Easter Cake

Ahh... Easter 😊 I love this season. Flowers are blooming, temperatures are getting warmer, and people are grilling. This Easter fell on a rainy day so our family outing turned into an Easter Saturday. I wanted to make something cute and edible. I like to google ideas and then make them my own. For this Easter  I made a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting and attempted to decorate it into a lamb. Here is what I came up with.

To make this cake, you will need: 

Ingredients for Cake:

1 Strawberry cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Delights)

1 Pink Jelly Bean

1 Bag of Marshmallows, large

Black Icing

Pink Sugar to decorate

Ingredients for Icing:

1 tsp Vanilla

2 (8oz) packs of Cream Cheese

1/2 cup of butter

2 cups of confectioners sugar

1 cup of diced strawberries (not shown in picture)

* The first thing you want to do it take out your cream cheese and butter from the fridge and let them sit out for about and hour. This frosting is super easy and delicious but it is crucial that you let them warm at room temperature. 

Step 1: Bake your make mix following the directions on the box.  I made 2 -9inch cakes with this box. It is important that you make them and let the cakes completely cool off before you add the frosting. If you add your frosting to the cake while it is warm, it will make the frosting runny and it will be difficult to decorate. 

Step 2: Now that your cake is made, it is time to make your frosting. In a hand held or stand mixer combine your cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Beat it for a few seconds.

Step 3: I like to place my strainer over the stand mixer bowl to sift my confectioners sugar. 

*I measure my confectioners sugar like I do my flour. Spoon in the measured amount into your measuring cup until it overflows. Do not pack it down, this adds more sugar that what you actually need. Then gently level off the extra sugar with a butter knife or a straight surface to make it exactly a cup.

Now all your ingredients are in and you want to combine until nice and smooth. You should not have any lumps from the cream cheese. You may need to scrape the sides of the mixer to ensure this does not happen.

* Initially start on low speed and when most of the confectioners sugar has incorporated into the mix, you can increase the speed. If you start on high speed, you may end up with a dust cloud of sugar which may be fun, but it will get messy. 

Step 4: Wash and dry your strawberries. Cut them into small cubes.  In a separate bowl, take a small amount of your frosting (less than 1/2 cup) and combine your strawberries and frosting with a spoon. This will be our cake filling. The strawberries help so our cake is not too sweet and adds to our strawberry cake theme. 

Step 5: Time to make our cake! Place one of your 9 inch cakes on the plate you will be serving it on. Place your strawberry filling and spread it around so it covers the whole surface. Try to avoid the very edge so it does not mix with our frosting later. 

Step 6: Place the other 9 inch cake on top and pour a large scoop of frosting in the middle and begin to cover your cake with frosting.  Go slowly so that the frosting covers the cake and you do not break crumbs from the cake. This may happen and don't sweat over it, nothing is perfect. 😀

Step 7: Now comes the fun part. Place your marshmallows around to make it resemble the hair on the sheep. Dip two marsh mellows into the frosting to make the pink sugar stick. These will resemble the ears. Make the eyes and mouth with the black frosting and place one jelly bean for its nose. Ta DAA! All done. Place your cake in the fridge for about and hour or until ready to eat. This will harden the frosting so the marshmallows stay in place. Happy Easter! 🐇