How I Made.... an Easter-Themed cake
Hello everyone,
I’ve always wanted to bake nicely decorated cakes. This past weekend I made an Easter themed cake, and am quite proud of how it turned out. Let me share with you how I made it. Let’s start with….
The size of the cake
I baked 3 (6 inch) cake layers for this cake. Many times when I bake 8 inch cakes a lot of it ends up going to waste. 6 inch cakes are just the right size, bake faster, and are easier to frost. Walmart has a lot of solid baking equipment, supplies, and decorations. I bought three of these cake pans for $18. I may switch to different pans down the road, but these were perfectly reliable to get me started. Now onto the…
Cake
Carrot cake is the way to go this time of year. I used this carrot cake recipe, but converted the measurements to 3/4 of the recipe. Most of these numbers rounded out nicely, but I did have to take a couple of liberties. This article gives a clear explanation of how to convert recipes for different size pans. For example, the original carrot cake recipe called for 2 (9 inch pans) which holds 16 cups of batter. I was converting the recipe to fill 3 (6 inch) pans which holds 12 cups of batters. 12/16=0.75 so you would convert all ingredient measurements to 3/4 of the original. For example, 2 cups of flour would now be 1.5 cups of flour.
Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is a natural pairing for carrot cake. I LOVE this frosting recipe (obviously skip the cake recipe on the page). I DOUBLED the frosting recipe which yielded the perfect amount of frosting. The key to this frosting is folding in the whipped cream at the end. It allows to the frosting to keep its slight cream cheese tang, but also have a nice airiness to it. If you want to use a more traditional cream cheese frosting recipe, I would recommend doubling this one. Now onto……
Assembling and Decorating
Once the cakes were cool, I crumb coated them. This involves filling the layers with frosting, and adding a very thin layer of frosting all around the cake. Then, I put it in the fridge to get cold (about 15 minutes). After, I finished frosting the cake. To get a smooth-ish frosting on the outside I laid an non-patterned Viva paper towel against the outside of the cake. I took a fondant/icing smoother and rubbed gently against the paper towel. This gives your cake a nice, smooth finish. It is slightly difficult to get this cake completely smooth because of the airiness of the whipped cream. Once frosted, I garnished with themed sprinkles, mini candy eggs, a field-like setting (using a grass tip), and a giant chocolate bunny ( that I may have broken when I haphazardly dropped all my grocery bags on the floor). Overall, I am very happy with how this cake turned out. It was the perfect size, not too sweet, and fit an Easter theme.
Want to make this cake, but make decorating a little easier?
Make the carrot cake recipe in a 9x13 pan (directions are posted on the linked site). Double either of the frosting recipes I posted and frost the cake right inside the pan. Done! Just a note…always grate your carrots for carrot cake by hand. Using pre-grated carrots will mess with the moisture level and your cake may not bake through. Don’t like nuts or are serving someone with a nut allergy? Just leave ‘em out.
I hope this post inspires you to bake something in your kitchen!
Happy baking!
