Speckled Egg Cake: A White Chocolate Layer Cake for Easter

This speckled egg cake is excessively pretty. It’s a white chocolate layer cake sandwiched together with delicate pastel-coloured peppermint buttercream. It’s the perfect Easter cake recipe that’s almost too pretty to eat.

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I’ve nearly made it. In March both my kids have their birthdays. They also have separate birthday parties, so I end up baking 4 different cakes within about 10 days, That, my friends, is a lot of cake. It’s a cake-a-thon.

When it’s party time the kids get to pick what they would like me to produce. But when it comes to the cake I bake for celebrating on their actual birthdays, I get to decide.

These are my favourite bakes of the entire year. My girls can hint at what they might like, but I’m under no obligation to listen. I get the final say. What motivates my ultimate choice of cake is usually something personal to each child, matching up favourite flavours or treats, or ingredients with their personalities.

This year my cake-a-thon has been very successful – I’ve had no kitchen disasters and I’ve managed to create a speckled egg cake for one of my girls.

What’s in this Easter Cake Recipe?

This white chocolate cake came about because my younger daughter loves chocolate, mint and mini eggs. What can I say? Life is simple when you are eight years old.

She was born just ahead of Easter and, in those early days eight years ago, as I wheeled her around the village in her pram, the springtime daffodils seemed to be at their peak.

All of the above was the inspiration behind this cake. Though created for a birthday, it makes an ideal Easter cake recipe too:

• Inside of this speckled egg cake are three layers of white chocolate sponge cake – soft, light and wonderfully flavoured
• I’ve sandwiched each layer together with slim layer of simple buttercream, flavoured with peppermint. I’ve also used it to cover the outside of the cake. The mint flavour is strong enough to taste but not so strong it overpowers the white chocolate
• The frosted cake has been splattered with chocolate paint (a mix of cocoa powder, vanilla extract and water)
• A mix of real egg shells (cleaned), chocolate mini eggs and spring flowers adorns the top of the cake

Springtime. Easter. Chocolate. Daffodils. It all just happened on this cake.

Needless to say, my daughter loved it.

I opted for a pastel shade of blue on my cake, but light tones of pink, yellow or purple would also look great.

Tips for Baking Cakes Using Melted Chocolate

Have you come across my triple chocolate layer cake yet? It’s amazing. But as time has gone on and comments have popped up on that post, it’s clear to see that some bakers do struggle to achieve success when baking a cake using real chocolate.

In this speckled egg cake, I use white chocolate chips. These are melted and folded directly into the batter. Here are my base instructions:

• Preheat the oven & grease and line 3 x 6 inch circular baking tins
• Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Set aside
• Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using electric beaters. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition
• Add 3 tablespoon of milk and beat again
• Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix well
• Take a tablespoon of the cake batter and stir it quickly into the melted white chocolate
• Then gently fold this white chocolate mixture back into the bowl containing the rest of the cake batter. This double-action will stop the chocolate from seizing when it is mixed into the cake batter
• Spoon the batter into the baking tins and spread out and bake the cakes for around 25 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed or a skewer comes out clean
• Let cool in the tins for 2 minutes, then remove from the tins

This sounds straightforward, but there is one common problem my readers frequently mention:

… the chocolate starts to set before it is properly mixed into the cake batter…

With this in mind, I want to give you my top tips for making this white chocolate cake:

• First of all, work quickly. It should take no more than 15 minutes from the start to getting these cakes into the oven to bake
• Melted chocolate will start to reset if it comes into contact with other colder ingredients. For this reason, it is vital that all ingredients are at room temperature before baking begins and not pulled straight from the fridge. This is the most common reason for the chocolate resetting in clumps when it is mixed into the cake batter
• I melt the chocolate before I begin to mix the cake batter. This is so that it can cool for around 3-5 minutes. If you are a slower baker, please bear this in mind. Chocolate that has cooled too much after melting is the second most likely reason that the chocolate does not mix smoothly into the cake batter. It’s on the verge of resetting anyway, and adding to the cake batter is the final push it needs
• To reduce the risk of the chocolate seizing when added to the cake batter I always stir a tablespoon of cake batter directly into the chocolate. This helps bring the chocolate and the cake batter more in line with each other temperature-wise and really does help reduce the risk of chocolate shards appearing.

