This Easter Cake is not so much a recipe as it is an Easter Cake decorating idea! Three layers of Vanilla Cake are frosted with a charming pastel blue buttercream, speckled with chocolate and finally decorated with toasted coconut to form the nest for mini Easter Eggs.
It’s pretty as a picture! And the speckling part is FUN to do!
Easter Cake
I confess: I struggle for dessert ideas every year when Easter rolls around. I know, I know, many of you will point out there are all sorts of traditional Easter dessert wonders from around the world … but I am yet to make one that gets me excited. *She ducks as people from all over the world chuck rotten eggs at her*
I implore you to prove me wrong. Really. PLEASE leave me a list of wonderful traditional Easter desserts in the comments below so I can hit them up next Easter … or even well before then!
And so as another Easter rolls around, and I am presenting a dessert which is not so much a traditional Easter dessert (well, not at ALL), but rather an Easter Cake decorating idea to channel the Easter spirit!
On the plus side? This is more a guide than a strict recipe. You can use any cake you want. Any decorating eggs you want. Any colour of frosting you want. Oh the possibilities!
Ingredients for Easter Cake
Here are the 5 components for this Easter Cake:
Vanilla Cake – 3 layers;
Pastel Blue Vanilla Buttercream Frosting – fluffy as can be, in the most adorable duck egg blue;
Speckles on the frosting – made with just cocoa and water, but just wait until you see how we do this!
Toasted Coconut – for the “nest” and rim around the base of the cake; and
Mini Chocolate Eggs – for decorating.
1. The Cake
I’ve used my Vanilla Cake for this Easter Cake. I chose it for it’s ultra-moist and tender crumb, and beautiful vanilla flavour. The deal-sealer is that the cake stays 100% perfectly fresh for 4 whole days which makes it ideal for using as a make-ahead cake for holiday occasions such as Easter!
2. Pastel Blue Buttercream Frosting
Other than the addition of blue gel to colour the frosting, it’s just your usual Buttercream Frosting ingredients!
Gel vs Food Colouring
Gel works better to achieve the pictured pale blue colour because it’s stronger than food colouring. While that might sound counterintuitive for a pale pastel coloured frosting such as what is pictured, the challenge is dealing with the effect of the yellow colour of butter: because yellow + blue = green!
So if you use food colouring which is not as strong as gel, you will end up with more of a pastel green frosting colour which, mind you, is still lovely.
But if you want to achieve the pictured pale blue frosting colour, you will need to:
Use Navy Blue Gel colouring (this works best I have found – and I tried quite a few blue gels!);
Use a European butter (such as Lurpak in Australia) which is a much paler yellow colour than Australian butters; and
Beat, beat, beat the butter for 3 minutes which makes the butter transform from yellow to (almost!) white through aeration.
Colouring method I use for pastel frosting
You will see in the step photos above that I use what might be considered an unusual method for colouring the frosting! I’ve found this method to be the safest when making pastel coloured frostings because it is way too easy to add too much colouring and ending up with frosting that is too strongly coloured and not pastel. Especially so when using gel, and even using the toothpick smearing method.
What I do is remove 1 tablespoon of frosting into a small bowl, add gel colouring and mix up an intense coloured frosting. Then I add that back into the frosting 1 teaspoon at a time, until I achieve my desired colour.
This is a much safer method that lets you control the intensity of colour far better!
The Decorations
3. How to do Chocolate Speckles on Frosting
You’ll love this! It’s simply cocoa powder + boiling water which is gently flicked onto the frosting using a toothbrush!!
This also works using a pastry brush (the ones with bristles, not silicone) but I found that a toothbrush achieves the best light “spray” effect. It’s also the easiest to control to get the most even effect across the surface of the cake.
4. Toasted Coconut
I use coconut as the “nest” to pile the Easter Eggs into on the top of the cake, and to decorate the base of the cake!
Just a mere 7 to 10 minutes in the oven is needed to toast the flakes up until they’re nice and golden! The bake time will vary depending on how fine the flakes are, and also how much sugar is in the coconut. So just keep an eye on it.
TIP: Oven is much easier than stove, a) for a more even colour; and b) less stirring = less breakage.
5. The Easter Eggs
And lastly, the Easter Eggs! Pile them into that nest you just created, and nestle them along the base as well.
I used these sweetly pastel-coloured, sugar-coated chocolate eggs by a brand called Darrell Lea here in Australia which I found at supermarkets. But really, any mini eggs will do. Cheerful foil-wrapped ones would look terrific as well, I think!
As adorable and totally on-theme-with-Easter as this cake looks, I think the most important thing is that it is also a really, really good cake for eating. I find that all too often, the more grandly the cake is decorated, the drier and more disappointing it is inside (think of pretty much every wedding you ever attended)!!
Well, not this one. The Vanilla Cake recipe is one of my signature recipes. It’s probably the recipe I have worked hardest on in my entire life to make it as perfect as I could, with one of the key requirements being that it stays perfectly fresh for at least 4 days. This happens to make it an ideal base when using it to decorate for occasions like Easter, whether because you’re hosting and have a gazillion other things to make fresh, or you’re taking it to a gathering in the next days.
Besides, it’s just so darned delicious. I daresay anyone who thinks Vanilla Cake is bland hasn’t tried this one!! 😂 – Nagi x
PS. The copious amounts of fluffy buttercream frosting helps tantalise the tastebuds, as does piles of Easter Eggs. 😉
Watch how to make it
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Easter Cake
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)
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!
Recipe Notes:
Let them eat cake! 10 more classic cakes
Life of Dozer
Giving Dozer a helping hand so he could check out what was happening with the Easter Cake splatter station.
Great idea with the toothbrush. I hope you don’t use it to clean your teeth later.
