Easter Baskets

Easter’s coming up this weekend and I have great memories of the holiday growing up. We always had pretty flowery dresses, white gloves, white patent leather shoes, and bonnets.

I hate to admit it, but the year I moved to Dublin was the first year I didn’t have an Easter basket! I tried to get Michael on board with giving each other Easter baskets, but our hearts weren’t really in it. It’ll be much more fun when there’s a new generation on the scene. (And no, mom, and mom-in-law, that is not imminent!)

But Easter baking? Count me in.

For the last two years, I’ve made my mom’s Easter Basket Cake for our Easter dinner and it’s way easy and too cute.

I usually use a carrot cake, and my mom always used yellow cake, but just bake two round cakes of whatever flavor you like. Then mix up your favorite icing (I use cream cheese icing) and get that ready to go. Put the first cake on a cake platter and ice the top of it. Place the second cake on top and scoop out some of the cake in a circle in the middle, making a little indentation. Ice the whole thing with the remainder of the icing.

In America, we use a little green food coloring mixed with shredded coconut, and we put that in the little indentation, but here I just use green sprinkles. Then fill the indentation with mini Cadbury eggs, pastel M&M’s (again, only in America), or whatever candy you’d like in your Easter basket.

Now take a sheet of tin foil about 2 feet long and scrunch it up, twisting so it’s all uniform in width. Then wrap ribbon around the tin foil, securing at the ends with clear tape. Bend the tin foil so it makes a handle the width of your cake and stick the ends into the cake.

And presto! Easter Basket Cake!

You’ll need:

2 round cakes, you choose the flavor!
2 cups icing
green sprinkles or  coconut colored with green food coloring
2 feet of tin foil
2 – 2 1/2 feet colored ribbon
mini candies or jelly beans