These mini chocolate bundt cakes with Easter surprise, are perfect for Spring baking and gifting. An easy & quick chocolate orange bundt cake recipe, that is egg & butter-free (and can be vegan too). Topped with a simple chocolate orange glaze that you can add some Baileys Orange Truffle liqueur too (if you like), to cover up your chosen kind of mini Easter egg surprise inside.
Mini Chocolate Bundt Cakes With Easter Surprise
Chocolate Mini Cakes With A Baileys Chocolate Orange Glaze
By Caro
Jump to Recipe
What Are These Easter Cakes?
These mini chocolate bundt cakes, have an Easter surprise inside! Chocolate orange mini cakes, filled with Easter mini eggs, hidden by a Baileys orange truffle flavoured chocolate glaze.
Super Simple To Make
These mini Easter bundt cakes, are so simple to make, with a quick chocolate cake base, that is egg & butter-free, and can be made quickly, in one bowl. When the mini cakes are baking, you can bring the chocolate orange glaze together. And once cooled, the cakes can be filled with your choice of mini Easter eggs, that are then hidden, by adding the chocolate covering. Leave like that, or add some Easter sprinkles, or no seasonal theme, and just a little curl of orange peel to hint at the flavour inside.
Versatile Recipe
The chocolate cake recipe is very versatile, and you can change some of the ingredients quite easily, and is very forgiving. You can see more examples of the recipe in my Chocolate Cardamom Cupcakes & Espresso Buttercream recipe, or as an Egg & Butter Free Chocolate Layer Cake With no eggs or butter, this recipe has been made & tested, as a completely Vegan recipe, with just using a plant-based milk. But not just Vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, lactose-free. Read more about ingredient alternatives below.
Why It Is So Versatile:
- Egg & Butter-free recipe
- Use any or combination of sugars – whatever you have
- Use Self-raising or Plain/All Purpose Flour
- Use espresso coffee or instant coffee granules (or decaf)
- Use any neutral oil you like or have
- Can be vegan, dairy or lactose free
- Use any milk – almond & coconut milk work well
Ingredients & Substitutions
Flour, Baking Soda/Bicarb & Vinegar
This recipe was originally developed using Plain/All Purpose flour, but I often have made using UK Self-raising flour too. In that case, don’t add bicarbonate of soda or vinegar. If you want to use US Self-rising (that has a little less baking powder than UK Self-raising), add ¼ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda/Baking Soda & ½ tsp vinegar.
Sugars
Different combinations of sugar have been used for this base chocolate cake recipe. You can use granulated, light brown, dark brown even coconut sugar, in a combination of 2 or 3 of these. Just make sure the total combined amount of sugar is 200g/7 oz/1 cup. Also remember that the brown sugars are packed cups. I do not recommend using any artificial sugars.
Cocoa Powder, Coffee & Vanilla
The espresso coffee in the cake batter, doesn’t give a coffee flavour to the cake, but instead intensifies the chocolate taste by reacting with the cocoa powder. No espresso coffee powder, you can substitute with instant coffee granules, but use a little more, as listed in the ingredients. Another alternative that also deepens the flavour from the cocoa powder, is Vanilla Extract (not essence or vanilla ‘flavour’).. So if not using coffee for this recipe, double up on the Vanilla. Homemade Vanilla Extract is even better.
Milk
While the recipe was developed using cow’s milk, other plant-based milks all work well too and have been tested – such as coconut milk, almond milk & lactose-free milk.
Filling & Decorations
*For Vegans, or those on special diets, please double-check the rest of the ingredients for filling these mini bundt cakes, to make sure suitable for you.
Chocolate Baileys Orange Truffle Glaze
For this thick chocolate glaze, cocoa powder, icing/powdered sugar, milk (any kind as noted above) & orange extract is used. And for a little extra flavour, some Baileys Orange Truffle Liqueur. You can of course use original Baileys, any cream liqueur, or omit the alcohol altogether.
Mini Eggs & Other Decorations
These mini chocolate bundts are filled with mini chocolate eggs, or Easter candy. Any that will fit nicely inside the bundts, but without sticking out the top – so it is a surprise. Cadbury’s Mini Eggs will work for some, but M&M mini eggs are a little smaller. Some stores also sell even smaller ones, and you can get some in multi-pack sprinkle boxes. Pastel colours look nicest.
