Chocolate & Vanilla Sponge Bites | Desserts

Chocolate and Vanilla Sponge Bites

Prep Time

20 Minutes

Ingredients

12

Deliciously light and luscious chocolate sponge bites delicately flavoured with Vanilla, a great treat for all chocolate lovers, especially at Easter time.

Ingredients

For the Squares:
175 gram (6 ounce) soft butter
175 gram (6 ounce) caster sugar
5 large eggs, separated
100 gram (4 ounce) ground almonds
175 gram (6 ounce) dark chocolate, roughly grated
1 tablespoons rum
For the Icing:
100 gram (4 ounce) milk chocolate
2 tablespoons double cream
1 Vanilla Pod
mini eggs to decorate

Cooking tip

Click here for the recipe or on 'Make it Tonight' (above) for more tasty ideas to make in minutes.

Instructions

1 Pre-heat the oven to 170°C, 325°F, Gas Mark 3.
2 Cream together the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks together and add them to the mixture.
3 Add the ground almonds and grated chocolate to the mixture and fold in. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold into the mixture.
4 Ensure all the ingredients are well combined into the mixture then pour into an 8 inch square baking tin that has been greased and lined with baking parchment.
5 Bake in the centre of the oven for 40-50 minutes until springy in the centre. Remove and allow to cool in the tin before carefully loosening the edges and turning the tin upside down to remove the cake.
6 Turn the cake the right way up and lightly prick the surface all over with a fork. Drizzle over the rum.
7 To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. Separate the vanilla seeds from the pod by splitting the Vanilla Pod in half lengthways with a knife and running the edge of the knife down the pod to remove the seeds. Add these to the melted chocolate together with the cream and stir well.
8 Spread the cake with the chocolate icing and decorate with mini eggs. When the icing has set cut the cake into squares.