cups) double or whipping cream (heavy cream in USA)
- 300g (10 oz) milk or dark chocolate
- 2 tbsp malt powder (such as Horlicks or Ovaltine)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 jar Maltesers chocolate spread, or another crunchy chocolate spread (you probably will not need all of it!)
- Maltesers, Malteser bunnies, and Malteser mini bunnies to decorate
Instructions
For the chocolate cake:
- Preheat your oven – 180 C / 160 C fan / 350 F / gas mark 4 – and thoroughly grease two 20-23cm (7-8 inch) round cake tins.
- Place your butter/margarine, sugar and vanilla extract into a large bowl and beat well until light and fluffy.
- Crack the eggs in one at a time, beating really well between each addition. Don’t worry if it looks a little curdled, it will all come together.
- Add the flour, cocoa, malt powder, hot water and salt, and mix gently until combined into a smooth cake mix.
- Pour the mixture into your prepared tins and smooth the top with your spoon/spatula.
- Bake this for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are springy to touch and a skewer inserted into their centre comes out clean of any mixture.
- When baked to your satisfaction, remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing and allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make your frosting!
For the whipped chocolate ganache frosting:
- Pour the cream into a small saucepan and place it over a medium heat until the cream just begins to steam and show bubbles at the edges, it should feel hot against your finger. Try not to heat it too much though, as this can cause the mixture to separate.
- Once warmed, remove the pan from the heat.
- Break your chocolate into chunks and drop them into the cream.
- Simply stir the chocolate and cream together until they transform into a thickened, creamy chocolate sauce.
- Once smooth, stir in the vanilla extract and malt powder.
- Allow the ganache to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you pour it over your cake, this will allow it to thicken and make sure it doesn’t run straight off the cake.
- When the cake is cool and the ganache has thickened into a more paste-like mixture, use an electric whisk, hand mixer or just your good old elbow grease to whip the ganache into a lighter and fluffier frosting. This should take no more than 5 minutes.
To assemble:
- Place one of the cooled cakes onto your serving plate. Spread it generously with the Malteser spread.
- Spread a layer of the ganache on top of this, before sandwiching it with the other cake.
- Slather the top cake layer in the same way with the Maltesers spread and ganache.
- Spread some blobs of ganache around the side of the cake,
- Smooth these out roughly with a knife or palette knife, this is known as the crumb-coat. You can chill the cake in the fridge for 10-15 minutes at this stage to help achieve a perfectly smooth outcome, I’m usually too lazy for this!
- Add another few blobs of icing round the sides and the top of the cake, smoothing it out as best you can until you have fairly smooth sides to your cake.
- Any remaining ganache can be either spread or piped on top of the cake (though you may not need it all).
- Decorate the cake with Maltesers, Malteser bunnies and Malteser mini bunnies however you like, you can add sprinkles or chocolate sauce too if you like!
- Enjoy!
I know Easter has passed but I want this cake!! Anything with malt and chocolate is a WIN in my books!
Hey, I won’t judge anyone who wants or eats this after Easter! I completely agree! 🙂
Easter is definitely about chocolate, and this cake looks AMAZING. I’m so intrigued by your colleague’s quote recommendation! I think I need to round of my bank holiday with something like this, just that finishing touch to a weekend full of choccie!
Jess – opallight.blogspot.com
I completely agree, and thank you! Yeah, a strange one. Let me know if you do try it out! 🙂
Could this cake be any cuter? Or more festive? Or MORE DELICIOUS? This looks wonderful. And yes, Maltesers are highly underrated. Have a happy Easter!
Haha, thank you! Glad you agree, Maltesers are great. Happy Easter!