Galaxy Caramel Eggs, and Terry’s Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs are too big, but what you can do is cut them in half, across the way and then they will fit in nicely, and you fill 2 cakes with one egg. The caramel ones, show a nice reveal once cut open.
The cakes can also be topped off with some Easter sprinkles (or for anytime you are having them), leave just with the glaze and make a surprise. Or top with some broken pieces of Matchmakers Zingy Orange chocolate
Add a little curl of orange peel also is a nice contrast against the brown glaze, but also gives a hint to the flavour of the cakes. Don’t add orange zest, as the orange oils end up in the glaze and don’t look as good.
To make the orange curls I just cut some orange peel (couldn’t find my citrus peeler), and then used a sharp vegetable knife to cut into very fine strips. Before wrapping round the handle end of a very small sieve, and left about 10 minutes to take shape. (See photo below).
Recipe Yield
This recipe makes enough batter for 12 mini bundt cakes. The size you get in a 12 cup mini bundt pan/tray or small silicone bundt cases. The ones about the same width of cupcake/muffin cases.
There will be enough chocolate orange glaze for 12 fully filled, topped & dripped bundt cakes. For 12 cakes just filled and topped (with a circle of glaze, see photo), use: 156g (5½ oz, 1¼ cups) Icing/Powdered Sugar, 3¾ tsp Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Orange Extract, 1¼ tsp Baileys, and about 4 tsp milk. To completely cover the cakes (see photo), increase the original recipe ingredients (on the recipe card below), by ⅓ (ie. x1.33).
Includes All Measurements & Conversions
Having written & reviewed nearly 500 recipes, I am well accustomed to converting measurements between imperial & metric & vice versa. I am in the UK & use a digital scale but the majority of my readers are in the states & Canada & most use cups. Also lots of recipes are written in cups. So with that in mind, I researched conversions on-line and realised how inconsistent & inaccurate Google & even other recipe conversions can be.
So my answer was to hand measure each ingredient during the recipe development stage. I write every single recipe, with grams, ounces & cup measurements, and I even provide my conversions in recipes I review too. Go to my Handy Conversion Table Of Common Baking Ingredients.
Or my Differences Between UK & US Baking Ingredients Article.
Mini Chocolate Bundt Cakes With Easter Surprise Inside
Equipment
- Scales or measuring cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Small Jug (optional)
- Medium or Large mixing bowl
- Stand or Hand Mixer (not essential)
- Sieve
- 12-hole Mini Bundt Tin (or 12 individual mini silicone bundt cases – see notes)
- Timer or Phone Timer
- Cooling rack
- Mixing spoon(s)
- Wooden Cocktail stick
- Clean Tea-towel
- Citrus peeler (optional, I used a sharp knife)
Ingredients
For The Chocolate Cakes
- 209 grams Plain Flour (7¼ oz, 1⅔ cups – All Purpose Flour. For Self-raising Flour, please see notes).
- 100 grams Granulated Sugar (3½ oz, ½ cup, see notes for alternatives)
- 100 grams Light Brown Sugar (3½ oz, ½ cup, see notes for alternatives)
- 31 grams Cocoa Powder, sieved (1 oz, ¼ cup)
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda (Baking Soda)
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Espresso Powder (For Instant coffee granules use 1½ tsp)
- 80 ml Vegetable Oil (2¾ fl oz, ⅓ cup – or any neutral oil)
- 1¼ tsp Vinegar (any kind)
- Orange Zest (Of one orange, optional)
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract Or Vanilla bean paste. Try some Homemade Vanilla Extract)
- 240 ml Milk (8 fl oz, 1 cup – Any milk, lactose/dairy free or vegan alternative all work. See notes below)
For Filling & Decoration
- 188 grams Icing Sugar, sieved (6½ oz, 1½ cups Powdered sugar)
- 4½ tsp Cocoa powder, sieved
- 1¼ tsp Orange Extract
- 1½ tsp Baileys Orange Truffle Flavour Liqueur (Or any Baileys flavour, optional)
- 5¼ tsp Milk (any kind, or water – ***not exact amount – see instructions)
- Mini Easter eggs, chocolate candy (Any kind but smaller fit better, or cut in half, see notes)
- Easter/Spring or pastel coloured sprinkles (optional)
- Orange/Tangerine Peel (optional for decoration)
- Matchmakers – Zingy Orange Flavours (optional)
Instructions
To Prepare Cake Batter
- Begin by sieving the flour, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), salt, cocoa & espresso coffee powder, over your main mixing bowl (or stand-mixer bowl). Mix them together as you pass them through the sieve. See Photo1 below.
