Easter Cake

Spring striped yellow and white cake, frosted in a soft and sweet Almond Cream Cheese Frosting, and speckled just like a beautiful Easter Egg - such a perfect dessert for Easter or any Spring celebration! 

Easter is only a couple days away! My family celebrates it in countless ways, most of them purely spiritual, but I do love myself a fun Easter egg hunt. Each year, my family has a tradition of having a little backyard Easter Egg hunt for the grandkids on my side of the family. We have 6 grandkids (one more on the way from my big sister), so each year I feel like it grows into more of a celebration together - and lots more eggs to hide! 

We have a rule that keeps everything pretty even keel throughout this whole process. Each grandkid gets their own color - that way there's an even amount of eggs to be found, and we can hide some of the eggs a bit more out of sight for the older grandkids! My 9-month old's eggs were just thrown on the grass. He was more than delighted! 

I made this cake to celebrate two of our March birthdays, but also to celebrate all things spring to mark the occasion. It's striped with yellow and white on the inside, was 4 layers tall (only a 6" round, so kind of a little cake), and I frosted it in my almond cream cheese frosting. It's heavenly! I didn't do a clear side/edge on purpose. There's a bit of a ribbon effect on the sides, and I loved it. The top had that lovely frosting piped to the stars and a giant malt Easter candy egg on the tip of each one. I sprinkled the top with a little white edible Easter grass sprinkle (found and Walmart), and it gave it more of an unkempt basket look. But let's talk about that egg speckle on the sides! 

I found the technique on The Cake Blog (link in directions), and it turned out to be SUPER easy! All it took was a little vanilla and cocoa powder mixed together into a thick edible "paint" and then using a large brush, I flicked the paint on to the side of the cake with my thumb, and it speckled the side of the cake up beautifully! Really fun! I can't wait to do this again next year with maybe a robin egg blue or soft yellow. Happy Easter! 

Easter Cake 

makes 10 small servings

ingredients:

white flour + shortening spread for greasing cake rounds

1 box white cake mix

4 egg whites

3/4 C buttermilk

3/4 C sour cream

1/3 C vegetable oil

1 T vanilla 

food coloring for striped layers

about 5 C *my almond cream cheese frosting

vanilla + cocoa powder (amounts will vary)

large candy eggs & white grass sprinkles for decoration

method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep 2 6" cake rounds with shortening spread (I use a baggy around my hand to get all the small places on the cake round), then dusted thoroughly with flour. What I usually do is add about 3 T to the greased round, then swirl it around until the flour coats everything, then I tap out the excess. Place aside. 

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add white cake mix and mix by itself to break up any cake mix that has clumped together. 

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together egg whites, buttermilk, sour cream, veggie oil, and vanilla. Mix together until everything is thoroughly combined and you see no clumps of anything. 

4. Add into your cake mix, and mix on medium until it's barely mixed together. Half the batter, and add food coloring to one half if desired. Pour a little less than half the batter into each round. (You'll have about a cup extra in the bowl - but overfilling the small rounds will make a mess in your oven, trust me!). 

5. Bake both rounds at the same time for 25-30 minutes until cakes are springy in the middle. Flip upside down onto a wire rack for cooling. While they are cooling, prep your frosting using the directions linked above. I would add a little more powdered sugar to the recipe to make sure the frosting is stiff enough in consistency to hold up those giant candy eggs. 

6. When the cake rounds have cooled, frost the cake according to your wildest dreams. Hah. I use the fridge to help the cake's frosting become a little easier to manage. Especially with this cream cheese frosting. Use a star tip to pipe a few peaks on top. 

7. To make the "speckled" look, mix together about a teaspoon of vanilla with about a teaspoon of cocoa powder. Whisk it together until it's the consistency of paint, but not too watery-looking. With a large thick paintbrush (I just used my pastry/basting brush, hah!) flick with your thumb a little bit of the speckle paint onto the cake. Might want to practice the "flicking" in the sink to get it right before flicking it on your white cake! There's a really awesome tutorial with this while speckle deal on The Cake Blog here if you get confused! 

8. Top with a few large eggs on the top of each peak, and then sprinkle with the grass sprinkles. Keep cold until about an hour before serving. 

recipe source: Baking with Blondie