Did you give up anything for Lent? My housemate and I decided to do coffee (her) and chocolate (me), and whilst I was all "yeah as if you'd be able to go without caffeine for two months muahaha".... it turned out I couldn't go without cocoa for two days.
But I digress. This easter cake has no chocolate. It's orange and lemon and teeny bit of Pimm's in it, because, why not, and spring is almost (sort of) here (sometimes)! Hurrah!
However, the ingredients do call for a large quantity of icing sugar. Like, about 2 kg of the stuff.
Two days later, I've still got the sugar shakes.
*shakes about the room a little*
You know when they say about girls turning up somewhere and wearing the same dress?
It could have gotten vicious.
It could have gotten nasty.
Well, thank goodness with cake you share and slice and everyone stuffs their faces and it's alllll gooooood =D
I hope you a great and relaxing Easter holidays (whether you celebrate it or not, surely it's just an excuse to eat more chocolate??)! I know that I am very, very much looking forward to it =)
Again, thanks to Sous Chef for helping me with the photography for this one!
Step by step instructions below including the bunny (full recipe at the end):
First, make your cakes (Pimm's cake recipe below, see here for my Pimm's cake!), but you can use any normal sponge here, and fill with buttercream.
Cover cake with a base layer of buttercream icing. This makes the piping easier to work with and you don't end up with crumbs sticking to the outer layer.
Messssyyyyy!
To make the ribbed edge, I cut a side off a cardboard box (the icing sugar box actually!) and drew semi-circles around the edge, which I then cut off. You then need to spread an even thick layer of icing around the edge, and go round it with the stencil
Piping the edge in a cross-cross pattern. I used a youtube tutorial which I now can't find but essentially you just pipe loads of short squiggles (technical term).
I used green icing mixed with a bit of white to leave the colour lighter for the leaves. Then I used leaf cutters to cut leaves of two sizes. On top of the cake, you need to pipe a round circle (this will form the base to rest your leaves). Once the leaves are in, pipe a smaller round circle - the eggs and bunny will sit inside here.
This is how your make the bunny! You will need: yellow royal icing / golden marzipan, white icing / white marzipan and melted chocolate.
Place bunny on top and ta da! You are done. Of course you can mix and match and customise the buttercream to whatever you want (add some Pimm's to it, perhaps?) but hopefully this gives you an idea if you plan on any Easter baking!
I'm entering my cake in to the Easter Bake & Make Competition over at The Pink Whisk (so cute and so pink!) in conjunction with Two Little Fleas. Wish me luck!
Have a great week!
Easter bunny frosted cake (orange, lemon
and Pimm’s cake)
Serves
about 15
Takes:
a while!
For the sponge cake
225g
/ 8oz butter
170g
/ 6oz caster sugar
4
eggs, beaten
225g
/8oz self-raising flour
Fined
grated zest 1 orange and 1 lemon
50ml
(that's one shot glass full!) Pimm’s (optional)
For the buttercream icing
450g
/ 16oz softened butter
1kg
/ 2 lbs icing sugar
For the bunny and leaves
About
a handful of yellow royal icing / golden marzipan
Thumb
sized piece of white royal icing / white marzipan
1
tablespoon of melted chocolate (for the eyes and whiskers)
Green
royal icing
To decorate
Wafer
daises
Other
small decorations, I used tiny butterflies (made from icing)
Mini-eggs
Two 20" round
cake pans
Preheat
the oven to 180ÂșC/gas mark 4. Grease and line with cake pans with greaseproof
paper and butter. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar
until light and fluffy. Fold in the beaten egg.
Sift
the flour over the mixture and gently stir till smooth, then stir in the
orange and lemon zest. Stir in the 50ml Pimm’s, then pour the mixture into
the prepared pans. Put into the oven and cake for about 20-25mins or
until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Whilst
you’re waiting for the cake to bake, take the juice of your orange and lemon
and stir it into the remaining Pimm’s. Make the buttercream - put the butter
and icing sugar in a big bowl and beat until smooth (an electric whisk is a
godsend here). Cover with clingfilm and leave to one side - you won't need it
until the cake it cool.
Once
your cake is baked, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen it, then
turn it out onto a wire rack. Leave the cake to cool completely.
Once
cool, sandwhich the cakes together with the buttercream icing (make sure the
cake is cool otherwise the icing will melt!) and ice the sides thinly too.
Once
that has set (about 30 minutes), you can begin decorating! First I iced the
top with another layer of buttercream. Then I spread the remainder of the
buttercream icing around the sides an ran a ribbed stencil along it to create
a ribbed effect. Then I piped swirly things around the top. Before the buttercream sets, you can stick in
things like wafer daises and flowers and butterflies or anything else you
fancy.
Make
the bunny (see purple diagram above) and leaves and sit on top of the cake
with the mini-eggs.
You
are done! Treat yourself to a mini-egg.
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adorable cake you always make the best cakes
ReplyDeleteWow this is amazing!
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter (in advance): I'm sure this was a huge hit at work and wayyyyyy better than the chocolate one at the other end of the table!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cake.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cake!
ReplyDeleteOoooooo - that looks so scrumptious - too good to eat. :)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant job!
This is so cute! I love the trick to make the ribbed icing round the edge - such a good idea!
ReplyDeleteI love this cake! I'm going to be a fellow entrant in the competition and this cake sets a high standard! Good luck :-) x
ReplyDeleteThis is super cute!! Thanks for the step by step pictures and Happy Easter!
ReplyDeleteI love the bunny!! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is one very beautiful cake, you are always so creative with your decorations. I hope you managed to get plenty of chocolate over Easter to make up for your 2 day deprivation ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnother fab cake hun :) you're so good at modelling icing!!! I should take a leaf out of your book and give it a go! I bet yours was ten times better than the chocolate one :P
ReplyDeleteI haven't been here for a while and look at all those creations you have made :)!! The cake looks adorable and are those mini Cadbury chocolate eggs? I bought exactly the same chocolate eggs two years ago and they're so addictive ;)!!
ReplyDeleteThis looks AMAZING! Wish I could bake like that… Better stick with my loaf tins & tray bakes ;)
ReplyDelete