Collection: Easter Treats

So I have finally got around to sitting down and writing up what I made for Easter weekend. We celebrated it with a big meal at my boyfriends parents and I was put in charge of dessert after the last gathering had a little dessert disaster at the end, it makes me feel a bit queasy even now. I went with something big as it had to feed 7 people, four of which are actually bottomless pits. It is amazing how much they can eat and it just goes nowhere! They are the exception to the moment on the lips lifetime on the hips saying, it is very frustrating.

I have been wanting to do a carrot cake for ages so I picked that as my staple dessert, also cream cheese frosting is a massive hit with all of them and me as I’ve found one that just uses caster sugar and so isn’t too sweet. Then as a little extra and because I got given a cupcake corer for my birthday by my boyfriends mum, I was truly spoilt on my birthday it was incredible, I went with a seriously Easter themed cupcake with lime sponge, ganache/truffle filling and the speckled Easter eggs on top.

For the carrot cake I used this recipe and nearly had a melt down when the oil completely separated from the mixture it was pretty scary having a ball of batter floating in a pool of oil however seeing as there was nothing else I could do I kept mixing and eventually, eventually it came together, but it took a while and I really don’t think it needs that much oil it was very moist maybe a mix of oil and yoghurt instead. After that it was plain sailing, I divided it into three cases and they each took around 35-40 minutes at 160 degree I then left them over night to cool as I did it last thing in the evening.

It had just about come together at this point!!

The next morning I made the frosting using this recipe I have found, I think it tastes much better with 55g of sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Heat the butter in the microwave to make it really, really, really soft, possibly even a bit melted around the edges, usually 30 seconds in the microwave, roughly in 10s increments. Then add the sugar and beat vigorously and add the cream cheese cold straight out of the fridge and beat again. This is THE best way to get a smooth frosting.

I have to confess I am a terrible froster I fall to pieces at the sides, I never make enough and I never leave myself enough time but I am going to work on it and have found this great blog article on pinterest that I think will help. So after stacking with frosting in between I attempted to frost the outside and this is my result. Isn’t it massive!

For the cupcakes I used this basic vanilla cupcake recipe from bbc good food then added lime zest and a little bit of muscovado sugar (40g out of the 110g sugar) I used this recipe for the chocolate filling but tweaked it a little, I used 100g dark chocolate with 20g milk chocolate, 100ml of cream and 20g of butter. I've also used it properly for a xmas present to my dad and he loved them!

Once cooked and cooled I used the cupcake corer to dig out a hole in the middle and spooned my filling into a freezer bag then cut off a little bit of one corner and squeezed the chocolate through into each hole. You get a much tidier finish and it is a lot quicker to squeeze it out rather than spoon. Then I stuck on my eggs!

These were so much fun and I loved how they turned out and they all got eaten even with that massive carrot cake looming over them so I was a very happy bunny.