For many of us, the Easter menu is a set piece, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Family tradition dictates the dishes, and they don’t vary much from year to year. Ham or lamb usually centers the table. The rest of the dishes suggest the delicate beauty of the arriving season: new potatoes, asparagus or tender baby greens. You probably know your favorite menu by heart and can almost prepare it in your sleep.
Easter also is a time for frippery and froth. Tradition suggests you not insult the goddess of spring by wearing raggedy old clothes–a perfect excuse for fancy new duds. We’re guessing that the goddess of spring would be equally insulted by a dull old dessert.
Because this is one time when the way the dessert looks, like your new Easter bonnet, is way more important than what’s beneath, let’s turn to cake decorating pros who have plenty of ideas for making your cake a showstopper.
Lori Parrett owns Cakewalk Chicago, a specialty-baking boutique, and Mark Seaman owns Marked for Dessert, also in Chicago, where he styles wedding and special-occasion cakes. Nancy Siler is vice president of consumer affairs for Wilton Industries, the baking supply manufacturer based in Woodridge.
We gathered some of their ideas for the kind of simple-to-do-but-look-really-complicated decorations that will wow your guests.
Change the pan’s shape
“Poundcake is firm enough to be versatile, to cut and shape in different ways,” Parrett said. “Why not bake it in egg-shaped pans, ice them together, and you’ve got a 3-D cake?”
Parrett had another idea: “Bake the cake in individual-sized egg-shaped pans. Turn them over so the flat side is the top. Scoop out the bottom just a little bit, and cover the whole top with confectioner’s sugar. Then put lemon pudding or lemon curd in that little hole you made. It will look like a deviled egg or a hard-boiled egg.”
Said Siler: “You don’t have to do a layer cake. I would bake that poundcake in a cast-aluminum pan (like a decorative bundt pan), then glaze it. Tint the glaze pink or yellow to make it look more elegant.”
Both Parrett and Siler noted that most specialty baking pans have suggested baking times and temperatures on their packaging, which would help you accommodate the recipes.
Seaman suggested a nest motif, another spring classic: “Dye some coconut yellow, then put it around the base of a bundt cake to make a nest. Then fill the center with chocolate eggs–half wrapped in gold foil and half unwrapped. Jelly beans or edible flowers would look good, too, to decorate the nest or fill the middle.”
Change the cake’s shape
“There’s the classic bunny cake,” Seaman said, “where you bake two round cakes, leave one intact for the face and cut the other one into the ears and a bow tie. Use some fluffy white icing, then licorice for the whiskers and tint some coconut pink for the nose.
“Or how about an Easter egg? Cut a strip from the middle of a round layer, then push the ends together and you’ve got an oval. Use white icing, then melt chocolate candies and put them into a zip-top bag and squeeze the melted candies onto the cake to make it look like an Easter egg.”
Change the cake itself
“You can use icing color to tint the batter of a vanilla cake,” Siler said. “We use paste icing color because it doesn’t dilute the cake. If you use food coloring, you might have to adjust the liquid in the recipe.
“Anyway, tint some of the batter different colors [in separate bowls], then swirl the batters together or drop different colored batters by large spoons full into the main batter in the pan. I would use jelly beans and colored coconut on white icing for that cake.”
Paste icing color is available at craft stores such as Michael’s and Hobby Lobby, and at baking specialty shops. For tinting sugars, it’s easier to use a powdered product called Petal Dust.
The edible Play-Doh approach
“Ice the cake,” Parrett said. “Then take marzipan, rolled fondant or modeling chocolate. Use either white or chocolate, or color it if you wish.
“Kids love to do this, it’s a great activity for hands-on. They can make carrots, little rabbits, whatever they wish. It gets everybody involved and you can make 3-D scenes.”
Fancy it up with fondant
A mixture of sugar, water and cream of tartar, fondant can be rolled out or melted to cover cakes smoothly and perfectly. Fondant is available in most grocery stores (look near the confectioners’ sugar and frostings), and cake decorating stores sell many colors.
“On the Easter egg idea, cut out circles of fondant for a polka-dot Easter egg. Or cut strips for a striped one. Kids can help with that, and they’ll love it,” Seaman said.
