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.
I wanted to love this recipe, but it fell short for me. The presentation was beautiful and I had fun using the toothbrush technique, so that was a cool tip to learn. However, the cake was not nearly as moist as I was expecting, and I followed the recipe exactly. I also didn’t care for the frosting. It didn’t have the creamy consistency I wanted, and it was hard to get smooth on the cake. This is the first time I’ve ever been bummed out with one of your recipes, though. Still a pretty cake, I just wouldn’t want to eat it.
I was so excited to try this recipe. It baked beautifully and decorating it was a breeze.
Friends took a photo and said it was on par with a bakery cake.
Thank you for developing this easy Easter cake recipe!
I am so happy you enjoyed making it Rebecca! Happy Easter!! N x
Can anyone suggest something other than coconut for the nest? my grands will poopoo on that. The adults yes but those dang kids Adorable cake
I have made them with Chang’s noodles with cocoa and copha which makes a crunchy chocolate version! (It’s a different colour though!) N x
Hi Nagi, I know you’ve mentioned cooling the cake before icing. Would you also recommend doing a crumb coat and then refrigerating before icing?
Hi Richelle, I don’t usually do that but you can if you have the time 🙂 N x
Lovely cake but I added a little more color. Each cake layer I added a different pastel color–so pretty when sliced. Son likes boy colors–red, darker blue or green, more brighter for the guys. great cake.. Thank You!
I love your cooking styles they are exciting!!! The cake preparation is also simple and lovely!!!!!! Thank you
Hi Nagi,
Reporting in…This cake was incredible-beautiful to look at and delicious to eat! Everyone loved it! The crumb is fantastic…(you know how fiddly white cakes can be, dry and heavy)… This one is moist and soft…I have never come across a better recipe! It is my go to… I give it 5 million stars!!! What a wonderful Easter gift you’ve given us for years to come!!!
Thank-you again…
Lovin’ Dozer’s messy a la stinky look, lol… with the Cashew Chicken recipe. I must prepare that one soon too, as my sweet husband and myself will definitely enjoy it!
That’s great to hear Susan, thanks so much for letting me know!! N x
Looks amazing so I have made it for our first post-(ish)lockdown meet up with another household. The cake is a bit more effort but your instructions were so clear it wasn’t difficult. The Easter theme decoration looks beautiful, even with my 9 year old helping! It is just amazing, thanks!
It is a little more effort – but it pays off as it’s the method that produces this beautiful crumb!! N x
Can’t wait to try this. The green bunny in the video lol. Cute touch. Thanks for making me smile.
You’re so welcome Colette, I hope you love it! N x
First question, did you wait for the frosting to crust before you spattered?? And also, how did you get that cake off the turntable and on to a cake platter without It looking like a hot mess??? 🙄🐥🥴🐰
Hi Sarah, you can splash the speckled effect straight away here. You can also frost on a board which is sitting on a turn table, or you can use palette knives to transfer 🙂 N x
Put it on a cake board when you are icing and it’s easy to transfer to a stand😊
Nagi that is one of the prettiest Easter cakes ever!! You are so talented. I love your posts, recipies and pics of your lovebug Dozer. Happy Easter 🐣
Thanks so much Juliet, I hope you had. great Easter! N x
Hi Nagi your cake looks awesome, the frosting looks pastel green…lol you must be very happy with the crumb, looks perfect.
Our Easter traditional cake was a Russian are called a Mikado cake, Mum always made it about 4 months ahead of time and it was kept in the freezer and taken out 4 days before needed and covered with the whipped butter cream and the crumbs broken layers, also when Mum did the cloth Christmas pudding she always did a smaller one for Easter and always a Vodka Gravlax Salmon. I followed on for many years to keep the family tradition and the family recipes going, there is only me and my brother is in Victoria and Mum is in Tasmania. The Mikcado is amazing, rich but not sweet and around 50layers of biscuut pastry, very delicate, fidly, time consuming and you swear you’ll never make it again, but you always do…
Sounds absolutely divine Lindi, I wish I could try it one day!! N x
This looks amazing! I’m totally making it tomorrow. I’m also making a Meyer lemon chess pie, our traditional Easter dessert, very popular in North Texas. 🙂
I hope you had a great Easter Monica!! N x
Happy Easter Nagi and Dozer, can’t get enough of Dozer, just adorable. Easter cake looks stunning Nagi, like alway, will try next Easter, making sourdough hot cross buns with currants soaked in pedro ximenez and Callebaut chocolate chips.
YUM!!! Sounds fabulous Rina!! N x
Oh my gosh, Nagi, you’ve outdone yourself again! This cake is THE most beautiful Easter Cake/dessert, I have ever seen! I haven’t made it yet…I am going to get up bright and early, hopefully bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,lol… to prepare this gorgeous masterpiece. I will try my hardest to make it as lovely as yours. I can bake, but decorating is not my strong point, lol…The toothbrush trick to making the speckles, is so genius!!! I never would’ve thunk it! The pictures of you and Dozer are so freakin’ cute and fun! Thank-you for sharing them, and your Dozer treats eating, or eating Dozer treats, or however you say it, either way doesn’t sound quite right?! lol… experience! (Are they as good as they don’t look?!) lol… as well as this luscious Easter creation!!!
I will want to eat the entire cake myself…Family hold me back! I’m comin’…lol…
Happy Easter Nagi and Dozer!!!
Hi Nagi – my family love this cake. My one suggestion would be add whipping cream to the icing/frosting – I’ve found this allows for reduction in the amount of butter and is lighter and not so sweet.
Hi Michelle, you can try this recipe here for a lighter, less sweet frosting: https://www.recipetineats.com/fluffy-vanilla-frosting/ N x
What a beautiful cake. Love the toothbrush spatter trick…so clever. And I smiled at the “she ducks” part about the throwing of eggs. You’re so clever, fun & funny…and you create amazing recipes. I read them all.
Thanks so much Macy!! N x
Thanks for the tip about using the toothbrush to create the speckled effect on the cake.
I have a recipe for an Easter egg slice that I make for family and friends every Easter. I’m happy to share the recipe if you like. 🐣
Sounds amazing Fairouz! N x
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