A Wrights Cake Jazzed up for Easter

BtB (Before the Babe) I would have spent hours in the run up to Easter baking buns, cakes, sugar cookies...anything and everything...now I have to be choosey in what I spend my time on.  Last weekend I decided to offload The Babe on David to make Hot Cross Buns meaning that come Easter Weekend the buns could just come out of the freezer and I could focus on our lunch.  Since naps are still completely unpredictable I decided to spend the little time I had getting veggies and the chicken ready and I didn't really have time to muck about with baking and decorating so I picked up a Wrights Madeira Cake Mix, a lemon and some white chocolate easter eggs, spent 10 mins getting the cake mixed up and into the oven, waited an hour for it to bake, an hour to cool and then topped it with a thick lemony glaze and white chocolate easter eggs. So easy, but it did the job.

Quick Hack for a cake mix cake

Since having The Babe in July I really haven't baked anything that requires more than 10 mins to prepare...except for the birthday cake I made David in October...and while not a disaster that was a huge learning curve.  The Babe will happily sit in her rocking chair and watch me in the kitchen but I am too nervous to attempt anything that needs me to focus, since that is pretty much impossible these days.  I have been making muffins, scones, and cookie bars since they are so quick and easy and recently, to satisfy my cake cravings, I've been whipping up treats using Wrights Cake Mixes

Just before The Babe was born we stocked up on some mixes; chocolate fudge, ginger and toffee are our faves...and David baked them over our first few weeks with The Babe. The mixes were a life saver, and I'm still using them but now I'm jazzing them up a bit. 

Last week I was craving a super decadent Chocolate Cake so, while The Babe rested her eyes, I stirred up a Chocolate Fudge Cake mix, popped it in the oven and then quickly mixed up some chocolate ganache.  Easy Peasy. The cake took an hour to bake, the ganache took a little over an hour to thicken, an once the cake was cooled I sat The Babe up at the table in her highchair with some rice cakes to munch on and got on with slathering a very thick layer of chocolate frosting over the cake.  

I use Nigella's Chocolate Frosting recipe from her Devil's Food Cake Recipe in Kitchen.  To generously cover an 8 inch cake I just make half the recipe, and to save time I chuck all the ingredients into a glass bowl set over simmering water.  It works.

Topped with fresh strawberries and blackberries you wouldn't even know this cake was from a packet.