Easter Cake
User Reviews
4.8
39 reviews
Excellent
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Prep Time
45 mins
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Cook Time
45 mins
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Servings
12 - 16 people
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Course
Cake, Baked Goods
Easter Cake
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Recipe video above. This Easter Cake is not so much a recipe as it is a charming Easter Cake decorating idea! A 3-layer vanilla cake is frosted with pale blue, fluffy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and speckled with chocolate. Finally, it's topped with a toasted coconut "nest" nestled with mini candy eggs. Pretty as a picture!
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Ingredients
- 1 Vanilla Cake , 3 layers (or other 20cm/8" cake of choice, Note 1)
Pastel Blue Vanilla Buttercream (Note 2):
- 340g/ 3 sticks unsalted butter , 1.25cm / ½" cubes, softened to 18°C/64°F (Note 3)
- 750g/ 1.5 lb (6 cups) soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 - 2 drops blue gel food colouring (or 1 - 2 tsp blue food colouring, Note 4)
- 1/8 tsp salt
Frosting Speckles:
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened or sweetened, doesn't matter)
- 3 tbsp boiling water
- Toothbrush (or basting brush)
Decorating:
- 2 cups coconut flakes (or shaved)
- 200g/ 7oz small Easter eggs (I use pastel coloured speckled ones, Note 5)
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Instructions
- Level: Trim the top of cakes if required/desired to make the layers level (for aesthetic purposes).
- Chill: Place cake layers in fridge until thoroughly chilled (this makes it easier to frost so crumbs don't go everywhere).
- Toast coconut: Preheat oven to 160°C/325°F (140°C fan). Spread coconut on a tray. Bake 6 - 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until golden. (Bake time depends on sugar level, so keep an eye on it). Cool.
Buttercream Frosting:
- Cream butter: Beat butter in a stand mixer on Speed 8 for 3 minutes until it changes from yellow to almost white.
- Add icing sugar in 3 batches: Add icing sugar in 3 batches, starting the mixer on speed 1 until partially incorporated, then increasing until it's mostly mixed in.
- Vanilla, salt, and beat 2 mins: Add vanilla and salt, then beat on Speed 8 for 2 minutes until almost white, and it's beautifully fluffy.
- Colour (Note 4): Remove 1 tbsp frosting into a small bowl. Add 1 drop of blue gel, mix in. Add 1 teaspoon of coloured frosting back into main frosting, beat until incorporated (scrape down sides as needed). Add more coloured frosting 1 teaspoon at a time until desired tone is achieved.
Speckle Mixture:
- Mix cocoa and boiling water.
Decorating:
- Frosting: Spread 3/4 cup frosting between each cake layer, then using remaining frosting for side and surface (I usually have ~1/2 cup frosting leftover, but better safe than sorry!).
- Speckles: Place something behind cake as a backboard for the speckling mess! Dip toothbrush in cocoa mixture, then use fingers to flick speckles onto cake surface - sides and top. (Hint: Practice in sink first). TIP: When doing top of cake, angle toothbrush 45 degrees down NOT over cake, to avoid accidental big drips.
- Coconut Nest: Pile coconut in the middle to form a "nest" then pile a mound of eggs in it.
- Coconut Rim: Place a mound of coconut all along the base of the cake, then dot with Easter Eggs.
- Bask in praise: Take proudly to table and bask in the compliments!
Notes
- Cake - You can use any cake recipe you wish. I used my Vanilla Cake, in 3 layers.
- Frosting amount - This is the frosting required for a 3 layer cake. Yes I know it sounds like a lot but it's better to make extra and be safe rather than sorry. We're not going for a naked cake look here! You will probably have a bit leftover - freeze it (up to 3 months).
- 2 layer cake - Use the recipe scaler to reduce icing sugar/powdered sugar to 500g/1lb (click on Servings and slide down).
- Butter softening - We don't want the butter to soften too much because we want to beat it for quite a while so as to make it as white as possible. This is because butter is yellow, and yellow + blue colouring = green instead of the blue we're targeting here. The longer you beat butter, the whiter it becomes due to aeration from whipping. If the butter is too soft starting out, the frosting will get too sloppy. At any point during making process, refrigerate butter if needed.
- Blue colouring - When aiming for pastel coloured frosting, adding colouring directly into frosting is risky I find, as it's too easy to add too much. Also, the amount of food colouring required to achieve your desired pastel blue colour will depend on the strength and exact colour you use. I used Navy Blue Gel Colouring.
- The method used in this recipe makes it easier to control, ie. take out a bit of frosting, add colouring, then add that back in progressively until desired colour strength is achieved.
- Green tinge: Butter is yellow, so blue + yellow = green. So the blueness (or rather, green-ness!) of the frosting will depend on how white the butter/frosting is before colouring. European butters (like Lurpak in Australia) are more white than economical brands which are much more yellow. Also, beating the butter for 3 minutes will make it more white.
- But honestly? Pale green is just as lovely as pale blue, in my opinion!
- Eggs - I used small pastel coloured speckled eggs from Darrell Lea (Australia). Any eggs will work here!
- Storage – Depends on what cake you use, but for this Vanilla Cake, up to 4 days. See Vanilla Cake recipe for storage instructions and details.
Genuine Reviews
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.8
39 reviews
Excellent
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