What's better than a mini egg cookie? Surely a mini egg cookie cake! This giant mini egg cookie bar is filled with Cadbury's mini egg chocolates and topped with an easy vanilla buttercream.
Ingredients
For this epic Easter cookie cake, you'll need:
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature. You can substitute with salted butter (also softened), but if doing so, reduce the amount of salt in the recipe by half.
- Sugar - either superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar.
- Light brown sugar - also known as muscovado sugar. Measurements are for this sugar, firmly packed.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Cadbury's Mini Eggs Candies - the star of the show! If you don't already know about Cadbury mini eggs, these are miniature chocolate eggs in candy shells. For many, they're an Easter favorite!
How to Make Easter Cookie Cake
This Cadbury mini egg cookie cake is a quick and easy recipe. Begin by lining your baking tin with parchment paper. I like to use an 8" square pan for this bake, but you can also use a round pan or other shapes. Keep in mind that timings may vary for different size pans, so just keep an eye on the cake when it's baking.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugars and butter. Then add the eggs and vanilla to the bowl and beat to incorporate.
Sift the dry ingredients (the flour, salt and baking soda) together, adding these to the butter mixture. The stir using a spatula until your cookie dough has come together.
Finally add mini eggs! I like to add some straight to the batter and then also on top before baking. These will sink down into the dough as it rises.
Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tray for at least an hour before slicing. If frosting with buttercream, it is best to let cool completely so that the buttercream does not melt.
Frosting Cookie Cake
So the question with this cookie cake is: to ice or not to ice? This is entirely optional, but I have it on good authority that the frosting is worth it! Especially since it gives you a chance to decorate and add a few more mini eggs - just in case there aren't enough in the cake itself...
My quick and easy vanilla buttercream is essentially a scaled down version of my classic American buttercream recipe and will give you ample frosting for your cookie cake. For step by step instructions, see the full recipe here.
I opted for a rainbow theme and divided my buttercream in 4. One bowl I coloured sky blue, one yellow, one red and the last bowl I left white as extra to help tone down any of my colours while mixing.
Using the three primary colours meant that I could then mix them together (sometimes with the help of a little extra food colouring) to more easily reach the shades of orange, green and purple.
Top with a few extra mini eggs for a finish and then slice and serve! While I've sliced mine in 9 large slices, you could easily get 16 smaller pieces of cookie cake from this recipe.
FAQs
A mini egg cookie cake is essentially a mini egg giant cookie, which you can serve by the slice! This cookie cake recipe makes a large soft cookie, baked in a square (or round) baking tin and then decorated with a layer of buttercream frosting and some extra Cadbury's mini eggs.
The difference between a cookie cake and a cookie bar is somewhat in the eye of the beholder.
But, in the interests of defining this distinction a bit, the cookie bar is essentially just a large cookie, baked in a tray, but spread thin (a bit more like the thickness of a cookie conventional cookie).
The cookie cake on the other hand is a deeper bake - more like a cake in thickness of slice. Some might call this a giant deep dish cookie.
This cookie cake lasts for days and is great for making ahead or travelling with. Since it is effectively just a giant, super thick cookie, this does not stale as quickly or easily as conventional cakes.
Store in an air tight container on the counter, ideally in a cool place.
If frosting with buttercream, frost nearer the time of serving to prevent the need for refrigerating the bake - refrigeration often speeds up the process of staling.
Looking for some more Easter baking? Try one of these:
Mini Egg Cookie Cake
Equipment
- 8" square baking tray
- large mixing bowl
Ingredients
Ingredients for Mini Egg Cookie Cake
- 12 tablespoon unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- ½ cup superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar (muscovado)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cup all purpose flour or plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 10 oz Cadbury's Mini Egg Candies
Ingredients for Vanilla Buttercream and Decoration
- 2¼ cups powdered sugar or icing sugar
- 12 tablespoon unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- milk if needed to thin frosting consistency
- optional: food colouring gels, mini eggs, sprinkles and/or other decorations
Instructions
- Begin by lining your baking tray with parchment paper and preheating the oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan).
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla, beating to incorporate.
- Sift the flour, salt and baking soda into the sugar mixture and stir together with a spatula until you have a smooth cookie dough.
- Reserving a handful of mini eggs, add the rest to the batter and stir to incorporate.
- Pour into the prepared tray and top with remaining mini eggs. These will sink into the batter as it bakes but helps to give more of a spread of candies to the cake.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for about 45 minutes, checking for a toothpick inserted in the centre to come out mostly clean. (see note)
- Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for at least an hour (more if planning to frost with buttercream).
Instructions for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- To make the buttercream, beat the softened butter with either a handheld electric hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add half of the powdered sugar (sifted into the butter) and beat to combine. Then add the remaining half and the vanilla, beating until smooth and creamy.
- To adjust the consistency, you can add milk to thin the frosting or extra powdered sugar to thicken. This may be necessary depending on the temperature of your kitchen on the day of baking.
- Decorate the cake with frosting, extra mini eggs or sprinkles. See the blog post for details of my rainbow decoration.
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