“Or, if you’re making the bunny or the nest ideas, cut a long narrow strip, brush one end with water and make a loop. Then turn the loop on its side so it will dry. Make as many as you want for bows.”
Even fancier fondant
“If you really want to get fancy with fondant, emboss a design on those strips or cutouts,” Seaman said. “Use miniature cookie cutters, little ducks or bunnies. Then dust the cutouts with Luster Dust or Petal Dust,” available at cake decorating stores. “If you don’t want to buy the dusts, you can grind kids’ non-toxic chalks into dust, and then use that.”
Cookie cutter cut-ups
Meanwhile, Parrett has another idea for those cookie cutters. “Ice the cake smoothly, as smoothly as you can,” she said. “Icing covers a multitude of sins, and we want to get the sin out, especially at Easter. Use a cookie cutter to emboss a shape into the icing, then fill it in with colored sugars, or ice it in, or cut the same shapes out of fondant. If you let them dry, or if you use molded chocolates, you can stand them upright on top of the cake, or stick them on the sides.”
Frosting follies
If all of these ideas still seem like too much work, Siler has some even easier suggestions. “Cover the cake with ganache [chocolate melted in cream], and line malted milk balls around the base of the cake,” she said. “Then pipe non-dairy topping in rosettes. You don’t even need a tip. It would be prettier with a star tip, but you wouldn’t have to have one. Then put some Marshmallow Peeps on top.
“Or ice the cake with dark chocolate icing on the sides, and mocha on the top. Chocolate jimmies sprinkled over the top are very elegant, kind of a simpler chocolate shaving. Or, pipe a shell border around the bottom, a shell border around the top, and cover the top with sliced almonds,” she said.
The most important thing in all of this is simple, the pros said.
“The idea is to have fun,” Parrett said. “It’s so much fun to do [cake-decorating]. It’s all beautiful. Just remember that the recipient is going to love it.”
Seaman agreed. “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right,” he said. “This is the same message I give my students in an advanced wedding cake class at Kendall College. People can take a very simple technique, and make a very wow! kind of cake.”
Seaman also advised giving yourself lots of time. “Don’t try to do this in a 15-minute window,” he said. “I encourage people to bake the cake one day, then ice it the next day. And if you want to finish it the third day, that’s OK. It won’t spoil.”
Rich orange butter cake
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 27 minutes
Yield: 1 layer cake, 12 servings
– This cake, pictured on the cover, is adapted from “The Weekend Baker,” by Abigail Johnson Dodge. “Inherently moist and buttery, it holds up well at room temperature and freezes wonderfully,” she writes. If you like, cut the layers in half for a more dramatic presentation, as shown on the cover; you may need to double the frosting recipe.
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 4 teaspoon each: baking soda, salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/ 3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest
4 large eggs
1 cup orange juice
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; whisk until well blended. Set aside. Beat the butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and the orange zest; beat until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half of the flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Add the orange juice; mix just until blended. Add the remaining flour mixture; mix just until blended. Pour the batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.
2. Bake until light brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out with just a few small crumbs attached, about 27-35 minutes. Transfer the pans to a rack; let cool about 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around the pan sides to loosen the cakes. Invert the pans on the rack; lift off the pans. Let the cakes cool completely before icing.
Nutrition information per serving (without icing):
368 calories, 42% of calories from fat, 17 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 111 mg cholesterol, 49 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 202 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Fastest fudge cake
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
– “Here’s an emergency foolproof cake too good to save for an emergency,” writes Alice Medrich in “Chocolate Holidays.” “Don’t even look for the mixer. I get the best results stirring with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon. For speed, melt the butter in a large microwave-safe mixing bowl to eliminate a dirty pot.”
1 cup flour
1 4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 4 teaspoon salt
1 1/ 4 cups packed brown sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted unsalted butter, warm
2 eggs, cold or at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup hot water
1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Combine the brown sugar and warm butter in a large bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla; stir until well blended. Add the flour mixture; stir only until all the flour is moistened. Pour the hot water over the batter. Stir only until the water is incorporated and the batter is smooth; pour into a greased 8-inch square pan.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack about 10 minutes. Slide a slim knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack. Turn the cake right side up; cool completely on a rack.
