Two things inspired these Easter cakes. First, Molly of course. The second thing, is my pregnancy and my craving for NEW treat-size SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies. Some of you may have seen on my instagram lately that I send Kevin out to buy me these things regularly (what a good husband) because I’m addicted to them! Not only are they are soooo good, but they’re free of artificial flavors and colors –and they make for the perfect Easter treat! 

So what I did was what any normal pregnant woman would do – I made 3 cakes using them! Ha! I think the cakes came out super cute and would be REALLY fun to make with your kiddos. Molly’s a little too young to get involved making them. But trust me, she was more than happy to get involved with eating some of them.

I separated out the ingredients by cake in case you decide to only make one, but I recommend doing all 3 at once so you can really get creative with the toppings! For example, even though I have 6 bags of Jelly Beans listed in the ingredients below, I really only used 4 bags of Jelly Beans because I was able to separate out the colors I wanted for each cake. So out the of 4 bags of Jelly Beans I used, I could take out certain colors for certain cakes and have leftovers. If I only made the “carrot” cake below, I would take out the orange Jelly Beans and have all the other colors left over. Which isn’t a bad thing. They are so yummy for snacking! I hope that makes sense! If you have questions, ask me in the comment below!

Ok so here is what you need to make the cakes! 

Ingredients for Pot of Gold Cake

1 box of white cake mix (4 eggs, oil and water per instructions of box)

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 bag of SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies

1 bag of SweeTARTS Jelly Beans 

1 package of SweeTARTS Rope

Ingredients for “Carrot” Cake

1 box of white cake mix (4 eggs, oil and water per instructions of box)

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 bag of SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies

3 bags of SweeTARTS Jelly Beans 

Ingredients for Flower Cake 

2 boxes of white cake mix (8 eggs, oil and water per instructions of box)

1 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 bag of SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies

2 bags of SweeTARTS Jelly Beans 

Now that we have our ingredients here is how you make the cakes!!!

Pot of Gold Cake 

I just think this cake it so much fun! The rainbow reminds me of Spring and the colors are really fun for Easter! I actually think the cake would be super cute for St. Patrick’s Day too which is this weekend! Maybe use all green SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies for the border to make it more festive for St. Patty’s! I put a little pot of gold on the top, but what’s even more fun is that when you cut into this cake, there is a pot of gold inside because it’s filled with bright yellow SweeTARTS Jelly Beans! So fun!

Directions for Pot of Gold Cake 

Mix all your ingredients per the directions on the white cake mix box. My cake mix actually said to add 3 eggs, but I think cake is more fluffy using just egg whites, so I used 4 egg whites instead! Plus it ensures the cake stays nice and white – without any hints of yellow. The directions said to use an electric mixer but we honestly don’t even own one! So I just whisked them together and still got really fluffy cake!

Then mix in 1/2 cup of rainbow sprinkles to turn it into a Funfetti cake. 

Separate the batter into three 5” cake pans. You could use 4” or even 6” if that works better for you. And then bake the cakes per the directions on your cake mix box.

Once the cakes are finished baking and you let them cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Take them out of the pans and pull one layer aside. 

Use a round cookie cutter to cut a hole out of the middle of one of your layers of cake. This will be the center layer of your cake.

Place one whole layer for the bottom of your cake cover it with vanilla icing and then place the layer with the hole in it on top of that first layer of cake. This is where the secret pot of gold in the middle of the cake comes in! You’ll then fill that hole with yellow SweeTARTS Jelly Beans! Add another layer of icing to the cake and then top with another whole layer of the cake. Then use an icing spatula to ice the entire cake with vanilla frosting.

Now for the really fun part! The decorating!

I laid out rows of the SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies using the colors in the same order over and over again. This made it easy for me to then quickly assemble them in a row at the bottom of the cake. 

Then use a star tip on an icing bag to create two rosettes on either side of the cake to make “clouds.”

Take two SweeTARTS Candy Ropes out of the package. Cut one in half and leave the other whole.

Stick each end in the icing cloud. First put in the whole rope and then layer the candy rope you cut in half in front of it. 

I found a cute little black pot at the craft store that I used at the base of my rainbow and filled with yellow SweeTARTS Jelly Bean gold!

My Version of a “Carrot” Cake

I LOVE this cake! I feel like it looks like a professional baker decorated it. The carrot design on top is soooo easy to make and looks awesome! And the green and orange colors scream Springtime! And the best part about this professional looking cake, it’s honestly the easiest of the 3 to make! Here is what you do…

Directions for “Carrot” Cake

Mix all your ingredients per the directions on the white cake mix box. Like I did with the Pot of Gold cake, I used egg whites instead of whole eggs.

