Who's ready for Easter?
I know this year is a bit difficult, most peoples usual plans aren't possible due to the lockdown, but you can still make Easter exciting this year! This vegan Easter basket cake tastes amazing, is fun to make and is so impressive! The whole family will love it!
This easter basket cake took me a whole day to make, I was on and off playing in the sunshine with Maxine as well as making the cake.
Because the sun has been shining and it's so warm this cake had to be put in the fridge/freezer a little more than I would usually need. The butter icing kept getting a little too sort to hold it's shape.
I am very proud of this cake! I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out as I've not really made a cake like this before, all buttercream, but I think it came out really well and it tastes amazing!
Unfortunately the pictures don't do this cake justice, especially the full picture of the basket. I don't have a full set up for taking pictures of the cake; I have a very good camera and 1 little light. When I have a bigger cake trying to get the lighting right is quite a challenge.
I was working quickly because I didn't want the cake to melt and I couldn't hold the camera and the light to take the pictures. However you can see the detail in the other pictures, they are close ups so I could manage the light as well.
This is something I plan on fixing in the future so I can take better pictures, but for the minute bare with me. I don't often have this problem.
I made a little bunny bum for the top of the cake. I thought it looks super cute have a little bunny burrowing into the cake now that he has planted the eggs. However I made mine much smaller than I now think was needed. It was about 3/4 of the size of a golf ball. It looked really good and I was very proud of it, however once the chocolate eggs were put in place it got a little drowned out, much harder to see.
So if you try this cake, I recommend you try making it a little bigger.
I made the little chocolate eggs myself; I bought a little egg mould on amazon, it has half eggs that you can then put together to make a whole egg. I then melted some chocolate and filled the mould up, make sure if you do this you scrape the chocolate across to make sure it is flat. I then put it in the frezzer to harder for roughly 1 hour. Once they are frozen you can take them out the mould and stick the together. I put a frying pan on the hob and started to heat it up, once it was hot I put one half of the egg on the pan and let it melt a little bit. I then stuck the 2 halves together and gently scraped across the side to make sure it was stuck together. Put them back in the freezer for 20 minutes to make sure they harden again.
These are so easy to make and so much fun, your children will love to make these with you! They only take a couple of minutes to make and then it's just waiting for them to harden in the freezer. You kids will love how they come out and will be very proud of themselves.
I also used a Moo Free egg for the large egg at the back of the cake.
This cake is so sickly, you wont need a big slice! You can serve at least 10 people with this cake, if not more. So it's perfect for the whole family to enjoy!
I think the different steps to make this cake aren't too difficult, it's then just putting them all together which make it a little bit harder.
I would suggest that you take your time, don't be afraid to put the cake back in the fridge or freezer if the butter icing is getting a little too soft. It may take you a little time but it is so worth it and everyone, including yourself, will be so impressed!
For the butter icing in the middle of the cake I used sugar and crumbs blueberry and lemon icing sugar. I would have used it for the outside of the cake but I didn't have enough of the icing sugar, you would need 3 bags to do the whole cake with it.
It tastes amazing, it's a great spring/summer flavour! It's sweet, delicious and you can really taste the blueberry and lemon! I can definitley say that this is one of my favourite flavours that I have tried!
The icing sugar itself is so fine, much nicer than what you get in the supermarket, it looks like it's already been sifted.
When you open the packet you can immediately smell the lovely sweet smell of blueberry and lemon, this is one of my favourite parts about using these flavoured icing sugars, opening the packet and seeing what it smells like! Then tasting it to see if it tastes like the flavour it should be!
So far I've only had 1 that I thought didn't taste right, which was the pistachio flavour, none of my family were impressed by that flavour and didn't think it tasted nice at all. However the rest of the flavours that I've tried have been amazing so I'm so impressed with them! I always use them for my special occasion cakes!
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to send me a message! I'm always more than happy to help or just have a chat! You can message me on here, facebook or instagram. I look forward to hearing from you!
I hope you love this cake as much as we do!
Easter Basket Cake - Serves 10 Generously
Ingredients
Cake;
5 ⅓ Cups Self raising Flour
4 Cups Caster Sugar - I use golden caster sugar but normal works just as well
4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
4 Cups Milk - I use oat milk but any plant based milk will work
4-6 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 ⅓ Cup Vegetable Oil
4 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Butter icing inside cake;
500g Blueberry & Lemon Icing sugar - Sugar & Crumbs
220g Butter - I use Flora
1-2 tsp Vanilla Essence
Pink, yellow & orange food colouring - You can use any colours that you like, I liked these colours as they are bright.
Butter icing outside cake;
1kg Icing Sugar
440g Butter - I use Flora, I find it's the only butter that keeps it's shape and doesn't melt almost instantly.
2-3 tsp Vanilla Essence
Yellow & Pink Food Colouring - You can of course use different colours but I think these ones go great for easter/spring
Others
Foil - For handle
Pink & White Fondant
Method
Cake;
Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare 2 x 20cm baking tins
Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
Add the sugar and mix to combine.
Pour the milk, vinegar, oil and vanilla essence into the middle of the flour mix.
Mix together until smooth.
Split the mix into the 2 baking tins
Place foil over the top of both tins. If you cover the tins with foil straight away, the cakes cook quicker and it stops them burning at the top and not cooking at the bottom.
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool completely before decorating.
Butter Icing inside cake;
Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl
Add the butter and vanilla essence
Mix together until smooth.
Split the butter cream into 3 bowls and colour each one.
Place in the fridge until needed
Butter Icing on the outside;
Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl.
Add the butter and vanilla essence
Mix together until smooth
Place ¼ into a seperate bowl and colour it pink.
Colour the rest of the mix yellow
Decorating;
Cut both cakes into 2 to make 4 layers.
Place one piece on your cake board and add one of your coloured butter icings.
Repeat this until the top layer of cake is on.
Place the cake in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to let the layers set a little.
Cut down the cake to make the bottom slightly smaller that the top. I cut a small circle out of cardboard and put this on the top of the cake. I then cut down and slightly diagonal from that.
This needs to be the bottom of the cake so you will need to flip the cake over.
Do a crumb coat around the outside with the yellow butter icing and place back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to set. A crumb coat is a very thin layer of icing that locks the crumbs in place. Once that layer as set you can decorate the cake without worrying about the crumbs from the cake ruining it.
Using a straight piping nozzle; pipe a straight line up and then pipe over the top, lengthways all the way down the line.
Repeat this the whole way round the cake. Please see my pictures if you need any help. This gives it the basket look that you can see around the cake.
Place the cake in the fridge if the icing gets too soft, or you can place in the freezer for 25-20 minutes. I made this on a super hot day so I had to put the cake in the freezer more than I usually would.
Roll some foil up and out in the shape of a handle.
Roll the pink fondant and cut into long strips.
Wrap the fondant around the foil.
Use toothpicks to place the foil in the cake for the baskets handle. I put a toothpick in the bottom of the basket, one on each side. I put it about half in and half then went in the cake to keep it up.
Make buttercream flowers with the pink and yellow icing and place them around the basket. If you don't know how to do these there are some great tutorials on pinterest.
If any of you are interested in one, send me a message, and I can do a quick video to show how to make them.
Place the cake in the fridge while you make the fondant bunny.
Roll a ball out of white fondant. Make one bit slightly flat to go on the cake.
Make 2 small ovals to be the feet, place them either side. You can stick this on with a little bit of water.
Roll a small white ball, for the tail, and use a small pair of scissors to cut little slices in the ball to make it look like a fluffy tail.
Use the pink fondant to make a larger pink circle on each of the feet and 3 smaller ones to go on the toes. Please see my picture for help.
Put the bunny pieces together and place on the basket.
Add some chocolate eggs on the top of the basket.
I made the smaller eggs by melting some chocolate and using a small egg mould.
Serve
Enjoy!
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