Nutrition information per serving:
322 calories, 36% of calories from fat, 13 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 83 mg cholesterol, 48 g carbohydrates, 4 g protein, 184 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Buttermilk lemon poundcake
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 12 servings
– “Light and lemon-flavored, with a slight, pleasing tartness from the buttermilk,” writes Marion Cunningham in “The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.” You also can bake this cake in two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans.
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon each: baking soda, baking powder
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 cup buttermilk
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder onto a large piece of wax paper.
2. Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the sugar, beating constantly, until smooth and well blended. Add the eggs; beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Sprinkle about half of the flour mixture over the butter mixture; beat until well blended. Stir the lemon extract and lemon zest into the buttermilk. Beat half the buttermilk mixture into the batter. Add the remaining flour and buttermilk mixtures; beat until the batter is smooth and well blended.
4. Pour the batter into greased and floured bundt pan; bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 1-11/4 hours. Remove from the oven; let cool on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto the rack to cool completely.
Nutrition information per serving:
411 calories, 37% of calories from fat, 17 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 111 mg cholesterol, 58 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 419 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Cream cheese frosting with variations
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 cups (12 servings)
– “There are two big secrets to perfectly smooth cream cheese frosting with enough body to spread in dramatic swirls or even pipe through a pastry bag,” according to “The Joy of Cooking,” from which this recipe is adapted. “First, overbeating breaks down the cream cheese and produces grainy-look-ing frosting that is too soft to hold a shape. Second, cold (not softened) cream cheese produces the best texture.” This keeps, refrigerated, for about 1 week. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
1 package (8 ounces) cold cream cheese, chilled
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 to 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1. Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a medium bowl just until blended. Add the confectioners’ sugar a third at a time; beat just until smooth and spreadable.
Variations:
Citrus: Add 1 tablespoon grated lemon or orange zest.
Cinnamon: Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or to taste.
Liqueur: Add 1 tablespoon of any liqueur.
Chocolate: Melt 5 ounces chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate with 3 tablespoons water or coffee. Stir often until smooth. Let cool to lukewarm. Stir into frosting.
Nutrition information per serving:
188 calories, 53% of calories from fat, 11 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 33 mg cholesterol, 20 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 57 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Chocolate modeling clay
Chocolate modeling clay is easy to make. This version, from the Field Museum’s Web site, is similar to most that we’ve seen. For firmer, less sticky clay, add a bit more chocolate or less syrup; for softer clay, use less chocolate or more syrup. Use it for making Easter bunnies or other decorations.
10 ounces semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate, or confectionary coating
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl in a saucepan that contains hot, but not boiling, water. Make sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl’s bottom.
2. Melt the chocolate, making sure that its temperature doesn’t go over 100 degrees.
3. Add the corn syrup. Stir with a rubber spatula, folding and mixing until no shiny syrup is visible. Turn the clay out onto a sheet of wax paper. Pat it into a 7-inch square with the spatula. Let stand at room temperature about 2 hours, or until firm. Use at once, or store in an air-tight container at room temperature up to one month.
–Robin Mather Jenkins
How to tint coconut and sugar
Shredded coconut, granulated sugar and confectioner’s sugar are simple to tint, which makes them even more versatile in decorating. These tips are from Baking911.com.
You’ll need:
– zip-top plastic bags or bowls
– sugar or coconut
– toothpicks
– colors
Paste icing colors work best for granulated and confectioners’ sugar because they don’t dissolve the sugar. Look for Petal Dust in craft or baking specialty stores if you want to tint confectioners’ sugar.
Place a dab of color on a toothpick. Place toothpick and the material to be colored in a zip-top bag; seal and shake until color is evenly distributed.
To tint coconut with liquid food coloring, sprinkle a little food coloring over coconut in a bowl and stir, using gloved hands, until color is distributed. A little food coloring goes a long way.
R.M.J.
Pick an Easter pan
Dimensions tulip cake pan by Wilton is at Sur la Table stores, $28.
Mini-egg pan by Wilton is at Michael’s stores, $11.
Bunny cake pan from NordicWare is at Willliams-Sonoma stores, $37.
———-
rjenkins@tribune.com
