With Easter just around the corner, we are happy to share our latest video for a “Sugar Egg” Cake! When I was little, I LOVED my mom’s sugar egg collection. There’s something so special about sugar eggs with their delicate piping and sweet scenes inside. We tried to capture that same feeling in today’s cake design, and I think we came close ;0) I hope that you enjoy the tutorial!
Materials:
We used four 6″ round cake layers with two 22g. rice cereal treat squares shaped into the rounded top. (You could use scrap cake if you would rather to create the top, but cereal treats were simpler for us!)
White Chocolate Ganache (simple spreadable recipe–a 3:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. 680g white choc chips to 227g heavy cream) We used Nestle white chocolate chips.
Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream (or your buttercream of choice. I prefer a crusting buttercream so that I can use the Viva paper towel method of smoothing.)
Viva Paper Towels, or a paper towel/napkin that has no quilting (if using the Viva method of smoothing buttercream.)
2 cardboard cake circles- one for the base and another halfway up.
5 bubble tea straws or your supports of choice (4 for the bottom tier, 1 for the top (to support the cereal treat)
Coloring gels- Wilton Rose, Wilton Leaf Green, Americolor Lemon Yellow
Piping Tips: Wilton 3, 21, 104, 125
White Fondant- small amount for bunny (you could also pipe with buttercream if you’d rather)
Notes:
As we demonstrate in the video, the cake cardboard that is placed within the cake for support has a piece removed to allow for the carving that will come later for the interior scene of the egg. After carving away the cake (using our oval cutter as a guide), The opening was approx. 3 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, and 1 inch deep. This can vary of course in length & width, depending on your desired look, but I wouldn’t recommend a depth of much more than 1 inch of cake.
Wow, that’s just gorgeous! I love it! I’ve always loved those sugar eggs too :)
So clever and beautiful! Fabulous idea!
Thanks MsGF!! ?Xo
What a darling cake. I love all those flowers on the top. It’s perfect for Easter!!
Forgot to ask…is there a reason you crumb coat in ganache vs buttercream? Is it easier ? Tastes better? Just wondering. Thank you
Such a beautiful cake! Thank you for all that you do!!
This cake is just beautiful!!! I love it!!! Melissa, you just outdo yourself every time you make another cake!!!
~Jennifer
Awesome Cake Melissa. I’ll have to give this one a try.
Thank you all so much!
@Joan- With carved cakes, I really prefer a ganache layer because it sets up firmer than a buttercream crumb coat would, giving it more support. My carved cakes are often frosted with ganache & covered with fondant, but I thought that it would be nice to do the final coat with buttercream this time.
I’ve never tried this as an all-buttercream cake. It may work just fine since there is not a lot of carving involved. . If you’d like to go the all-buttercream route, I would choose an all-butter based version of buttercream (rather than shortening) & keep it chilled so that the butter in the frosting will keep things nice and firm!
Hi Melissa – this cake is so adorable! Thank you for the tutorial! I am new to your school (and decorating too), and have a couple of questions. What cake recipe do I use so I can carve the cake, and how do you cut it to serve it? Thanks so much!
Another adorable cake!!
It’s adorable Melissa! Love it! Very Creative !
Absolutely ADORABLE!!!! I really want to try this one!!!
It’s so adorable! Love it love it love it!
Looks so beautiful x
That is soooo cute! I love it?
Great tutorial once again!
What a beautiful cake!
I’d luv to try it
How long does it take to complete?
How is the best way to slice into it?
I didn’t realize you can take tips
off and change them to use the
same frosting bag
How hard is that to do?
What tip size makes the clouds inside the egg?
Hi Gracie, Melissa used a Wilton tip 3 for the clouds inside the egg
A friend and I made over 3,000 sugar eggs several years ago for upscale Texas department stores. I still make them occasionally. This one I made for my mom in 1983. It still looks beautiful. I made all the “critters”, flowers, etc., out of royal icing.
Here’s a shot of the inside. For some reason, the pics are flipped when posted!
Hi, slicing info and number of portions would be very helpful! Thank you.