- Next add in the 2 sugars, and mix until combined, followed by the vegetable oil & vinegar. Add the Vanilla & orange extract, and zest of one orange.
- Start to mix on lowest speed, before very gradually adding in the milk. Beat really well until all milk has been added and you have a relatively thin smooth chocolate batter (a few lumps is fine, especially if mixing by hand).
- Set the oven to: 180°c/160°c Fan Oven/350°f/Gas Mark 4. If your oven takes longer than about 6 or 7 minutes to come to temperature, then turn on before preparing the cake.
Prepare Your Bundt Tins
- If using melted butter and flour to grease your bundt tins, you can prepare before you begin to bring the cake batter together. But for quick release cake spray, or my favourite Frylight cooking spray, I prefer to prepare immediately before filling with batter. I think it is more effective and you don't have to re-apply. I used a new Tala 12 hole/cup mini bundt pan/tin for the first time and sprayed really well. Don't worry about it collecting at the bottom or nooks of the bundt, will be fine. Here I used the Butter version of Frylight spray. See Photo 4 below. Homemade Lining Paste/Cake Goop is also good for metal bundt tins.
Bake The Mini Bundt Cakes
- Evenly spoon the cake batter into the prepared mini bundt cups. Depending on the size and shape of your mini bundts, you will have enough batter to fill between 75-90%. See Photo 4 above.
- Give the bundt pan(s) a few taps on the counter/worktop, to expel any trapped air, before popping in the middle position of the oven, to bake for about 15 – 18 minutes. Test with a wooden cocktail stick, near to the centre, which should come out clean of crumbs. If not, bake for a minute or two more, and repeat until fully baked through. If your bundts are slightly deeper than mine, the bake time will also take slightly longer.
- Leave the bundts in the tray/pan, and leave to cool for 5 minutes on top of a cooling rack. Then place a sheet of baking/parchment paper on top of the bundts, before placing the cooling rack on top, and turning everything over, so that the bundt tin is now on top of the paper and cooling rack, upside down. Leave to cool like this for 20-30 minutes. For individual mini silicone bundts, cool in this upside down way, as it helps to flatten the bottoms of the bundts, makes them sit easier, and saves you trying to cut the bottom of the cakes.
- After the cooling, tap the tin to release the cakes. For my mini bundt tray, there are holes, within the centre area, and pushing a cocktail stick through there, made the cakes pop out. You might have to twist just a little, before trying to pull any stubborn ones. For mini silicone bundts cases, see my video on releasing mini bundt cakes. There are a few different ways I use to get the cakes out without any damage. Once all released, leave sitting right way up while you get ready to fill and decorate. (Alternatively, if not decorating right away, leave out for 1 hour, before placing on paper, inside an airtight container such as a cake tin.
Prepare The Chocolate Orange Glaze
- You can start to prepare the chocolate glaze when the cakes are baking or cooling, but too far ahead of time and the glaze will start to harden and be more difficult to use.
- Sieve the icing/powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a medium sized bowl, and mix together before adding in some orange extract, and Baileys Orange Truffle Liqueur if using. (You can use original Baileys too if you like). Add in 1 tbsp of milk to begin with and use the back of a metal spoon to push the dry ingredients into the moisture. Don't be tempted to add too much milk too soon. Keep pushing down as the sugar will take on a lot of the moisture. You will have a thick paste like mixture and want to gradually add in more milk, ½ tsp at a time at first, being sure to mix and press down well before adding anymore.
- As you get nearer to a thick but pourable glaze, use a ¼ or ⅛ tsp milk at a time. See my quick video on the consistency of the chocolate glaze I used here, that sets up nicely. Have a taste too and if you want more orange or Baileys, add a ¼ tsp at a time, and add slightly more sugar if the mixture becomes too thin.
Fill & Decorate Bundts
- To decorate the mini bundts, simply fill the centre with mini chocolate eggs, or Easter candy, that will fit nicely inside, without sticking out the top. Cadbury's Mini Eggs will work, so do M&M mini eggs, but you can get even smaller ones, and ones in multi-pack sprinkle boxes. (See examples in Photo 11 below). Nice pastel colours go well. Galaxy Caramel Eggs, and Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs were too big, but what you can do is cut them in half, across the way and then they will fit in nicely. (See photo in Notes below)
- Work on some baking/parchment paper or clean silicone mat, and carefully spoon about a tsp of the chocolate orange icing on top of the egg(s), letting it fall down in-between the egg(s), until it comes to near the top of the cake. Now you can either take another spoon of the glaze and top the cake off, using the spoon to make a neat circle. Or, you can use a bit more glaze, and spread it out, letting it drip down the sides. (See variations in Photo 12 below). The glaze should be thick, so might need some encouragement to go down the sides, by simply using the end of your spoon to push in the right direction. If you want to make an extra decadent dessert, completely smother the cake in the glaze, (see Photo 14 further down).
