Easter Rocky Road brownies

Why eat your Easter eggs one at a time, when you can devour them all 

at the SAME time in one convenient block? 

These dark chocolate brownies are topped with an Easter egg rocky road which I’ve crammed all my favourites into – those moreish white candy-coated chocolate eggs, marshmallow eggs, and my absolute favourite; mini speckled eggs (which I should seriously consider purchasing shares in). I’ve also added some oreo’s for biscuity crunch but you can add your own favourites and turn them into your own Easter fantasy bars. Whether you’re making these FOR Easter to wow the kids (they'll love you forever!) or AFTER Easter as a way to use up your leftover stash of chocolate (what does 'leftover chocolate' even MEAN?!), these brownies are so darn swoon-worthy they’ll become a family favourite. Put simply, they're an Easter explosion of chocolate happiness in your mouth and you need to make them now! 

Happy Easter!

Side note - imagine these bars crumbled up into vanilla ice cream?! Oh em geeee.

Easter Rocky Road Brownies

Makes 12

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

150g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

150g castor sugar

3 eggs, beaten

75g plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

Rocky road topping

50g butter

150g dark chocolate, 

100g biscuits, crushed

50g marshmallow easter eggs, chopped

50g mini speckled eggs

50g White candy-coated chocolate eggs, cracked into pieces

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 20cm square baking tin and line the base with baking paper.

Melt the chopped chocolate, butter and vanilla together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the surface of the water does not touch the bowl.

Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, then leave to cool for a few minutes. 

Beat in the eggs, then sift in the flour, cocoa and salt and fold in until the mixture is smooth and glossy.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the top starts to crack but the centre remains gooey. 

Turn off the oven and leave the brownies inside for a further 5 minutes before removing. Leave to cool completely in the tin.

Make the topping by melting the butter then add the dark chocolate and melt until smooth. Allow to cool then stir in the biscuits, marshmallows, speckled eggs and white eggs.

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Hot Cross Bun Spiced cake with Easter eggs

Easter is without a doubt my favourite time of year and if you know even just one thing about me, this is hardly a surprise, what with my chocolate infatuation and all. But when I really think about Easter, the first memory that comes to mind is a warm, toasted hot cross bun drenched in melted butter and served with sweet milky tea. Heaven. One of life's little joys for me, is depriving myself of the spiced, kissed buns all year around (by the way, since when did it become a thing that shops sell them all the time?!) so that when Easter comes around, it really is a special treat.  But, if unlike me, you haven't paced yourself this year and have eaten way too many of the buns by now, this cake is the solution to hot cross bun gluttony. It's a 'throw everything in a bowl and mix' kind of cake recipe with a hint of those lovely Eastery spices. And let's not forget to add the glorious king of all confectionary, speckled eggs. I will not bore you with a soliloquy on my infatuation, nay, deep love, for speckled eggs, as I could go on forever, but I will say that the eggs make this cake speggtacular (too much?!). But just trust me on this one. 
Serve this cake for tea, and have a very happy chocolate-fuelled Easter! 

Hot cross bun spiced cake with speckled eggs
Makes 1 cake

3 cups self-raising flour

1 cup cake flour

2 cups castor sugar

2t mixed spice

2t ground cinnamon

300g butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups milk

6 eggs, at room temperature

1t vanilla extract

Icing

250g butter

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

2T milk

1t vanilla extract

Mini colourful Easter eggs, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 150C and grease a 25cm ring cake tin. Place the flours, sugars, spices, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and beat on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until thick and light. Spoon into the cake tin and bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack. Make the icing by beating the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the icing sugar, milk and vanilla until creamy. Frost the cake with the butter cream and decorate with the eggs.