Calendar Cakes Round Up - March

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend and enjoyed lots of yummy Easter bakes! The March Calendar Cakes round up has been slightly delayed as I've been away for the last week but now without further ado, here it is...an Easter Extravaganza!

The first entry was from Lisa at Good Food, Shared. Lisa made this Simnel Cake with it's fruit cake and marzipan topping, complete with the 11 apostles on top. A lovely traditional Easter cake to get us underway.

Easter wouldn't be Easter without a Hot Cross Bun and our first offering is from Victoria at A Kick at the Pantry Door. These buns have taken three years of experimentation to achieve perfection and they certainly look delicious. Victoria also suggests that cranberries are a great addition to the traditional hot cross bun.

A great idea next from Laura at How to Cook Good Food. Laura created these fab bagels when the possibility of a Hot Cross Bagel came into her head. To make bagels you need to boil them first in a big pot of water before baking them. The basis for the recipe is from Dan Lepard's simple bagels and I think you'll agree they turned out really well.



Here's my first entry for this month...Chirpy Chick Cupcakes. They're vanilla cupcakes with a swirl of vanilla buttercream on top. The chicks are made from sugarpaste with a little CMC added. The finished product is super cute and perfect for kids.

Next a twist on the traditional with Chocolate Hot Cross Buns from Joey at Little Accidents in the Kitchen. These originally started life as chocolate chip buns but the chocolate melted whilst proving which led to the fab discovery of chocolate swirl buns...you can see a picture of the inside of a bun on Joey's blog...they look delicious!

Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen brought us these Easter Nest Cupcakes. These were a request from Elizabeth's son and the base is made using Nigella's Fairy cake recipe, there is then a swirl of green buttercream icing on top and the nest element was made using a Cape Breton Spider Cookie recipe. I bet the kids were thrilled with these.

Next up another really great idea from Elizabeth's Kitchen. These are Easter Eggcupcakes. They're very novel with a mini cupcake in the egg cup, a swirl of buttercream piped on top to represent the egg white, then lemon curd is added to represent the yolk. This is all finished off with a white chocolate shell. Again this is a great idea for kids!

Kat from The Baking Explorer made these Easter Simnel Cupcakes. The cupcakes are full of spices and dried fruit and there is a little disc of marzipan hidden in each one. Having used the same recipe before I can confirm that these are in fact my all time favourite Easter treat as they taste so good. Kat has also decorated them with some fab designs.

You can tell just from the description and the look of the next entry that this is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Ros from the More than Occasional Baker made these Mini Egg Brownies. Mini eggs are everyone's favourite and coupled with a brownie this is Easter baking heaven!

Having made a traditional Simnel Cake last year, my next entry is this Simple Simnel Cake. A fruit cake with a layer of marzipan baked in, then on the top is orange icing and almond caramel made by heating caster sugar in a frying pan. It was very tasty but without the apostles perhaps not obviously Simnel Cake.

From a Simple Simnel Cake to a more traditional version from Caroline Makes. Another lovely fruit cake with the marzipan topping. Caroline made this cake as her parents were visiting for Easter and it's the first time she's made a Simnel Cake. It's also interesing to learn from her blog post that the name Simnel is most likely to come from the Latin word 'simila', meaning 'fine flour'.

Another lovely entry from Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker with these Easter Cupcakes. Ros couldn't decide whether to make chocolate or lemon cakes so she made lemon cupcakes with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. The toppers and cases are from a cute cupcake kit and the twirl and mini egg toppings make these very appealing indeed.

Choc Cross Buns are next on the list and these beauties are from Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog. Choclette followed a number of different recipes and mashed them up to produce her buns. The crosses were made from a paste of flour, cocoa powder, water and a pinch of chilli!

If you go to the original linky on the announcement post for March, you will see an entry for Chocolate and Pistachio Wedges. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the bake or identify the baker by following the link but if you send me more details I will happily add you to the round up! :-)

 

Having previously made a Christmas gingerbread house, Laura from How to Cook Good Food, followed up her success by making a whole gingerbread village for Easter. The little houses are so cute and I know I wouldn't be able to resist picking off the sweets when no one was looking.

These next Easter Egg Surprise Cakes are very clever. Caroline from Caroline Makes collected egg shells and then carefully made a small hole in the bottom of each one. Once washed out she used a white cake mix which was poured into each shell. To make them even more realistic a little ball of marzipan was added to represent the yolk. They were then baked. These would be a great surprise for any unsuspecting person expecting a regular egg!

Moving away from cakes for a minute, we have these tasty Easter Biscuits from Angela at Garden, Tea, Cakes and Me. As Angela suggests, biscuits are a great alternative to chocolate and can also be gift wrapped up in pretty bags to give as presents.

Some very inviting Easter Nest Cupcakes up next from Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen. The chocolate buttercream looks dark and decadent and it's in perfect contrast to the brightly coloured eggs on top. The vanilla cupcake recipe comes from Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking. These are a lovely Easter bake.

Caroline from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking brings us another great twist on the traditional with these (Not) Hot Cross Buns! It's a no-knead recipe and although they look unassuming, the taste testers gave them a resounding thumbs up.

These Mini Egg Hot Cross Buns are from a blogger new to Calendar Cakes...Mean Miss Mustard. The mini eggs were mixed into the buns and baked inside which is quite frankly a genius idea...and a surprise to anyone who bites into them expecting a traditional hot cross bun.

Gill from the Tales of Pigling Bland made these lovely Sugar-free 'Chocolatey' Easter Nests which are the perfect antidote at a time where there is chocolate and other rich treats by the bucket load. They're made with a natural sweetner called Truvia and also contain chopped dates. These are perfect for anyone on a low sugar diet which is what inspired Gill.

These amazingly cute Mini Sheep Cakes were entered by Helen from @HudsonBakery. Helen baked simple vanilla fairy cakes, then inverted one onto another and sandwiched the two together with vanilla buttercream to form the sheep's body. Then she covered the body in vanilla buttercream all over.  The heads are made from mini Creme Eggs, with ears made from marzipan and dipped in chocolate and icing writing pens were used to draw on the eyes, hair and noses. Once the heads and faces had set, they were stuck on to the bodies with a dollop of buttercream. Finally, white mini marshmallows were halved and stuck them all round into the buttercream to create the woolly fleece. I'm sure you'll agree the finished product is really effective.

Our final entry is from @desi_orchid who made these Creme Egg Cupcakes. Baking with Creme Eggs has been all the rage this year and I can see why...who could resist a chocolate cupcake with a creme egg baked inside and then creamy frosting and another egg on top...my mouth is watering at the prospect!

 

Thanks for all your Calendar Cakes entries this month, as always they are much appreciated and I have to say there are many interesting ideas and fab bakes on show here this Easter!

 



To join in with April's Calendar Cakes Challenge, head on over to Dolly Bakes for more details about the theme and I'll see you back here in May! :-)