Green Velvet Pot-o-gold Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• 160g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ¼ cups caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla paste
• 3 eggs
• 1 2/3 plain flour
• 3 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• Pinch bi-carbonate soda
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup ricotta
• 50ml green food colouring

Cream cheese icing

• 500g cream cheese, room temperature
• 30g unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla paste

Cake decoration

• Smarties
• Chocolate egg, cut in half
• 1 marshmallow
• Edible gold glitter

Directions

1. Grease and line with greaseproof paper 4 x 20cm cake tins.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C.
3. Using your bench mixer, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time.
5. Mix together the ricotta and milk.
6. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and bi-carb together.
7. Add the milk mixture and the flour mixture alternately to the creamed butter sugar mixture and fold through until incorporated.
8. Place the cake batter into the prepared baking tin.
9. Bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes or until cooked through.
10. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
11. To make the icing – Beat the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy.
12. Spread on top of the cake and smooth with a warm palette knife.
13. Arrange the smarties on the cake to resemble a rainbow.
14. Cut the marshmallow in half across ways. Dip the sticky side of the marshmallow into the edible gold glitter and squeeze it into the Easter egg half.
15. Put the marshmallow pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow.