By Michelle Anderson
Cake Decorating Expert
Easter is a holiday that many people spend with family and friends
over good food and a spectacular dessert like a perfectly decorated cake
can provide just the right touch to the event. An Easter themed cake
can be whimsical or bring in important religious elements depending on
the type of celebration. Even a beginner designer can make a showstopper
cake with a little planning and mastery of basic skills.
The Cake
You
can start your Easter design by picking a perfect cake flavor to be the
base of your creation. This holiday falls in a time frame that can
easily support fresh fruit laden layers such as strawberry shortcake and
rich vanilla
filled with tangy lemon curd. A great choice for a fun Easter cake
could be a pastel checkerboard cake that involves alternating several
types of gorgeous colored batter in a Checkerboard Cake Pan Set.
This set has three pans and a ringed insert to help create a multihued
checkerboard pattern to delight and astonish your guests.
Easter Basket
One of the most popular Easter
cake designs is a pretty basket filled with chocolate eggs, gum paste
flowers, marshmallow chicks, or fondant bunnies. Baskets can also be
made from cupcakes for a more individual look. The cupcakes could be
filled first with "grass" using green or pastel colored icing piped from
a grass tip or a little shredded colored coconut. The handles could be
licorice pieces or a handle formed from gum paste or fondant if you have
time for the paste to dry entirely. If you are creating a full sized
cake decorate the sides with some type of basketweave design and pipe a
rope or braid around the top of the cake to mimic a real basket.
Easter Egg Cake
There are great Easter
egg cake pans or oval pans that can be used to create colorful unique
cakes that resemble painted Easter eggs. Simply bake the cake and then
decorated it with patterns of piped colors or use candies to make the
swirls, lines, zigzags and polka dots. M&Ms, jube jubes, jelly
beans, licorice and other candies can be used all over the cake.
Easter Bunny Cake
Many stores carry bunny pans
to help make this type of cake easier to create. Simply bake the cake
and follow the decorating guide for a wonderful results picking your own
colors and adding design elements like shredded coconut for the fur. Or
you can sculpt a three dimensional rabbit cake out of layered cakes and
cover it with fondant
or icing to make exactly the look you want. Fondant makes wonderful
perky ears and even a colorful bowtie or ribbon to add style to the
cake. Your imagination is the only limit.
Cross Cake
One
of the most elegant cake designs used at Easter is a cross cake. Easter
is a special holiday for many people who celebrate the religious
aspects of the day. There are many special cake pans used specifically
for this shape of cake or one can simply bake two rectangles (long and
short) and put them together when cooled. The icing and decorations on
the cross cake can be as simple or elaborate as is required by the type
of event. Dragees, scrollwork, fondant cut outs and piped shells can
adorn the cake in different colors and textures.
Easter Cupcakes
Besides
cute egg filled baskets for Easter cupcakes you can also create many
gorgeous designs incorporating the traditional elements of the holiday
or simply the Spring season. Some possible ideas could include:
- Top cupcakes with pretty butterflies made from silicone molds and gum paste.
- Creative Easter bonnets with fondant cut outs and wild hat design elements.
- Pretty piped nests filled with candy coated eggs, jelly beans or chocolate eggs.
- Cupcakes that have cute bunnies complete with fondant ears and piped whiskers or rabbit holes surrounded by green grass and featuring a perky mini marshmallow bunny tail.
- Fondant or gum paste spring flowers nestled in fresh piped grass.
- Spring chick cupcakes made with fondant or by piping eyes, beaks and tiny feet. Shredded yellow coconut makes great feathers.
- Cuddly mini marshmallow lambs with black icing eyes and pink jelly bean noses.
source: about.com
