Rooibos, Honey and Vanilla Easter Cake

Serves: 8 – 10

Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins

INGREDIENTS

• butter/cooking spray, to grease
• 3 Rooibos sachets
• 300ml boiling water
• 600g self-raising flour, sifted
• pinch salt
• 2,5ml (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda
• 250g castor sugar
• 100g honey
• 250ml (1 cup) sunflower oil
• 4 large eggs
• 180ml (¾ cup) buttermilk
• 15ml (1 tbsp) vanilla essence
• zest of 2 oranges
• zest of 1 lemon

CREAM-CHEESE ICING

• 1 x 250g box cream cheese, at room temperature
• 50g butter, softened
• 450g icing sugar, sifted
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 x 400g packets speckled eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease 2 round springform cake tins of 18cm diameter each and line the bases and sides with baking paper. Place the sachets in the boiling water and allow to infuse for 15 minutes, then discard the sachets .

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda, and set aside until needed.

3. Using a free-standing mixer or an electric hand-held beater, beat the castor sugar, honey, sunflower oil, Rooibos and eggs together in a mixing bowl until well combined. Stir in the buttermilk, vanilla essence and zests. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared tins, smooth out the surface with a spatula and bake in the preheated oven, about 30 – 40 minutes. Check if the sponges are baked through by inserting a skewer through the centre of each sponge – the skewer should come out clean. Remove the sponges from the tins, with the baking paper facing upwards, and place on the cutting board. Cool completely.

5. For the icing, beat the cream cheese and 50g soft butter using a freestanding mixer or hand-held electric beater, about 1 minute, until the mixture is pale. Add the icing sugar and beat until smooth and thoroughly combined, then add the lemon zest.

6. Once the cake sponges are completely cooled, peel off the baking paper. Ice the top of one of the sponges and sandwich with the other sponge. Apply a thin layer of icing over the whole cake to seal in the crumbs, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.

7. Remove the cake from the fridge and apply a final layer of icing all over the sides of the cake, using a palette knife.

8. Starting from the top of the cake, press the speckled eggs into the icing all around the side of the cake in your desired sequence of colour. Repeat the rows, in your desired pattern, until the sides of the cake are covered by speckled eggs.

9. Decorate the top of the cake with the remaining eggs and serve.

Courtesy of Food and Home Magazine