Easter Zuccotto Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 60 minutes plus 30 minutes fridge time
Cooking time: 0 minutes
- 1 packet of Woolworths Brioche Style Fruit Hot Cross Buns
- 1/2 cup cold espresso coffee (you can also use a simple sugar syrup or Frangelico)
- 500ml/16.9flozs. cream
- 200g/7ozs. Nutella or chocolate hazelnut spread
- 75g/2.7ozs. dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1/2 cup pure icing or powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons of cocoa
- Cocoa powder, raspberry and chocolate shards to decorate
- Woolworths Hot Cross Bun Flavoured Ice Cream, to serve
For Rich Chocolate Frosting
- 3 cups of icing sugar, sifted
- 100g/3.5ozs. cocoa powder, sifted
- 130g/4.6ozs. butter, softened
- 5 tablespoons of cream
- 3-4 tablespoons of hot water
- Pinch of salt
Step 1 - Take a small, round bowl or pudding basin. Line with cling film (I used oil spray). Take the hot cross buns and trim the crusts from the bottom layer. Then slice the buns across horizontally to get a thin 1cm layer of bread-you should be able to get at least three of these layers (trim off the top of the buns too). Line the bowl with some of these cutting up extra slices to fit in. Reserve some for the base. Brush with the coffee and set aside.
Step 2 - Whip the cream with the icing sugar until stiff peaks form. Take out 1/3 of the cream and mix it with the dark chocolate pieces to make a chocolate chip mousse. Place in the fridge. Add the Nutella to the remaining cream and whip until just combined-do not overwhip as it will start to separate. Place this in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
Step 3 - Spread the Nutella mousse layer around the hot cross bun layer making it about an inch thick. Then place the choc chip layer in the centre. Place another thin layer of hot cross bun on the base and cover. At this stage you can either keep this in the fridge either for a few hours or overnight to set or you can freeze it. I froze mine because it was a really warm day.
Step 4 - Make the frosting by adding the icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter, cream and salt to a mixing bowl. Then beat on low speed at first and then once the icing sugar and cocoa are combined, increase speed. Add the hot water to the icing to loosen it if the icing sugar sticks to the bowl.
Step 5 - Turn out the cake onto a serving plate and spread with a crumb coat of the frosting (a thin coat of icing to catch any crumbs). If the zuccotto is frozen the crumb coat will set straight away. Otherwise you can refrigerate it or live life on the edge and apply the final thicker coat straight away. Make patterns with a palette knife and top with strawberry and chocolate shards. Finish it off by dusting with cocoa powder.