An Easter Feast - Take 2

Well folks, Easter is just days away now. Even though we'll have to celebrate from home, that doesn't mean Easter will be any less special. We can watch church services online, prepare a nice dinner, eat chocolate and candy, and wear our Sunday Best (stay tuned for that post!)

Today, I'm sharing a recap of last year's Easter tablescape and the cake, one of my proudest moments in baking. :) For even more ideas, you can revisit the 2018 Easter Feast here! I originally got the idea for an Easter Feast from Mary Berry. She had a lovely show where she interviewed people of all different denominations, and they shared their baking traditions for the Easter holiday. Here are the links for Episode 1 and Episode 2. So neat to watch!

The Tablescape

I think I say this every time, but this is perhaps my favorite tablescape to date. I just love the look of the forsythia branches, the glassware, and touches of pink and yellow against the white lace.

I added a few whimsical Easter-y touches to the table setting as well. How cute is this bunny napkin fold? Here's how to get this look at home... (I'll admit, mine are a bit free-form because I wasn't working with perfect quality linen napkins, but they do still resemble bunnies. Haha!)

In lieu of place cards, I wrote our names on some hard-boiled eggs with crayon. This would be a great project for kiddos while their parents are preparing Easter dinner. Maybe it could be a mini-lesson about writing in cursive?

The Cake

As I mentioned, this was great moment in baking for me. Though it might look intimidating at first glance, it's really just a sheet cake, so it's easier to work with than say, a 3-layer cake.

If you'd like to try something similar, here's the recipe. (The chocolate cinnamon filling is absolutely incredible!) Also, a handy diagram for how to divide up the sheet cake and re-assemble the pieces into a cross. I will warn, this cake takes up serious space. In the photo below, it's sitting on two cookie sheets covered with parchment paper.

I used my favorite foolproof chocolate buttercream to frost it. To achieve the woody texture, just make some irregular swiping motions with a frosting spatula. The crown of thorns I made separately on a piece of wax paper. Melt some chocolate chips and flick the melted chocolate onto wax paper with a fork, roughly in a circle. We want it to look jaggedy, like thorns. Lastly, I piped on the bible verse with vanilla buttercream. To be honest, you don't even need a piping bag and fancy Wilton tip to do this. Just a Ziploc with a teeny corner cut out of it will do the job just as well. Room temperature buttercream will pipe easier than chilled buttercream, especially when it comes to detailed script like this.

Oh and as a bonus, I'll include a sneak peak of this year's tablescape and dessert board. Holidays are the best excuse for indulging in sweets, aren't they? ;)

See you soon for a special Sunday Best!

Thank you for stopping by,

Eva