loveliest easter cakes ever

Here’s the deal on Easter cakes. I have a friend whose family holds a cake contest every Easter. She starts strategizing on ways to improve her coconut bunny weeks ahead of time.  I, too, have my own bunny cake memories, but they are troubling. Throughout my childhood, we spent Easter day at  my grandmother’s, along with staggering amounts of cousins, aunts and uncles. And of course we had our annual egg hunt. Ahh, those sweet memories – of patent leather shoes and crinoline dresses, budding Forsythia bushes, the smell of Spring in the air… and (dark music) the bunny cake.

Here’s the deal. I’m fairly sure my Aunt Mabel* doesn’t read my blog, so I’m going to bare my soul here. She always presented the grand prize for the egg hunt winner – the most beautiful, coconut covered bunny cake I’d ever seen. Gasps of wonderment escaped from the mouths of the children gathered around as she unloaded this spectacular confection from her car. Just once, I wanted to win that cake. Unfortunately, in addition to Aunt Mabel’s* cake-making skills, she also had two overly-protected sons… and guess who won the cake? Every. Single. Year.

In an effort to move beyond my traumatic childhood bunny cake experiences, I’ve decided to make my own Easter cake this year. In my hunt for the perfect recipe, I came across these amazing and lovely Easter cakes that I just have to share.  

speckled egg cake

This malted coconut cake by Country Living takes my breath away. As if the speckled frosting isn’t lovely enough, miniature speckled eggs are added on top of Phyllo nests.

easter egg layer cake

The pretty pastel layers of this cake definitely scream Spring. The recipe for this vanilla cake topped with buttercream icing, Cadbury eggs, and toasted coconut can be found at I Heart Naptime.

chocolate egg cake

What’s more delectable than decadent, rich chocolate? And the symbolism behind this beautiful cake from Easy and Delish is just as lovely as the cake itself. The egg is a universal symbol of rebirth and resurrection; what better way to honor the resurrection of Jesus than with this egg-decorated cake.

Un gâteau de potager

Given my love of miniature villages (check out my Christmas village, French crèche and scarecrow village), it’s no surprise that this cake from Marie Claire Idees is my favorite. A carrot cake topped with an entire vegetable garden (or potager, as the French would say!) Radishes, lettuce, even a rabbit fashioned from almond paste. Now those are some veggies any child will eat.

vintage bunny cake

I showcased this cake in a previous post (French inspired Easter crafts), but it deserves a second showing. How sweet! A vintage bunny straight out of a fairy tale. For the French, details matter, even when it comes to a cake that will surely be eaten in much less time than it took to create it! If you don’t have the equipment and supplies necessary to print the design onto an edible transfer sheet, you can use an online service to do it for you, such as Edible Tasty Prints. Then add marzipan flowers and letters as you wish. You can learn more about this project from Marie Claire Idees.

bunny family cake

I’m in love with the fresh simplicity of this cake – shiny white frosting topped with a family of paper bunnies. I love the natural and white color palette as well as the adorable paper egg garland. Unfortunately, I found this cake on a German cooking blog (Petite Homemade) and my attempts at translating weren’t very enlightening. Nonetheless, the picture is worth a thousand words. With a bit of imagination, it shouldn’t be difficult to replicate.  

coconut bunny cake

Move over Aunt Mabel*, cause this bunny cake will beat yours any day of the week. The Cake Blog provides a wonderful tutorial for this precious and easy Easter cake. You don’t even have to dye coconut; it’s topped with edible grass! I’m sold. Still a bit traditional, yet fresh and colorful. This is the cake I’m going to make this year, and I’m going to eat it, too… right after the egg hunt… that I’m going to win.

*The name Mabel is a pseudonym but the actual aunt is very, very real.