Briony May’s showstopping Easter cake

Mini eggs, macarons and gold sprinkles crown this light vanilla sponge with citrus buttercream

By Asda Good Living, 08 March 2019

(15 votes)

Each 62g serving contains

of your reference intake.

Typical energy values per 100g: 1757kJ/420kcal.

225g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
225g Asda Best for Baking Cakes, plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
4 medium eggs, beaten
2tsp vanilla extract
100g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar, sifted
50g lemon curd
Asda Colouring Gel in pink
65g jar Asda Gold Crunch sprinkles
2 or 3 macarons from a pack of frozen Extra Special 12 Macaron Selection, thawed
4 or 5 Extra Special Golden Quail Eggs
30g Cadbury Mini Eggs

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease 3 x 18cm cake tins and line with baking paper.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the Best for Baking Cakes, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract, then beat until smooth and creamy.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake tins and smooth the tops. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20-22 mins, until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
Turn out the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Beat the butter until very soft. Stir in the icing sugar until smooth then divide the mixture between 2 bowls; add the lemon curd to one and a drop of the colouring gel to the other, mixing each until well combined.
Layer the 3 cooled cakes together on a stand, using the lemon curd buttercream to sandwich them together.
Use a palette knife or spatula to cover the cake with the pink buttercream. Press the gold crunch intothe icing around the base (see tip on p55), reserving a small amount.
Arrange the macarons on top of the cake, along with all the chocolate eggs. To finish, scatter over the reserved gold crunch.