Then mix in 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles to turn it into a Funfetti cake.

Pour batter into an 8 inch cake pan. I only did one layer of cake for this one. But you could easily put it into two 8 inch cake pans and have two layers. Your baking time would just be shorter because there is less batter in each pan. Bake the cake(s) according to the directions on the cake mix box. 

Using an icing spatula, ice the sides and top of the cake.

Time to decorate!

Using the SweeTARTS Sour Bunny Gummies, create a carrot shape like I did in the photo below. As you can see in the photo, the green bunnies are upside down and angled inward, and the orange bunnies are right side up and in five rows starting with 5 gummy bunnies at the top and just one at the bottom.

Then cover the sides of the cake by placing rows of orange SweeTARTS Jelly Beans all around the border. Keep building the layers until you get to the top edge of the cake.

And that’s it! This one is super simple but looks professionally done in my opinion!

Flower Cake

Everything about this cake says Easter and Springtime to me. The flowers are pretty and girlie and just looking at it makes me forget about all this cold weather we’ve been having. I also filled the cake with rainbow SweeTARTS Jelly Beans.

Directions for Flower Cake

Same as the other cakes, mix all your ingredients per the directions on the white cake mix box.

Mix in 1 cup rainbow sprinkles to turn it into a Funfetti cake (1/2 cup per box).

Separate the batter into three 8” cake pans and bake them per the directions on your cake mix box.

Once done baking, let cakes cool for 10 to 15 minutes and the take them out of the pans – pulling one layer aside. 

Use a round cookie cutter to cut a hole out of the middle of one of your layers of cake. This will be the center layer of your cake. The bigger the cookie cutter, the more Jelly beans you can fit inside!

Use one whole layer as the bottom of your cake, cover it with vanilla icing and then place the layer with the hole in it on top of that first layer of cake. You’ll then fill that hole with SweeTARTS Jelly Beans! You can choose a color or go with rainbow colors (all of them!) like I did. Add another layer of icing to the cake and then top with another whole layer of the cake. Then use an icing spatula to ice the entire cake with vanilla frosting.

And once again, we decorate!

You’ll need 6 gummies of the same color to create the leaves for each flower and one gummy for the center (placed as seen in the pictures below). Tip: Make sure the bunny ears are closest to the center of the flower and the bunny bottoms are the outer part of the leaf.

Use SweeTARTS Jelly Beans to create a border around the bottom of the cake and the top edge of the cake. I used green to represent the grass, but use any color you’d like and have fun with it!

Well there you have it! You will have just as much fun making these cakes as you will eating them! Let me know what you guys think in the comments below! And share any decorating and/or Easter ideas you have with me too! I want this Easter to be really special for Molly.

Thank you SweeTARTS for teaming up with me for this post! I’m obsessed with your candy! No really. Thank you for getting me through my pregnancy. Ha!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SweeTARTS. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Easter Candy Cakes! appeared first on Ali Manno (Fedotowsky).

Anyone else as excited as I am? Having a child makes every holiday that more special to me! And since it’s Molly’s first Easter, I want to start family traditions that we will continue through her entire childhood. And if she’s into it, hopefully her teen years and adulthood too  So I thought I would share some of the traditions we are starting with Molly.

Also, I’m sharing A LOT in this post, but make sure to stick around to the end of the post because I’m sharing a SUPER FUN giveaway that I am doing with American Egg Board! So You guys can win so really awesome stuff! I’m so excited to share the contest with you guys!

Decoration Eggs

But first, let’s talk traditions! The tradition I am most looking forward to is decorating eggs! It’s one of my favorite Easter memories growing up. And I’m not talking about the old dip your egg in food color type of thing – though that’s fun too! I’m trying some instagram worthy egg decorating ideas! Polka dots, temporary tattoos, glitter and decorating brown eggs! That’s right – egg decorating isn’t just for white eggs. I actually think decorating brown eggs is very chic! Anywho, I’m no Pinterest mom.  Ha! Meaning, these techniques are EASY and anyone can do them and make beautiful eggs this Easter! First things first – head to the grocery store and grab a few dozen eggs. I got 4 dozen for the 3 of us. Ha! Can you tell I was super excited to decorate? I see a lot of egg salad sandwiches in our future. And deviled eggs! But I’ll get to that in a minute.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Let me show you guys what I did!

First, hard-boil all your eggs. I did a dozen at a time in a big pot. You should only lay enough eggs down to form one layer at the bottom of the pot. If you try to do more than that, they will break easily. Cover the eggs with 1 to 2 inches of water and bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water starts boiling you can remove the pot from the heat source but leave it covered for 10 to 12 minutes. Rinse eggs in cold water.

