Frosted white chocolate Easter cake

Frosted white chocolate Easter cake

A slice of this Madeira-style cake is wonderful with a morning cup of tea or coffee

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr

plus cooling
Freezable

Can be frozen un-iced

Method

  1. Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Grease a deep 23cm cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper. Place the butter, white chocolate, milk and vanilla extract in a small saucepan, then heat gently, stirring, until melted. Combine the flour, bicarb and sugar in a large bowl with a pinch of salt, then stir in the melted ingredients and eggs until smooth. Pour the batter into the tin, then bake for 1 hr, or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin. Once cool, the cake can be wrapped in cling film and foil, then frozen for up to 1 month.
  2. To make the frosting, beat together the Philadelphia, butter and icing sugar until smooth. Spread over the cake, then decorate with mini eggs.
Try

Use full-fat cream cheese

- Don't use low-fat cream cheese, as this has a much higher water content than full fat and will be more prone to going runny.

Choosing chocolate

- We've used various qualities of white chocolate and have had a good result with all of them, but found that flavour-wise the standard 200g own-brand bars that each supermarket sells tasted great, plus the chocolate was easy to work with.

Icing know-how

- For the icing, don't over-soften or melt the butter, or your icing will be too soft. It should be at room temperature but not looking greasy. The more you beat, the more you'll warm the ingredients, and the softer it will become.

Tips for success

This cake has been made 10 times by 5 different people for various photo shoots and testing, so we can assure you it does work. However, white chocolate can sometimes be temperamental, so before you start cooking, take a look over our tips for success:

Bake for an hour

- Because this cake has a high sugar content, it will develop a very dark crust as it bakes. Don't remove the cake from the oven until an hour is up - even if it looks ready.

Bubbly mixture?

- The surface of the cake will get a volcanic-looking ring of bubbly mixture in the middle during cooking. This is because the batter is much thinner than a normal cake mixture. By the end of the cooking time, this will have evened out and the surface should be uniform.

The skewer test

- To test that it's ready, insert a clean skewer into the cake. It should come out clean without any hint of stickyness.

Egg size

- Make sure your eggs are the right size.

Watch the heat

- Don't let the chocolate, milk, butter mixture get too hot. Melt over a very gentle heat, stirring regularly so the chocolate doesn't catch on the bottom. This should take a good 5 mins.

PER SERVING

770 kcalories, protein 7.0g, carbohydrate 76.0g, fat 50.0 g, saturated fat 29.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 58.0g, salt 1.04 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, April 2009.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 21-40

  • Binder photo .:~carol~:.

    24 May 2009

    .:~carol~:. commented on this recipe

    I made this cake using two sandwich tins, I left the white chocolate out of the cake mix and added chopped hazlenuts instead, then I made a buttercream icing using the white chocolate, sandwiched it together and iced the top and sprinkled with a few chopped hazlenuts, absolutely delicious !!!!!!!!!

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  • Binder photo mascapone

    30 June 2009

    mascapone rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I did a 'trial run' on this to see if it would be suitable for a 21st birthday cake - it was beautiful, lovely and moist with the chocolate just coming through. One guest said it was the best I'd made for a while. Half of the amount stated makes a2lb loaf tin, suitable for lunch boxes or picnics etc. This was made without the nuts and it was'nt noticed. I found the icing a little soft but loved the tang the philly gave it.

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  • Binder photo iris

    21 July 2009

    iris commented on this recipe

    This was the most delicious moist cake I have ever made. Only problem I had was with the frosting as I tried to make it lower in fat by using low fat cream cheese and the icing took a long time to thicken as I had to keep adding extra icing sugar. Next time I make it I will use full fat. Hope I don't have any of the above problems as it will be for a Birthday, but it really was delicious and I will do it again soon

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  • Binder photo iris

    21 July 2009

    iris rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo keybag

    30 August 2009

    keybag rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    I have made many flawless cakes until today. The actual taste of this cake is beautiful but the mixture is too fatty and not spongey enough. I agree with what others have said about it being too crisp on the top, and oily and sunken throughout (definitely not my doing!). What a waste of time and money. I was so unhappy about how this turned out, and I really think it needed retested OR the instructions need to be less ambiguous.

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  • Binder photo missgumby

    28 December 2009

    missgumby rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Jo

    31 March 2010

    Jo commented on this recipe

    Glad the comments are back as now having second thoughts re making this for an Easter gathering - decisions, decisions!!!

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  • Binder photo Ripley

    04 April 2010

    Ripley rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    This is a nightmare cake to make. I've tried it twice. First time I used a 23 inch springform tin and it leaked a little, seemed to cook fine but I think I removed it from the tin too early and it kinda crumbled so binned it. This time I used a square tin to be different, gave if 15 mins extra and although the skewer came out and the sides were dark, it sunk quite a bit in the middle.....it's still cooling so we'll see how it turns out. I'd recommend sticking to the ulitmate chocolate cake instead as this works each and everytime and is less expensive to make.

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  • Binder photo Helena

    07 April 2010

    Helena rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this for my family for Easter and though it was brilliant and it went down a treat. I cooked it for an extra 10 minutes than it said but had no problems with it and the end result looked just like the picture and tasted great. I've decided it will now be my traditional Easter cake and will be making it for years to come!

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  • Binder photo Jo

    07 April 2010

    Jo rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    I went ahead and made it! It was very nice and every last slice was eaten but don't think I would do again. It was actually very easy to make and was mainly done by my 14 year old step son. I used the springform tin and as others recommended put on a tray first - it leaked slightly but I can imagine that older warped tins could leak quite a lot as the mix is very liquid. It cooked in the hour exactly. I was unsure about the topping but it was like having cheesecake with cake - nice but too rich for me. Also agree with not putting eggs on until serving, also the eggs go funny in the fridge if not eaten straight away. If you have a very sweet tooth go for it as easy to make, if not perhaps try something else.

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  • Binder photo lorna

    09 April 2010

    lorna commented on this recipe

    Im really not sure what everyone is talking about. I must have made this cake at least 10 times and its turned out wonderfull every time. You just have to leave it for it whole hour if not a little bit longer it takes an extra 15mins in my oven, even if it looks cooked it can still be soggy inside so do a test with a knife to make sure its done. The top can go a bit crispy but I nornally just slice it off befoe I put the frosting on. Everyone has loved this cake and have asked for it time and again.

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  • Binder photo Pip's Favour

    12 April 2010

    Pip's Favour rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Definitely make sure you use full fat cream cheese as i accidently used the light version and had to use over double the amount of icing sugar in order to get the icing to the right consistency to stay on the cake! tasted lovely though and the timing was fine.

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  • Binder photo beanie_edwards

    12 April 2010

    beanie_edwards rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    i was a little concerned after reading a few negative comments but this cake turned out very well ! the middle looked slighty soggy/undercooked but was just right when eaten the only downside, i think a 300g tub of Philly was a bit too much , the icing was very, very thick. I would defintly make it again

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  • Binder photo Nives

    29 April 2010

    Nives rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I was a bit put off by the comments, but decided to make it since I already had all the ingredients. I followed the recipe and the tips word by word, and it turned out great! It was moist, the icing was picture perfect. I even used the spring form and had no problems with it. Everyone loved it and asked for more. Will be making it again.

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  • Binder photo povvy

    08 May 2010

    povvy rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    god awful

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  • Binder photo siobainmoore

    10 June 2010

    siobainmoore rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Very nice, easy cake. My young sister made it and I overlooked and it come out perfectly fine. Icing was also very nice

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  • Binder photo ZeTallGerman

    29 August 2010

    ZeTallGerman commented on this recipe

    After reading all the negative comments on here I decided to make individual muffins as an Easter treat. (raspberry & white chocolate muffins) but I did use James Martin's frosting and topped with mini eggs... everyone loved them!

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  • Binder photo Becky

    21 September 2010

    Becky commented on this recipe

    I made this cake for a birthday party. the sponge was lovely and moist but I found the icing for the cake was a bit sour using the Philly.. so i grated up white chocolate to sweeten, which helped. Everyone at the party loved it 10 out of 10 from the men.

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  • Binder photo rayhip

    30 September 2010

    rayhip rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo britchick

    01 December 2010

    britchick commented on this recipe

    very light and easy to follow tasted great

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr

plus cooling
Freezable

Can be frozen un-iced

Ingredients

  • 250g butter , plus a little extra for greasing
  • 140g white chocolate , broken into pieces
  • 250ml milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 250g self-raising flour
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs , lightly beaten

FOR THE FROSTING

  • 300g tub Philadelphia cheese
  • 85g butter , softened
  • 100g icing sugar , sifted
  • mini eggs , to decorate (or use 50g/2oz chopped hazelnuts)
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PER SERVING

770 kcalories, protein 7.0g, carbohydrate 76.0g, fat 50.0 g, saturated fat 29.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 58.0g, salt 1.04 g

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