Resurrections cakes for Easter breakfast or dessert

This cake was baked in a bundt pan, then cut off center so the hole is all on one side. The smaller portion is placed in the back to form the back of the empty grave, but off set so that it becomes a hill for 3 crosses. The easiest way to make trees is to use “real” ones--parsley, celery, rosemary, and mint all make good “trees.” You can make sweet trees, but they take a lot more work. (See link below.) The cloth is made of fondant, so it is edible, too, but you could use a strip of real cloth, if you prefer--just don’t eat it! If you want to serve it for breakfast, use a coffee cake recipe--our favorite is carrot cake--that way, you get your vegetables, too!

 

 

This is a no-bake version made with cereal. Melt marshmallows and butter, then stir in any kind of unsweetened cereal. To form the empty grave, lay a mug on it’s side, and press the warm mixture over the top. Form a handful into a disc for the grave stone. The crosses are made with chocolate filled cookie sticks (Toppo sold in Japan) but they could be made with pretzel sticks, bread sticks, or chocolate. I tie the cross pieces on with thread, but you can fasten it on with icing instead--just lay them flat until the icing hardens. I used chocolate rocks to mark a path to the empty grave, but it did not show up very well in the photo, so I sprinkled cocoa powder on the path and the stone that was rolled away.

 

A lamb cake can be used any time during the Easter season, not just Easter day. This one was made in a lamb shaped cake pan, but I suppose you could make one by baking a sheet cake, then cut it in half, stack them and cut it in the shape of the body. The head could be baked in a small stainless steel bowl, or oven proof glass bowl. When assembling, the head could be kept in place with two dowels or chopsticks.

These are egg shaped cupcakes--you need a special pan to bake them. You can color the dough before you bake it by adding food color to portions of the dough. It is difficult to control where the colors will end up if you want multiple colors in each cupcake. It is much easier to make each one just one color. You can also color them after they are baked by using easy pour icing or pouring melted white chocolate that has been colored, over the tops. If you prefer natural color, add frozen blueberries and rasberries to the batter. Stir as little as possible for dots of color, or let them melt first, then stir them in for pink, lavender and slate blue cupcakes, depending on the combinations.

This cake is for celebrating Palm Sunday. It represents Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey colt. The chocolate sheet cake has dark brown sugar sprinkled on top to form a road and the rocks that would have praised Jesus if the people hadn’t. The palm branches and coats are made out of fondant, so they are edible. I wanted to make the donkey out of a cookie or chocolate, so it would be edible, too, but didn’t have time. So if you are short on time, just stick any toy horse or donkey, or figurine on the cake. This one was a wooden decorations from the 100 yen store--3 flat horses on a string. I cut off the string and taped 2 together to make it stand up. You can always wrap the legs in plastic wrap so it doesn’t adversely affect the cake.

 

Fondant recipe