I love this Easter cake that I made last year. It’s a super easy watercolor buttercream technique, with a trendy drip and a cute little bunny cut-out! It would be a great centerpiece at your Easter gathering. If you’d prefer a video tutorial, scroll down to find my full tutorial on YouTube, as well as a supply list and links to some of my favorite recipes.
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I used two 2″ tall x 7″ round layers of lemon cake. I leveled and split the layers so I would end up with a total of four layers of cake. My cake was filled with delicious cream cheese icing (which is so, super yummy with lemon cake!). And, I added fresh blueberries for a fresh fruit element.
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My cake got a quick crumb coat of my American Style Buttercream… and after a quick chill, a smoothed finish coat of the same buttercream.
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It’s really easy to make the watercolor effect that I used on the side of my cake. You want to make sure your buttercream is freshly applied/smoothed. If you are using a crusting buttercream make sure you don’t allow it to crust. Then I used a small offset spatula to apply dollops of pastel colored buttercream, randomly around the side. Then a final smoothing with my bench scraper… and it’s that simple! At this point it’s time to put the cake in the refrigerator so it’s well chilled before the next step.
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I used a drip technique on the top of the cake. I made a white chocolate ganache (3:1 ratio) and allowed it to cool slightly so it would be a runny, but cooled consistency. I colored my ganache with white gel color and then just a bit of teal gel color to make a pretty pastel color. I find the white gel color essential when I make my drips. White chocolate ganache on it’s own will have a translucency. The white gel color with make the ganache opaque and help you achieve a true color when you tint it. I have a full supply list at the end of this post, if you are curious about exactly what I used.
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I like a more irregular pattern to my drips… so my technique is to pour a small amount of ganache onto the cold cake and use a small spatula to push it to the edge of the cake and level it out, this will encourage some natural drips. Then I quickly go in with some ganache in a pastry bag and enhance those drips and add others where needed. It is important to work quickly so the drip lines settle in with the rest of the ganache.
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While the ganache on the cake was setting up in the refrigerator I made a bunny cutout from some fondant- mixed with tylose powder. This will need some time to dry out and harden, so it’s an element you can do a few hours or even days before you make the cake. I printed a bunny silhouette from the internet, cut it out and inserted a toothpick before letting it dry.
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When my bunny was dry I brushed the outside with some brown petal dust. I wanted the piece to have a vintage, aged feel…
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It’s difficult to see in the pictures, but I dusted the ears and cheeks with some pale “cotton candy” petal dust, so they have a slight pink hue to them. Then I hand painted on face details and gave my bunny a cute blue bow-tie.
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With the ganache set and my bunny decorated, it was time to bring everything together. I created a simple wreath on top of the cake, by first piping a ring of buttercream to give it some dimension. Then I piped rosettes of pink, purple and yellow buttercream all around the top. I used different size start tips so my rosettes would have slightly different shapes.
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Then I used a leaf tip to give some final detail to my simple floral wreath.
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Then all that was left, was to place my cute bunny on top, centered in the wreath!
If you want to check out a full video tutorial, walking you through each step, check it out here:
RECIPES:
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake- https://youtu.be/z7_A56VFPMQ
Chocolate Cake Recipe- https://youtu.be/XdF2EaIzI4c
Vanilla Cake Recipe- https://youtu.be/qIc_C0RLyYA
Crusting Buttercream- https://youtu.be/Loammeek0iA
Swiss Meringue Buttercream- https://youtu.be/zpNQj61ookU
SUPPLIES:
Wilton 1M Tip: https://amzn.to/2IfFQws
Ateco 824 Tip: https://amzn.to/2GkJkkF
Wilton 352 Leaf Tip: https://amzn.to/2GGL9aY
Tipless Piping Bags: https://amzn.to/2GqgOKA
Lemon Yellow Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2GE1jlx
Dusty Rose Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2uyPWXj
Sky Blue Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2Gj8GiW
Eggplant Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2GnAXRt
Chocolate Brown Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2GJU0ZM
Wedgewood Blue Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2GmHZ8Z
Avocado Green Gel Color: https://amzn.to/2uBvCog
Baby Pink Petal Dust: https://amzn.to/2Igu98S
Brown Petal Dust: https://amzn.to/2pTnObK
White Petal Dust: https://amzn.to/2uBtay4
Offset Spatula: https://amzn.to/2GpIi2O
Tapered Offset Spatula: https://amzn.to/2E7xW65
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