Written by Leslie Marshall of Camp Makery for Building Blocks.
I stumbled across an adorable method of baking cupcakes inside a hallowed out eggshell and couldn’t help but think how perfect this would be for Easter! I thought it would be perfect to dip each egg in white chocolate, but I knew that would be entirely too sweet. That’s when I had a complete “Aha” moment — lemon curd filling! I couldn’t be happier with how beautiful it turned out and the little cakes actually looked like eggs when I opened them up!
Easter Cake Eggs
INGREDIENTS
Cake Eggs
- Your favorite cupcake (or cake mix) recipe
- 12-24 Eggs (depending on your recipe)
- White Chocolate (for coating)
- Cooking Spray
- Aluminum Foil (for baking)
Lemon Curd
- 1-2 Lemons, zested
- 1/3 C Sugar
- 3 Tbsp. Melted Butter
- 1 Egg
- 1/3 C Lemon Juice
DIRECTIONS
For the Cake Eggs:
- Let your eggs come to room temperature. Take a cork screw and gently poke a hole in the top of the egg (the smallest point on the egg). Using a circular motion hollow out a hole the size of a dime. Tip your egg upside down and let the yolk and egg white drain. You may have to use the cork screw to break up the yolk.
- Rinse your eggs thoroughly with warm water. Soak in warm salt water for 30 minutes. Let the eggs air dry for about an hour. Note: I found it easiest to place the eggs upside down in the egg crate and let the excess water drain.
- Using a generous amount of cooking spray, spray the inside of the eggs and the top of the eggs.
- Make a little nest of aluminum foil in each cupcake tin, this will hold each egg upright to make sure it bakes properly.
- Make your cupcake or cake mix. Use a piping bag and pipe the cake mix into each egg until it is about ¾ full. If you overfill the eggs, the excess will bake out of the top, and it’s not a big deal as you can just shave it off with a paring knife.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, check the cake by poking a toothpick in the egg and if it comes out clean, it is finished baking.
- Allow the eggs to cool for about 15 minutes.
- Peel your eggs like you would if you were peeling hard-boiled eggs. Set aside the cake eggs.
For the Lemon Curd:
- Using a micro plane, zest 1-2 lemons, depending on how strong you want your lemon flavor.
- Add the sugar, melted butter, egg and lemon juice.
- Whisk your ingredients together until nice and frothy.
- Microwave for 1 minute increments, stirring after each 60 seconds interval. Repeat 5 times. Note: If you prefer to stay away from microwaves you can always whisk ingredients together in a medium saucepan over a medium-medium high heat until it begins to boil, reduce the heat then stir until it begins to thicken, then allow to cool.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in freezer for 15 minutes or one hour in your refrigerator.
Assembling the eggs:
- Using a meat injector (you could also pipe into the cake as well, but I didn’t want to create a very large hole in the top of the cake) inject about 1 teaspoon of the lemon curd filling into the center of the egg. Be careful not to overfill, as it will be difficult to cover with white chocolate.
- In the same cupcake tins, take the foil nests and make into a little ball, you may have to add a little extra foil, then take a toothpick and push into the foil. After doing this I would also recommend adding a square of wax paper or parchment paper over the top of the toothpick to keep the chocolate from sticking to the foil. I had a little difficulty picking the foil off of the bottom.
- Melt white chocolate in a double boiler, or in the microwave (being careful not to burn your chocolate). Use a large slotted spoon and dip each egg in the melted white chocolate. Set the egg on each toothpick, then spoon over a little extra white chocolate to make sure your eggs look smooth. The excess white chocolate will drip down.
- Decorate with sprinkles; I was happily surprised at these adorable sugar bows I found in the Easter section of my grocery store. Let the eggs set up, about 15-30 minutes depending on how cool your room is.
Serve in these adorable Easter baskets from Pottery Barn!