The ULTIMATE Easter Cake

Happy weekend everyone! Easter is fast approaching, which means I finally get to experiment with the cutest materials in all areas of my life and that includes baking! One fact you should know about me is that spring is my favorite season. This whimsical season hits all on the check list for me: beautiful weather, flowers in bloom, fresh in season foods to delight in and a colorful array of pastel elements everywhere in sight. The arrival of my birthday of course does not hurt, and perhaps one of the best parts of spring is Easter. I love Easter so much that I often question the validity of saying that Christmas is my favorite holiday, but since I still can’t seem to let that idea ago, Easter hits a very close second for me. In spring, I feel creative, rejuvenated and ready to flourish and finally take on the year. I’m excited to pour that energy into some content right here on this blog. With that all being said, let’s talk about my Ultimate Easter Cake.

Pinterest at this time of year is often a parade of adorable Easter and spring-time recipes that make it hard for anyone to choose which tasty treat they’ll bring to the family table. Although the choices are endless, I have always wondered what my Ultimate Easter dessert would look like. Well friends, this is it.  This lemon funfetti cake is the perfect combination of fun and fresh spring flavor. The pale teal buttercream adds a beautiful complementary touch to the festive cake toppers, of which are all Easter elements. Hugging the greenery are speckled candy eggs and mini chicks, which if I do say so myself, are the cutest things I’ve ever seen. While I chose lemon funfetti flavor, these decorations will match most cake flavors, so if your ultimate Easter cake means carrot, coconut or hummingbird cake, absolutely go for it. I’d love to see those little chicks atop some toasted coconut:) Hopefully this just gives you some inspiration. So lets break it all down!

To start, sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, and then whisk together and set aside. Cake flour helps give a nice tender crumb to cakes, so I like to use it whenever I can. Next, with the bowl of your stand mixer or hand mixer, add room temperature butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Cream together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. The zest of the lemon will release its oils into the sugar, creating a lovely lemon aroma and a background flavor throughout the whole cake. 

Once combined, add your eggs one at a time until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Grab your dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients alternatively with 3/4 cup of milk, beginning and ending with the flour. This step is really just to ensure the wet ingredients don’t split. The cake batter will stay cohesive and your cake will have good texture! Don’t skip this method! Like I mentioned in my first post, mix until almost all combined because we still need to add the sprinkles! I used mostly pastel confetti bunnies, but any confetti sprinkles will do:) Gently fold them in and the batter is done!

Spread the batter evenly in the pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the cakes cool, whip up a quick lemon buttercream. I creamed the butter until light and fluffy before adding lemon zest, lemon extract, vanilla and powdered sugar. Once all combined, I added whole milk one tablespoon at a time until I reached my desired spreadable consistency! As I previously mentioned, I added the tiniest dot of teal gel food coloring, giving the frosting an almost white appearance with a twinge of color, perfect for spring and this Easter cake!

Now all thats left to do is assemble! Your cakes should come out of the oven relatively flat, but score off any doming so you’ll be working with a flat surface. Spread some buttercream atop the first layer, and then place the second layer upside down on top of the buttercream, so its flat bottom is the top of our cake. Give the cake a crumb coat and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Once out of the fridge, give the cake a final coat and smooth as best as you can. I swirled the top to give it an undone look. (p.s. I also love how you can see the lemon zest peaking through! How cute?!).

For decoration, I added the florals around the top of the cake all going in the same direction. The leaves and flowers are from the spring section of Michaels as well as the chicks, although I would love to see this cake recreated with fresh herbs and florals instead. I then nestled in some mini Cadbury candy eggs and added chicks where I thought looked appropriate and voila! Follow these steps and you’ll have yourself the most festive Easter cake you’ve ever seen. 

The only thing left to do is cut, serve, and enjoy a piece yourself! Happy Easter everyone!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe and try it out. Even if you do not celebrate Easter, tweak it a little bit and it would still make a stunning cake for spring. The greenery looked so good on its own that I contemplated leaving it just like that! Have fun with it, and enjoy. Until next time!

With Love,

Jenna