Now it’s time to decorate!

Polka Dot Eggs

This is ridiculously easy. All you need is some paint and a pencil. And incredible edible eggs of course! Just dip the eraser side of the pencil in the color paint you want, and apply the end to the surface of your egg. It’s that simple!

Temporary Tattoos

When I first heard about this Easter egg decorating trend, I immediately thought of all the silly kid tattoos that I could use with Molly when she gets a little older. However, this year I decided to use my kind of tattoos! Metallic flash tattoos! So I bought some of my favorite metallic flash tattoo designs online, cut out the shapes I wanted, and simply applied them to my eggs using a damp paper towel to transfer the tattoo over. The same exact way you would do if you were putting it on your skin! Different tattoos might have different instructions. But just follow the instructions for putting it on your skin to put it on your eggs. These eggs might be my favorite! I’m not super artistic, so I let the tattoos do the art for me!

Glitter Eggs

For this technique you’ll need glitter, modge podge glue, and ziplock bags. I had a little bit of trial and error when I was trying to do the glitter eggs. Let me explain. The first thing you do is cover your egg in the glue. You can use a paintbrush or foam brush to do this, but I just rolled it in the glue on a paper plate and used my fingers to rub it all over the egg. We’re not fancy in our household! At first, I used another paper plate for the glitter and tried rolling the egg in the glitter. However, this didn’t really work for me. The egg had bare spots and the glitter was getting clumpy on the egg. So then I tried Plan B, and put the glitter in a Ziploc bag. After covering the egg with glue, I just dropped the egg in the bag of glitter, sealed it up, and gently shook the bag with the egg inside. I found that this technique gave me evenly covered eggs! Give it a try and let me know what you think! I got rainbow glitter because I thought it would be the most fun for Molly to look at. But just using gold and black glitter or black and silver could be really pretty if you’re looking for more chic work. But you’ve got to go with the rainbow glitter if you have kiddos!

Brown eggs

Decorating brown eggs was my absolute favorite! I never in a million years thought I would feel that way. Growing up, we always decorated white eggs. That’s just what we did. But now that I found out how gorgeous decorating brown eggs is, I’m forever a fan!  All I used to decorate the brown eggs was a white paint marker. I just googled one online and bought it. And then, well, I just drew stuff! I looked online for some inspiration for different patterns. But for some I just had fun with it and doodled. And of course I wrote Molly’s name on one. And I just think they look so modern! You guys have to give this technique a try! It’s my fave!

After we were done decorating, I realized we had a ton of eggs and I didn’t want to waste them! Obviously, I wanted to enjoy our work for a few days so I decided to use a few of the hard-boiled eggs in some fun recipes!

Let’s Cook!

There are two things that I absolutely love to make with hard-boiled eggs. Well, that’s when I’m not eating them plain. Because they’re just so good. First, is an egg salad sandwich. It’s my absolute favorite kind of sandwich! I don’t know if I’ve ever told you guys this but there’s a small deli in my hometown called Papa Charlie’s that names sandwiches after people on TV and in movies. So when I was on the Bachelorette they asked me what my favorite sandwich was so they could name it after me! Well, if you go to Papa Charlie’s in Williamstown, Massachusetts and walk in to order the “Ali the Bachelorette” sandwich, you will get a delicious egg salad sandwich with lettuce and cucumber on whole wheat bread with the crust cut off! Ha! I’m not even kidding. It’s always been my favorite.

Pickled and Deviled Eggs

For our Easter themed lunch this year I want to do something a little bit different than just a sandwich. I want to make it special so I decided to make pickled and deviled eggs! (I’m practicing today and I’ll make all this again on Easter Day!) I mean, just look at the picture below so you can see how gorgeous they look! They’re so easy to make but I think they look so pretty so it makes it feel like a special occasion when you make them. So I’m sharing the recipe I found on the Incredible Edible Egg website with you guys today!!! Here is what you need:

EGGS AND FILLING

12 hard-boiled eggs

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh dill OR chives (I got both cause I love both and wanted to use them both for toppings. But I put dill in egg mixture. More on that below.)