This is precious! It looks just like a speckled egg 🙂 One day I’ll try your cake and frosting recipes!
I hope you do JL!! N x
2 April 2021
Hi Nagi
I made your Best Vanilla Cake today following your recipe exactly. This cake is superb! However we found the icing to be rather too sweet. I have an excellent recipe for buttercream icing which is delicious and not as sweet. (My husband is diabetic but loves cake!) Would you like this recipe? Just let me know. I live in Johannesburg South Africa and love your recipes and especially Dozer.
Hi Nagi thanks so much for the Fluffy Vanilla Frosting recipe. I have saved it and will use it on my next cake.
King regards to you and Dozer.
Hi Brenda, sorry you found it sweet, it is cake of course! You might like this recipe here though instead of buttercream: https://promotown.info/fluffy-vanilla-frosting/%3C/a%3E N x
The Easter cake looks simple yet very elegant.. Clever idea with the toothbrush!, Thank you for your recipes & for sharing Dozer’s adventures with us. Happy Easter.
You’re so welcome Aicha, I hope you have a GREAT Easter! N x
Oh Nagi, are you sure that the
eggs on the cake aren’t just
doggie treats with candy coating? Hmmm…could make them more palatable. Cake is gorgeous!!
Dozer wishes they were!!! 😂 N x
Oh my gosh!!! This cake is so cute. Well, all your Holiday desserts are fabulous. I love the clever toothbrush idea.
Perfect April Fools Joke with the Dozer treats. Was he laughing and rolling around when he saw you?
Ha! He definitely got me Naomi 🤢 – N x
Your Easter cake is so pretty 🐰
It looks like Dozer is saying “ya, i cudda told you that waz ona my treats”🐾😆
Happy Easter!!
I wish he had of!! 😂😂😂 N x
Nagi, I don’t know what I did wrong ☹️. I followed your recipe after reading it 3 times. It didn’t rise very well. Any suggestions? The frosting turned out a little too blue but still tasty.
Nagi, you are so clever! That speckling idea is just great to simulate a robin’s egg.
I’m not making cake today, but your paneer instead. 🙂
Yum, paneer is JUST as good though!! Enjoy! N x
How sweet of Dozer to share his treats with you LOL 😂
Happy Easter to you both! The Easter cake is gorgeous!
Yes, very kind of him 😣 I’ll be more cautious next time!! N x
There nothing wrong or more beautiful than a simple cake and vanilla is a classic, Nagi!!! Your cake is lovely and ellegant! Remember simplicity is the essence of beauty! ❤🤗❤
Thanks so much Figueroa!! N x
Pavlova may be traditional for Aussie Christmas, but here in the US with spring/summer around the corner and lovely strawberries arriving from Florida, I’m making your Pavlova!
Excellent Michelle, I hope you love it! N x
Wow, this cake looks terrific! And I love the touches you added to make it a special holiday cake for Easter. Beautiful! You and Dozer have a blessed Easter.
Thanks so much Vicki, have a fabulous Easter!! N x
🤦🏼♀️ Forgot to wish you and your family and Dozer a very happy Easter 🐣
Unfortunately we’re in lockdown again 😢 ….
Hope you enjoy the long weekend Nagi
Oh no Sue, I’m thinking of you. I hope you can still enjoy Easter, stay safe ❤️ N x
Hi Nagi and Dozer 🥰
I’ve made the full amount of batter for this beautiful cake and now I have 2 different sized cakes…as there is only the 2 of us, is it possible to freeze one of them?
Yes 100% Sue! N x
I double wrap cakes in plastic wrap or foil and freeze them.
I am from the American South where many of us make coconut cake with lemon curd filling. I usually due some coconut green to create a nest on top for some malted eggs.
Sounds great Hansi!!! N x
Yeah baby!!!!
Love the robins egg blue with the spatter!!!! Am for sure stealing it!! Will try with a cream cheese frosting, hope it works!
Hoppy Easter Nagi and Doze!!🐇🐰🐣🐥
Fab Sarah!!! Enjoy! N x
hello Nagi!
here in Italy the traditional Easter cake is the “colomba”,
a leavened cake in the shape of a dove, with candied fruit and almond glaze.
we’re in lockdown for Easter, but two people can come home with kids, so I’ll have my lovely granddaughters with me!
wishes from Federica, Genova, Italy
Sounds divine Federica!! I hope you have a great Easter & Stay safe ❤️ – N x
Hi, I bought dog treats that looked like animal crackers, they we beige and pastel colors with a vanilla flavor. I had them in a glass bowl to give the dog treats. One day i found my husband them, he didnt know they were for the dog. He admitted to eating the for awhile. I tried one and they were ok, not bad.
😂 You shouldn’t have said anything Leslie!! – N x
Cake looks great, Unfortunately we are northern Italy in deep lockdown. We can’t leave the house or have anybody over. Just me, my husband and our little wiener dog. We normally have a big BBQ on Easter Monday(Pasquetta). Easter was cancelled last year and now this year, hoping for 2022
Cake looks great, Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Unfortunately Easter has been cancelled in Italy last year and this year. Can’t leave the house or have anyone over., Just me and my husband and a little wiener dog. I normally have a big BBQ on Easter Monday(Pasquetta) hoping for 2022
Hi Nagi I’m ashamed to say I too would’ve dove into those dozer treats they do look delicious my daughter’s first food ever was home-made dog stew and she loved it😂😂😂Well there’s a lot to be said for home-made cooking ha ha
😂 I’m sure I’m not the only one who has done this!!
I LOVE your recipes, tried and trusted and being south, also works well in ZA, but moat of all, I scroll down first to see what your child got up to! Just too adorable for words, and so awsome that you share.
I always knew he’d steal the show 😂 N x