- Cover one bundt cake at a time, and before the glaze has time to set up, add some sprinkles or broken Matchmakers Zingy Orange pieces on top, and place to the side to set, while you move on to the second cake. **I don't recommend adding orange zest on top, as the oils start to bleed into the glaze as you can see in Photo 13 below. Decorative orange peel twist are better, and I wrapped round the handle end of a very small sieve, and left about 10 minutes to take shape.
- Note that this amount of glaze should be enough to fill and cover and drizzle 12 mini bundts. If you want to just have a circle of glaze on the top of all 12, see the notes below for the ingredient amounts to use. Leave to set at room temperature or place in the fridge, (not in a box/container), for about 30-45 minutes.
Serving & Storage
- Serve shortly after made, or store in an airtight container on top of some baking/parchment paper, (metal cake tins are good for baked goods). Will be fine at room temperature (provided not too warm), for 3 or 4 days.
- Undecorated cakes, if stored correctly, will be fine at room temperature for 3 or 4 days too, and for up to 3 months if frozen1. Wrap well individually, in cling film/plastic wrap, and place inside a freezer suitable airtight container or food bag, and label so you know when to use by. And place towards the back of the freezer, rather than at the front, that is exposed to heat whenever the freezer door is opened2.
Notes
Vanilla Extract – this really is much better than vanilla essence or ‘vanilla flavouring’. But quality vanilla extract is very expensive, so I now make my own. See my guide to Homemade Vanilla Extract & All You Need To Know.
Baileys – Baileys Orange Truffle Liqueur is optional, and original Baileys could also be used.
Milk – any kind of milk, and lactose-free milk, all work well in this recipe and can be made completely vegan.
Chocolate Glaze – makes enough for 12 fully filled & dripped bundts. For 12 cakes just filled and topped, use: 156g (5½ oz, 1¼ cups) Icing/Powdered Sugar, 3¾ tsp Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Orange Extract, 1¼ tsp Baileys, and about 4 tsp milk. To completely cover the cakes, increase the original recipe ingredients by ⅓.
Versatile Recipe – the base chocolate cake recipe is very versatile, can be used for cupcakes (see my Chocolate Cardamon Cupcakes With Espresso Buttercream), or as a Layer Cake (Butter & Egg-free Chocolate Layer Cake). But the ingredients can also be changed up according to what you have in your cupboard. Flour, sugar & milk can all be changed, and made vegan, dairy-free or lactose-free, (please notes & information before Recipe Card).
Hand measured ingredient conversions – all my recipes have grams, ounce & cup measurements, that I personally document & test during recipe development. Here is my Handy Conversion Table Of Common Baking Ingredients. Or my Differences Between UK & US Baking Ingredients Article.
Oven Temperature Conversions Table
More Easter & Spring Baking Recipes
Or try my Victoria Sandwich Cake For Beginners
Caroline’s Easy Baking Lessons
References:
1 Freezeit.co.uk @ “https://www.freezeit.co.uk/can-you-freeze-chocolate-cake/”
**Nutritional Values – I am not a qualified nutritionist, and all values, are approximate, via website ‘Whisk.com’, per serving of 1 decorated mini bundt cake, assuming 12 equal servings from the batch. Values will be less if less glaze & eggs are used.
Nutrition
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: easy, beginner
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Leave Some Feedback/Rating Below Please
Caroline’s Easy Baking Lessons
These are so easy and delicious and the idea of the eggs in the middle goes down well with the grandchildren. Excellent recipe thank you for sharing.
These are so cute! And I can see them being made for anytime of the year too. My favourite has to be the orange peel and the Matchmakers orange pieces. Looking forward to making these soon.
Thank you Mary for your positive comments and feedback. Appreciate it so much. Looking forward to seeing pics of your bakes.
These are absolutely adorable, and the surprise inside? AMAZING!
Thank you so much Sally for commenting! High praise from you xxx