Easter Mini Egg Tea Cake

Prepared with crushed chocolate mini eggs and topped with a dollop of buttercream frosting, this Easter Mini Egg Tea Cake looks quite delicious and inviting! Keep the decorating simple with a pile of mini eggs right in the center and let the cake speak for itself! A delightful treat, this cake is a beautiful Easter dessert!

The one type of dessert that I can never have too much of is cake. In general, I don’t usually crave sweet snacks or treats at all and usually go for the salty type. (I should have bought stock in Miss Vickie’s years ago!) Putting aside salty treats and snacks for a moment and focusing on only the sugary sweet type, my go-to has got to be cake. And, because there can never really be too much cake, I’m sharing my Easter Mini Egg Tea Cake recipe with you today.

This cake is simple, but I think simple things always look and taste much better than things that are loaded down with elements that are just decorative and don’t really add anything to the overall flavour. Yes, I know we eat with our eyes first and cakes that are layered and delicately frosted might pull our attention, but when it really comes down to it, they all taste the same – just sweet!

I imagine that the term tea cakes might be rather confusing for some. In Britain, for example, a tea cake is a light yeast-based sweet bun containing dried fruit, typically served toasted and buttered. But, in our home, we call those tea biscuits. In Sweden, tea cakes are soft, round, flat wheat bread made with milk and a little sugar, and used to make buttered ham or cheese sandwiches. In India and Australia, a tea cake is more like a butter cake. But to me, a tea cake is a basic, one-level cake that one would indulge in with a cup of tea as a light dessert or an afternoon treat.

A tea cake can be plain with no added ingredients, or it can be a little fancier with added things like dried fruit or candy. In this case, I’ve added slightly crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs, because, at Eastertime, I cannot get enough of them! So, let’s get into it!

CADBURY MINI EGGS

Cadbury Mini Eggs are one of my weaknesses. When it comes to snacks, I will always turn to salty snacks like chips or pretzels. But, when it comes to these mini eggs, I cannot turn them down. They are my kryptonite. That is exactly why I had no problems at all wolfing back a slice or two of this Easter Mini Egg Tea Cake.

Cadbury Mini Eggs are a milk chocolate candy. They were introduced by the Cadbury company in 1967. The inner part of the egg is solid milk chocolate. The outer part consists of a hard candy shell. They are moulded to resemble miniature eggs.

Did you know that originally Mini Eggs were only available at Easter with the exception of in Canada? You can now find them year-round in most places. Did you know that the colours of the hard shell coating are different in other parts of the world?

In the UK, mini eggs come in white, yellow, pink and purple and are dotted with speckles. In Canada, the colours get even funkier. We have yellow and pink, but also green and turquoise. The original colours are white, pink, light blue, and yellow. Those are only available in the United States.

CAN’T FIND MINI EGGS?

If you cannot find Cadbury Mini Eggs, don’t worry about it, because you have other options. You can always find the Great Value brand at Walmart. Hershey’s also has their own version, which they call Eggies. The Hershey brand is easily found on Amazon.

You can certainly use M&Ms. Or, you can use Smarties if you live in Canada. (In Canada, Smarties are similar to M&Ms, not like in the US where Smarties are sugary, pill-shaped candies packaged in stacked rows.) The cookie base is delicious just as it is, especially with the white chocolate chips inside.

AN EASY WAY TO CRUSH MINI EGGS

Crushing Cadbury Mini Eggs is not a task that should be completed with a food processor or with a resealable bag and a rolling pin. It’s too easy to over-crush the eggs, which will not give you the chunky egg look you see in the photos.

The best way to crush the mini eggs is with a pestle and mortar. Place one egg at a time into the bowl and pound it lightly until it breaks into a few pieces. Add another egg and apply the same action. It does take some time, but it’s best to do it this way than to end up with pulverized mini eggs!

Now, if you don’t have a pestle and mortar, you can use my wooden spoon method. Yes, it’s all mine! Here’s how you do it. Hold one mini egg lengthwise between your index finger and thumb. Using the edge of the wooden spoon, firmly tap the egg and it will crack into a few pieces.

The goal is to break the eggs into chunks, but not too finely. You will want to see the chunks of chocolate baked into the cake when you cut it or bite into it. And, you’ll want the colours to pop too. It adds texture as well as visual appeal.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

Ingredients Needed to Prepare the Cake:

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes. 
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.
• Salt – This is a common ingredient in baking and cooking.  In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness. 
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 
• Cadbury Mini Eggs

Ingredients Needed for the Buttercream:

• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often. 
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! You should use unsalted butter for buttercream frosting. (You can substitute the butter with vegetable shortening for a whiter buttercream, which is exactly what I did in this recipe.)
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 

HOW TO MAKE A EASTER MINI EGG TEA CAKE

Let’s Bake the Cake First!

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Next, in a bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar until well combined. You can use a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy – about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, add the vanilla extract and beat to incorporate.

Next, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture until well combined. The mixture will be very thick! Finally, add the milk and mix it into the flour mixture. The milk will lighten up the batter. Finally, fold in the crushed mini eggs.

Pour the batter into a nine-inch round pan that has been greased and floured. Tap the cake pan firmly on your countertop or onto a wooden cutting board to flatten the cake batter into the pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Test to see if the cake is fully baked by inserting a toothpick into the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is ready. If not, bake for another 3-5 minutes and test again.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the cake pan for fifteen minutes. Remove from the cake pan and allow the cake to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack before topping it with the buttercream.

It’s Time to Prepare the Buttercream!

Beat the butter (or vegetable shortening) in a large mixing bowl. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Next, beat in the vanilla extract and milk. Note that my frosting is really bright white. If you use butter, your frosting will have a yellow tint to it. Actually, different brands of butter can be more yellow in colour than others. Your frosting might have more than a yellow tint; it might actually turn out yellow!

There is a secret used by bakers to get perfectly white buttercream frosting. Instead of using butter, they substitute the butter with vegetable shortening. Another secret is to use white vanilla extract rather than the regular amber or brown-coloured stuff. It can also tint the frosting. To get the whitest frosting possible, I used vegetable shortening rather than butter in this particular case.

Decorating your Cake!

One of the greatest things about tea cakes is that they tend to stay soft and moist for a longer period of time, even after they have been sliced. So, to decorate, I like to slice the cake into 16 even slices and arrange them onto a serving platter or cake stand. Next, transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped tip. Pipe on a large dollop of buttercream onto the widest part of each slice of cake. Top that with a single, whole mini egg.

Next, pile the center of the cake with a mixture of crushed and whole mini eggs. This step is completely optional, of course, but it does make the cake look that much more Eastery! When serving, place a spoon next to the cake so that if anyone would like extra mini eggs they can scoop them up. I also like to transfer any leftover buttercream to a bowl and place that alongside the cake – again, for those who would like a bit more frosting!

HOW TO GREASE AND FLOUR A CAKE PAN

The experienced baker knows all too well that it is important to have a well-greased cake pan. Too many of us home cooks have had the unfortunate experience of a cake sticking to the pan. It happens to all of us at some point, but the more experience we become, the lesser the chance of ruining a perfectly good cake.

Sometimes all you need to do is grease the pan. You can do this with butter, shortening, or with a non-stick cooking spray. Other times, you need to grease and flour the pan. In this instance, you grease the pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle in a coating of flour. I like to add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and maneuver the pan so that the flour moves around the inside of the pan, sticking to the grease to create a wall of protection between the pan and the batter.

Ensure the pan is fully coated, then turn the pan upside down and gently tap out any excess flour. This will prevent those ugly white spots once the cake is fully baked. Here’s a quick video that will show you just how to do it!