Mini egg ice cream chocolate layer cake

Ingredients

• 100ml whole milk
• 100g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
• 120g ground almonds
• 120g self-raising flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 50g cocoa powder
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 3 medium free-range eggs, beaten

For the ice cream

• 1 litre vanilla ice cream
• 250g chocolate mini eggs, roughly chopped

For the icing  


• 300ml double cream
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• Chocolate mini eggs to decorate

You’ll also need…

• 3 x 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tins, bases lined with non-stick baking paper

Method

1. Take the vanilla ice cream out of the freezer to soften. When it’s soft enough to scoop, spoon it into a medium mixing bowl (one that will fit in your freezer). Stir in the chopped mini eggs, then return to the freezer.
2. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Put the milk and chocolate pieces into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water and leave to melt, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl. Once melted, stir briefly.
3. In a bowl, mix the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and cocoa together. In another large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Slowly beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture, a little at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour mix if the cake batter starts to curdle. Beat in the melted chocolate at a low speed, then beat in the flour 
mixture until just combined.
4. Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake tins. Level the top with a spatula, then bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and a skewer pushed into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
5. Leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow to soften just enough to scoop. Put one cake back into a cleaned cake tin. Scoop half of the ice cream on top of the cake in the tin and spread evenly. Top with another layer of cake, then spread the remaining ice cream over the top. Put the final cake sponge on top. Cover completely with cling film, then return to the freezer for 1½ hours or until ready to serve.

Just before serving, put the cream and icing sugar into a medium mixing bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks. Remove the frozen layered cake from the tin and transfer to a flat serving plate or stand. Dollop the whipped cream on top and scatter over the mini eggs. Serve immediately in slices.