Seasonal Baking: Celebratory Easter Recipes
Happy Easter weekend, everyone! It wouldn’t be the Easter long weekend without some sort of seasonal baking for dessert or afternoon tea at my house. I have fond memories of celebratory lunches over the years with my grandparents, complete with hand decorated eggs and retro, fluffy wee chickens. These days, I still love the excuse to set the table and create a themed bake, so here are some favourite recipes from over the years via my blog’s baking archives. I hope you make and enjoy them as much as I have over the years - and if hot cross buns are more your thing, check out my previous newsletter with my hot cross bun recipe round-up.
Chocolate, Orange and Almond Simnel Cake
This chocolate, orange and almond simnel cake combines a fudgy chocolate orange sponge, zesty mascarpone buttercream and homemade chocolate marzipan. It’s a great alternative to the traditional fruitcake, and it is Easter so a little chocolatey indulgence is definitely allowed! Recipe for the simnel cake via BBC Good Food, adapted to include my chocolate marzipan. Yum!
Easter Lemon Cake with Meringue Chicks
This very lemony cake with zesty sponge, lemon curd filling and lemon icing makes for a light and refreshing alternative to a chocolatey treat. The cake is made using the all-in-one method (adapted from a go-to Mary Berry recipe) and the meringue chicks (via Cupcake Jemma) make for a cute, seasonally appropriate decoration.
Simnel-Spiced Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
This cake makes the best of both beloved Easter ingredients: chocolate and spice! This is a moist chocolate sponge with an aromatic simnel-spiced salted caramel and light as air buttercream. The cake itself is an easy Mary Berry all-in-one again and the delicious salted caramel is adapted from chocolatier Paul A Young.
Plus, here are a few more bonus recipes from my archives that come highly recommended - I’d maxed out the pictures in this newsletter, so here’s a list for you to follow up if you want: Easter spice and citrus in dessert form in my hot cross bun cheesecakes; a baked white chocolate tart filled with whole chocolate eggs (pictured above); almost too cute to eat chocolate bunny macarons; zesty Easter lemon pavlova filled with homemade lemon curd; simple but delicious Easter lemon biscuits and leftover Easter rocky road. Plus tomorrow on my blog I’ve got a recipe going live for another pavlova: rhubarb, white chocolate and ginger (the first picture above). Happy long weekend baking!