Easter Checkerboard Cake Easter Cake Checkerboard Cake pink green cake

Easter Checkerboard Cake

This Easter Checkerboard Cake was the choice of my beloved daughters for this year’s Easter Holidays. It’s been a long time since I made my last checkerboard cake and I wanted to do it again so I thought this would be a perfect occasion and therefore I adopted the idea with enthusiasm. The colors chosen by my girls were pink and green and I love them, they are joyous and vernal and match beautifully with the festive holidays. As for decorating this cake I had another idea in my mind, but I had to give it up and at the last moment I remembered that I had these chocolate sticks so I used them and the result was great according to everyone 🙂

INGREDIENTS Easter Checkerboard Cake  

 (for a 16 cm diameter cake)

►For the pink sponge cake

• 150 g cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large egg whites
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 100 g butter (60% fat) at room temperature
• 120 ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• a pinch of red food coloring (powdered or gel)

►For the green sponge cake

• 150 g cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large egg whites
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 100 g butter (60% fat) at room temperature
• 120 ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• a pinch of green food coloring (powdered or gel)

►For chocolate frosting

• 300 g dark chocolate
• 300 g whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

►For decoration

• chocolate sticks
• 50 g green colored coconut flakes
• chocolate eggs
• sugar flowers

DIRECTIONS Easter Checkerboard Cake  

►Preparing the pink sponge cake: Preheat the oven to 175 Celsius. Prepare a baking round shape with a diameter of 16 cm, coat the base with a disc of baking paper and grease the inside with butter. Sift flour together with baking powder, for two or three times. Whisk the egg white with a pinch of salt until foamy, then gradually 50 g sugar and continue mixing until sugar is dissolved and the egg whites turn into a meringue.

Mix butter with the rest of the sugar (100 g) until creamy. Add the vanilla extract, then add flour alternately with milk, in three additions each. Add the food coloring and homogenize. Finally incorporate the meringue, folding gently with a spatula from the bottom up.

Pour the composition into the prepared pan, level and place in the oven for about 30 minutes (check with a toothpick if baked). When ready, remove the pan from the oven and leave to cool on a rack. Once completely cooled, remove the cake from the pan.

Easter Checkerboard Cake

►Preparing the green sponge cake: The procedure is just like the one for the pink sponge cake.

►Preparing the chocolate frosting: Break chocolate into small pieces and put it into a bowl. Mix the cream with sugar and bring to a boil (I always use the microwave for this) then pour it over the chocolate. Allow 1-2 minutes to sit, then stir gently until all chocolate is melted and the mixture gets smooth and homogeneous. This is chocolate ganache. Put the ganache into the refrigerator until it gets chilled and thick (at least 2 hours), and then beat the mixture on high speed (using a stand mixer or a hand mixer), until the ganache is fluffy, silky and has lightened in color (about 1 or 2 minutes).

ASSEMBLING Easter Checkerboard Cake  

Cut each of the two cakes (pink and green) in two horizontally layers. Cut each layer in three rings using two circle cutters (of 11 cm and 7 cm in diameter). Then assemble the rings (alternating pinks and greens) in order to reconstruct the full layers of 16 cm diameter (as shown in the picture below).

Sandwich the cake layers together with chocolate ganache, alternating layers. Spread remaining chocolate ganache over top and sides of cake. Place the chocolate sticks around the cake.

Sprinkle the coconut flakes and decorate with chocolate eggs and sugar flowers.

The cake must be stored into the fridge until serving.