Vegan Easter Chocolate Loaf Cake

Instead of just eating all of your eggs, why not make a delicious cake and top it with lots of Easter treats?

To me, this cake looks like Easter has thrown up on it, and I'm totally okay with that! I know there's a lot of chocolate going on here, but for me Easter IS about chocolate and I thought why not add more into the mix with a chocolate cake too? I have so much nostalgia over Easter time, it reminds me of desperately waiting till Easter Sunday to rip off the foil of my chocolate egg and pretty much inhale the entire thing. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who did this, much to my mum's constant reminder of how I won't be hungry for dinner! Whilst I still want to gorge on my eggs, I've worked on my adult self-control (sometimes) and my baking obsession means I now just use my Easter chocolate to add to cakes and bakes to keep Easter even more sweet. Since eating vegan I long for Doisy and Dam Good Eggs all year round, waiting for the day I spot them in Sainsbury's and try to find time to fit in a bake or two with them. They add so much colour and texture which is exactly what this cake needed. A moist chocolate cake, topped with a creamy chocolate buttercream and a lovely crunch of Easter eggs galore, delicious :)

If you love Easter eggs and chocolate....

Check out my other recipes for more inspiration!

• Vegan Chocolate Easter Eggs with Fillings
• Easter Cookie Bars
• Chocolate Easter Egg Cookies

Recipe

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

Serves: 8

Notes:

• The coffee is there to add a deeper chocolate flavour but you can omit it - you will still need the boiling water though.
• I have only found Doisy and Dam Good Eggs in Sainsbury's or Holland and Barrett - you can use M&M's or other chocolates if this is easier and you are not following a vegan or dairy free diet. 

Ingredients

Cake

• 270ml Boiling water 
• 1 Heaped tsp instant coffee
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar 
• 80g Vegetable oil
• 250g Self-raising flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 50g Light brown sugar
• 40g Cocoa powder
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• ½tsp Baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Buttercream

• 125g Butter, softened
• 30g Easter chocolate melted
• 250g Icing sugar
• Doisy and Dam Good Eggs
• Vegan chocolate eggs

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170℃ and grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.
2. Combine the boiling water with the coffee and leave to cool about 5 minutes. Then mix in the ACV. 
3. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients with a whisk. 
4. Pour in all of the wet ingredients into the bowl and mix together till just combined. 
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool in the tin then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile make the buttercream. With an electric mixer, beat the butter till smooth. Add the icing sugar in stages till combined, then add in the melted chocolate and mix in. You can add more icing sugar if you like it really sweet.
8. Spread the buttercream on the cooled cake with an offset palette knife and then top with lots of easter chocolates. Best kept covered at room temperature or stored in the fridge but keep covered so it does not dry out. Enjoy!

Christina

xx