MARINADE

1 jar (16oz) beets (I used a can)

1 cup water

1 cup distilled white vinegar

OPTIONAL TOPPERS:

Crab meat & fresh dill, small cooked shrimp & chives, smoked salmon, capers & chives, diced red bell peppers & Italian parsley, steamed asparagus tips

1. Cut the eggs lengthwise in half. Take out the yolks and put them in a medium bowl. Keep 20 white halves and finely chop the remaining 4 egg white halves.
2. In the bowl with the egg yolks, add chopped egg whites, mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mash it all up together. Mix in the dill (or chives!) and refrigerate it, covered.
3. Drain the beets, but reserve the juice (about 2/3 cup). Set beets aside for another use (We gave some to Molly as a snack). Combine the beet juice, water and vinegar in a shallow container big enough to fit half of your egg white halves. Arrange the egg whites cut side down and pour the marinate over the eggs. Put in the fridge for at least several hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
4. The next day remove the pickled egg whites from marinade (I had another batch in the fridge so I could finish my eggs all in one day – which is why I’m in same outfit the “next day” – but I made the marinade again so I could show you guys photos.) Pat the eggs dry with paper towel and spoon in 1 heaping Tbsp. yolk mixture into each pickled egg white half. Garnish with toppers, as desired.

And how gorgeous are they!!!  Plus they’re soooo tasty! I am definitely making these for my next party to impress all my guests!

Now onto my next recipe!

Crepes!

Also, we happen to have a dozen eggs left over that we didn’t end up boiling and I wanted to use those because I don’t want them to go to waste! So I made another one of my favorites. Crepes! If you guys followed me on Instagram back when I was pregnant with Molly, you know that when I was pregnant I ate a crepe almost every single day. And I still eat them all the time, but maybe not every single day. Ha!

Anyway, while I have all these eggs left over I thought I should share the recipe with you guys. It’s a super yummy crepe filled with eggs, pesto, spinach, avocado, and tomato! Most crepes has cheese, but I don’t even bother adding it because all these ingredients packed so much flavor. Plus, one large egg is packed full of lean high-quality1 protein (6 grams of protein and only 70 calories2) so you don’t need the protein (or added fat) in the cheese. I’m all about that lean mean protein packed egg machine! Ha! I’m a dork, I know this.

Anyway, here is what you need:

CREPE MIX

1 cup all purpose flour

2 Eggs

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbsp. melted butter or margarine

1/4 tsp. salt

FILLING

2 or 3 eggs (depending how hungry you are)

1/8 cup of milk

1 cup spinach

1 tomato (You’ll use a few slices)

1 avocado (You’ll use a few slices)

1 Tbsp. pesto

1. Make the crepe batter! Blend the flour, 2 eggs, butter, salt, water, and milk in a blender until smooth. And voila! You’re crepe mix is done!
2. I actually bought a crepe pan and crepe tools a while back because I make them so often. But you really don’t need these things to make one. All you need is a nonstick pan and a spoon to smooth out the crepe filling on top of the pan. Or you could just pick up the pan and swirl it around to evenly spread out the filling. Cook each side on a medium to low heat. For about two minutes per side. When my crepe is done, I leave it in the pan but put it off to the side so it’s not on the burner. Then I make the eggs!
3. I’ll put two or three eggs depending on how hungry I am and whisk them up with some milk. You could also use half and half if you’re looking for a richer taste!
4. After scrambling the eggs, I move the crepe in the pan back onto a burner on very low heat then I layer my pesto, spinach, tomato, avocado, and eggs. By doing this over the low heat, the spinach slightly wilts and all of the ingredients heat up. But really it’s only on the low heat for maybe a couple minutes while you assemble the crepe.
5. Fold in half and you’re done!

I swear to you guys this is really so easy to do and super tasty! Plus it’s really healthy for you! Meals like this have definitely helped me shed the baby weight since having Molly!

GIVEAWAY!

Now for some really fun news. I partnered with the American Egg Board to bring you today’s blog post and guess what, we are doing a giveaway!!! That’s right, if you guys try any of these egg decorating techniques or any fun decorated eggs that you came up with you can win! Share them on Instagram using #EggArt and #Sweepstakes. By doing this, you could win an Easter prize pack from the American Egg Board! And this is no shabby prize pack. You get a KitchenAid mixer and an Egg Cookbook and some really fun egg goodies from the American Egg Board  How awesome is that? So make sure to share your photos of your decorated eggs with us on Instagram for your chance to win! Check out this link for more details: http://www.incredibleegg.org/blog/easter-eggart-contest/

I hope today’s blog post got you as excited about Easter as it’s gotten me! Decorating all these eggs and making these recipes was so much fun and I absolutely can’t wait to recreate these recipes on Easter! If you have any comments or suggestions for other egg decorating techniques I should try, let me know in the comments below!

This post is sponsored by the American Egg Board.

1Campbell B et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sport Nutr. 2007;4:8

2US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Nutrient Data Laboratory. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28. Basic Report: 01123

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The post Easter Egg Decorating Ideas! And Egg Recipes! appeared first on Ali Manno (Fedotowsky).