I’m so chuffed to be sharing this gluten free chocolate marble Easter cake with you. As not only does it look rather cute and tastes great, it was also lovely to have an opportunity to use a savarin tin which had belonged to my mum, to make the cake. And the meaningful tin, with its ready made hole, proved to be just the job to make this chocolate, buttercream and cadburys flake coated Easter cake.
This Easter cake was fun to make and SO easy to jazz up, which is good, as I’m not known for my cake decorating skills. In fact I once got sent home from a friend’s house by her mum for attempting to ‘help’ my very creative friend decorate a special birthday cake. All I can say my assistance, did not have a good influence on the finished cake!
As always, with any of the recipes I share, I’m just giving you a guide and letting you know what I did. But you of course can go off and change things however you like. So, for instance if you don’t have a savarin tin you could use a sandwich tin instead and cut the centre out (pop this portion to one side to enjoy with a spot of *custard later maybe?). Or if you like, double the mixture up, divide into two tins and make it into a sandwich cake.
Ingredients (Serves 6-8)
For the cake
110g (4oz) softened butter (Lurpak spreadable full fat or a block butter that is room temperature)
110g (4oz) caster sugar
110g (4oz) gluten free self-raising flour (add ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum if the flour doesn’t already contain this or guar gum)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon of *vanilla extract
1 heaped teaspoon *cocoa powder, sifted
For the buttercream
50g (2oz) *dark chocolate – ideally 50% cocoa
110g (4oz) unsalted butter
225g (8oz) icing sugar, sifted
Teaspoon of *vanilla extract (optional)
To finish
3 Cadbury’s **Flakes, crumbled
2 x 80g bags of Cadbury’s **mini eggs
Method
Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.
Grease and line a 7 inch savarin tin or tin you choose to use. 
Pop the butter, sugar, gluten free flour, eggs, milk and baking powder into a large bowl.
Using an electric hand or stand mixer whisk together until light and creamy.
Divide the sponge mixture in half and mix cocoa powder into one half and stir the teaspoon of vanilla extract into the other half.
Grab a couple of desert spoons, and randomly divide both lots of mixture up into the tin. I did all the vanilla first then slotted the chocolate one in-between. But you do as you please.
Once all the mixture has been used up, run a skewer through it to create a marble effect. Best to do this just once or twice otherwise you won’t see the pattern once baked.
Pop in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Check it’s done by gently pressing the top of the cake, it will be nice and springy when fully baked.
Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool.
To make the chocolate buttercream: Break up the chocolate and melt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, pop to one side to cool a little. You don’t want it too hot when you add it to the buttercream.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and vanilla extract (if using) until nice and soft. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar, stirring as you go to incorporate all the sugar into the butter. Pour in the melted chocolate and give it all a really good mix. I tend to use an electric hand whisk at this point, as I find you get a lighter and better textured buttercream.
Remove the greaseproof from the cake and with the curved side facing up, gently spread the buttercream evenly over the cake – I didn’t use up all the buttercream (will use it up on some plain gf muffins over the next few days), but you may prefer a thicker coating than me.
Before the buttercream has chance to set, cover the cake with the crumbled chocolate flakes. I found that the larger pieces settled better on the top of the cake and the dusty chocolate bit was good for the sides of the cake. I pressed it in a little too. Children will just love helping with this bit – don’t worry about the mess they will have so much fun!
Transfer the cake onto a serving plate and pour the mini eggs into the centre.
Hope you get to make and enjoy this gluten free chocolate marble Easter cake over the holiday. It’s a real cutie and tastes delicious.
Happy Easter
Liz x
P.S. If chocolate cake is your thing, you must try my gluten free version of Nigella Lawson’s chocolate cake recipe. It really is gorgeous!
*Check this product out to ensure no gluten containing ingredients or ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ warnings on the pack. If in doubt leave it out.
** Currently gluten free in the UK but in other countries may not be.