Do I Need Perfect Frosting on my Cake

I’ve used a basic buttercream frosting for this Easter cake recipe:

• Beat butter and icing sugar together until smooth
• Add peppermint extract a little at a time – start with 1tsp, beat in and taste. Keep on adding more extract in ½ teaspoon increments until you are happy with the peppermint taste
• Add a tiny amount of gel food colouring and beat until the icing is uniform in colour throughout. Keep on adding tiny amounts of colouring until you reach a shade you are happy with

It’s easy, effective and a good match for the white chocolate cake used in this Easter cake recipe.

But I’m going to make a confession: cake decorating is not one of my strengths.

I was hoping to create a perfectly smooth covering of buttercream, but after 15 minutes of trying, it became obvious to me that I wasn’t going to achieve that look for this speckled egg cake.

Swerving frustration, I changed tack and opted for a more rustic look, which seems to work just as well with the speckled decor in my opinion.

I was short on time, but have since found some great video tutorials to help me. Here’s my favourite one to watch from Life Love & Sugar.

How to Achieve the Speckled Egg Effect

Creating the speckle effect was not as difficult or as time-consuming as I thought it would be:

• Mix a brown “paint” together from cocoa powder, vanilla extract and water
• Dip the end of a stiff cake decorating brush into the paint and hold it upright, about 15 cm away from the cake
• Use your spare hand to swiftly tap the brush, causing the paint to splatter onto the cake. Practice on a piece of paper first to get a feel for how much liquid to put onto the brush and how hard to tap it
• Keep on doing this around the entire cake and across the top until you are happy with the speckle effect achieved

Kind of fun… and slightly messy.

A speckled egg cake does look especially pretty and they are particularly fitting for Easter-time when chocolate eggs are easy to lay your hands on.

If you are decorating with fresh flowers make sure they are edible (check this list). Daffodils are not fit for human consumption, so you’ll need to use artificial ones if you want to replicate my decoration.

And now I must fly since I have my final bake of cake-a-thon 2017 to finish – hopefully without a hitch.

More Special Celebration Cakes that Kids Will Love:

• Chocolate & Vanilla Malted Milkshake Cake
• Turkish Delight Cake
• Millionaire’s Shortbread Cake
• Mint Choc Chip Cake

📖 Recipe

Speckle Cake: White Chocolate Mint Layer Cake – A Great Easter Bake

Jane Coupland

Perfectly suited to Easter this Speckle Cake contains layers of white chocolate sponge sandwiched together with delicate pastel coloured peppermint buttercream. It's almost too pretty to eat. 

The recipes below is sufficient for 3 x 6-inch cake tins – these are smaller than normal. If you would like to use 8-inch tins see measurements in the notes.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Baking

Cuisine: Worldwide

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 Servings

Calories: 798kcal

Ingredients

For the Cakes

• ▢ 180 g/ ¾ cup / 6 ½oz cups Softened butter
• ▢ 180 g/ ¾ cup + 2tbsp /6 ½oz Caster sugar
• ▢ 3 Large eggs
• ▢ 3 tablespoon Milk
• ▢ 180 g/ 1 ½ cups / 6 ½oz Plain (all purpose) flour (sifted)
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon Baking powder
• ▢ 150 g/ 1 cup / 5 oz White chocolate – finely chopped

For the buttercream

• ▢ 200 g/ ¾ cup + 2 tbsp/ 7oz Softened butter
• ▢ 325/ 3 ¼ cups/ 11 ½ oz Icing (confectioner’s) sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoon Milk
• ▢ Peppermint extract – I used 2 teaspoon but this may vary depending on brand so start with 1 teaspoon and taste before adding more
• ▢ Gel food colouring of your choice – I used ice blue

For the Speckle

• ▢ 1 teaspoon Cocoa powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Cold water

Decoration – choose from:

• ▢ mini chocolate eggs
• ▢ foil wrapped eggs
• ▢ edible flowers
• ▢ artificial flowers
• ▢ empty egg shells (washed in soapy water and dried thoroughly

Instructions

Bake the Cake

• Preheat the oven 170°/ 325°F/ GM3
• Grease and line 3 x 6 inch circular baking tins (note these are smaller than average tins – if you are using 8 inch tins see my notes on how to scale up the recipe)
• Gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Set aside
• In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using electric beaters. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition
• Add 3 tablespoon of milk and beat again. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix well
• Take a tablespoon of the cake batter and stir it quickly into the melted white chocolate. Then gently fold this white chocolate mixture back into the bowl containing the rest of the cake batter. This double-action will stop the chocolate from seizing when it is mixed into the cake batter
• Gently spoon the batter into the baking tins and spread out with a blunt knife – it should reach no more than ⅔ of the way up the pan
• Bake the cakes for around 25 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed or a skewer comes out clean
• Let cool in the tins for 2 minutes, then remove from the tins – this cake is quite fragile when still warm so handle gently. Peal off the baking parchment from the bottom of each sponge cake and let cool completely on a wire rack

Make the buttercream

• Put the butter into a large bowl and beat until smooth
• Sieve in the icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat well between each addition
• Once all of the icing sugar has been mixed in, add the peppermint extract a little at a time – start with 1tsp, beat in and taste. Keep on adding more extract in ½ teaspoon increments until you are happy with the peppermint taste
• Add a tiny amount of gel food colouring and beat until the icing is uniform in colour throughout. Keep on adding tiny amounts of colouring until you reach a shade you are happy with

Assemble the cake

• Lay one of the sponge cakes onto a board and spread a heaped tablespoon of the icing on top, then place another layer of cake carefully on top of the layer of icing. Top with another spoonful of icing, spread it out and add the final layer of cake
• Once the final layer of cake has been added, carefully spread a thin layer of icing all over the top and sides of the cake – a palette knife is good for this. I find that coating the cake in a thin layer all over helps to seal in the crumbs. Once you have done this, use the remaining icing to create a thicker layer that covers the cake entirely. If you have the skill to make a smooth layer of icing then do so, but this is not essential
• Mix the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and the water together in a small bowl until smooth. it should be the consistency of single cream (add a tiny splash more water if it’s too thick or a little more cocoa powder if it’s too loose). Dip the end of a stiff pastry brush or paint brush into the liquid and hold it upright, about 6 inches from the cake. Gently tap the pastry brush with your free hand so that the liquid splatters across the cake. Keep on doing this around the entire cake and across the top until you are happy with the speckle effect achieved
• Carefully move your cake onto a serving plate and decorate with the chocolate eggs, egg shells and flowers if using

Notes

To make a 3 layer cake in 8 inch tins use the following measurements – fill your tins ⅔ full. Do not overfill but if there is spare batter make a few cupcakes. You may need to bake these larger sponges for a few more minutes.

For the Cake: 300g/ 1 ⅓ cups / 10 ½oz softened butter; 300g/ 1 ½ cups / 10 ½oz caster sugar; 5 eggs; 5 tablespoon milk; 300g/ 2 ½ cups / 10 ½oz plain (all purpose) flour (sifted); 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder; 250g/ 1 ⅔ cups / 9oz white chocolate – finely chopped.

For the buttercream: 300g/ 1 ⅓ cups / 10 ½oz softened butter; 450/ 4 ½ cups/ 16oz icing (confectioner’s) sugar; 1 tablespoon milk; Peppermint extract – around 2 ½tsp but this may vary depending on brand so start with 1 teaspoon and taste before adding more; Gel food colouring.

Nutrition Per Serving (Approximate)

Calories:798kcal | Carbohydrates:92g | Protein:6g | Fat:47g | Saturated Fat:29g | Cholesterol:168mg | Sodium:385mg | Potassium:195mg | Fiber:1g | Sugar:74g | Vitamin A:1285IU | Calcium:102mg | Iron:1mg

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