Happy Easter!

Every year I make a cake for Easter, and this year was no exception. I went a bit simpler this time around, just because I was also hosting dinner. But I wanted the cake to be special, so I made a new kind of filling to go inside - lime curd! Last year my dad had bought a ton of limes at the grocery store and my mom had already had a ton of lime juice in the freezer so she gave them to me. Note to my readers - you can buy limes and lemons, juice them and put the juice in ice cube trays, then freezer bags when the juice is frozen. That way whenever you need a little bit of lime or lemon juice for a recipe, it's right there!

This lime curd was so easy to make. Lots of stirring but I didn't mind because the lime curd smelled wonderful. So fresh and summery - a real breath of fresh air after a long winter! Added to the yellow cake and it was delicious.

Here is my finished cake - complete with the last of my royal icing flowers. Which means that the next chance I get, I'll need to make a batch of royal icing to make more flowers for next time! And to add a little bit of fun, I piped some grass on top and put some jelly beans in there too - courtesy of my wonderful husband. He's a truck driver and one of his stops the week before Easter was at the Jelly Belly factory about 45 minutes south of where we live. One of the perks of being a truck driver - free jelly beans!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I can't believe I have been decorating cakes now for two years. Easter is one of my favorite times of year for cake decorating. I have been making Easter cakes for family get-togethers, and this is my third one. I love Easter so much because it's my time to brush up on my technique with making royal icing flowers. Last year I did an assortment; lilies, violets, apple blossoms, daffodils. This year I decided to keep it simple. Easter lilies, this time made with a bigger lily tip so the size is much truer, and some pink apple blossoms. And while I was at it, I made lots more apple blossoms for some cupcakes for the following weekend (but that's another story). The cake itself is a yummy carrot cake - it's a spice cake recipe, but not overly spiced and so wonderfully moist. The cake I used for this was actually frozen on St. Patrick's Day. I filled and frosted it with cream cheese frosting, added a basketweave design (can't have Easter without a basket!) added my flowers and a message, and - voila!

I hope everyone had a Blessed Easter!

Happy Easter!

For Easter, I volunteered (as I did last year) to make the cake for my family's gathering on Sunday. Honestly, I've been thinking about this cake, at some point or another, for the past year. At this time last year I had just finished my decorating basics cake class, so I hadn't known how to make all of the lovely flowers that one would associate with the Easter season. When I learned how to make them a few weeks later, I got so excited about making my next Easter cake (especially since I learned how to make lilies!)

Well, fast forward several months, and there I was, with several bags of royal icing in assorted colors, and I suddenly came to the realization that I hadn't made a single flower in a whole year. Most, if not all of my cakes since then have been decorated with either cartoon characters or fondant cut-outs. So out came my flowers and cake design book, my flower nail templates, and I got to work basically re-teaching myself how to make all of these gorgeous flowers. I think they all turned out pretty good.

The cake itself was made with an old family recipe - a yellow carrot cake with lemon curd filling. After frosting it (and fighting with lemon curd that desperately wanted to escape!) I decorated the sides with basketweave and arranged a pile of flowers on top. Very yummy and something that the Easter bunny would undoubtedly approve of!

Happy Easter everyone!