Beautifull…Can I use the wonder Mould from Wilton?..
@Bobbye- What a beautiful sugar egg! That’s amazing that you and your friend made 3000 of them, wow!! I would love to try it sometime.
@Gloria– To slice, you’d first lift off the rice cereal treat top (you can make a horizontal slice just beneath the cereal treat or push a knife into the top and lift it off.) – After that, serve from the top of the cake first, and then remove the cardboard, supports, and serve from the bottom (just as with a double barrel cake). –
This cake makes about 20 servings. When we sliced it, the servings from the top half of the egg were sliced slightly wider since the slices were a bit shorter than the bottom tier (due to carving, etc.) I hope this helps!!
@Claudia– Yes, we almost used the Wonder Mold pan for this cake but opted for this design since not everyone has a Wonder Mold. Also, The Wonder Mold is 8″ wide at it’s widest point and so either you would use this to make a larger sugar egg design (placing on top of an 8″ tier)…or you could just fill the Wonder Mold partially if you’d like to place on a 6″ tier as we did. If you try it, we’d love to hear how it goes!
Hi,
I have a few questions that I’m unclear about.
1. Melissa stated the recipe for White Chocolate Ganache would be listed below the tutorial but I’m not seeing it (or a link.) Am I missing something?
2. What is the purpose of the groove cut in the top piece of the cardboard? I never saw it mentioned again in the video when icing the cake.
3. About how deep is the oval opening in the front? I’m a beginner and would find that info helpful as to make sure I don’t cut too far in.
I love this Easter Egg Cake…so pretty and hoping to make it for Easter. Is this a beginner project and is this school (I recently signed up) for beginners? Are the projects labeled as such, beginner…intermediate etc? (oops more than a few questions!) :)
Thanks for all your help!
Hi Gloria- Thanks for letting me know, I’ve updated the ganache amounts along with the link to our Simple Spreadable Ganache recipe located in our Recipes section.
The cardboard that is within the cake (with bubble tea straws beneath) supports the upper tier, just as with a double barrel cake design. The little notch that we removed allows us to later carve out the small space that becomes the interior of the egg. As we show in the video, you’ll want to mark your bottom cake board in some way so that later you will know approximately where to carve out the space for your interior scene.
The interior of the cake after carving our hole is fairly shallow…approx one inch depth. The width and length of the opening can vary depending on the look you’re going for/size of your cutter, etc. but ours was an oval approx 3 inches long and 2.5 inches wide.
This cake involves techniques that may be a bit difficult for someone brand new to cake decorating. There are several steps involved. For instance, carving, frosting a cake with a smooth finish, piping, etc. That said, I usually do not label my cake projects as “beginner”, “intermediate”, etc. because what comes easily for one beginner may be a struggle for another. Some decorators are “Buttercream people”right off the bat, others aren’t but can model a fondant figure perfectly on the first try. ;0) – The best place to go for someone new to cake decorating is our Basics section. I would recommend the “How to Make a Cake from Start to Finish”, and then our Star Tip & Petal Tip videos, Viva Paper Towel Method of Smoothing, etc. Our Buttercream Techniques section has lots of fun techniques also that are beginner-friendly. The more you practice and try new things, the more you will develop your own style & discover what you excel at. Have fun experimenting and let us know if you have more questions! ;0)
Melissa, Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in depth to my questions. That was all so helpful and I will definitely take your suggestions as to where to start here in the school. Thanks again! ?
Just a couple more questions! ? Did you use 6×2″ pans or 6×3″? Your cake layers look tall. What is the overall finished height of the cake if you know.
And what thickness of buttercream should be applied?
Thanks Melissa!
Melissa, I was so excited when I saw this adorable cake and couldn’t wait to try it. Because your tutorials are so helpful, it was truly easy to make. I had such fun and can’t wait for next Easter!! Thank you for sharing. Here’s my finished product.
Nancy you did such a FANTASTIC job!!! I’m so happy that you made it, I know that everyone will love it! xoxo
@Nancy – You did an AWESOME job! Love the flowers and addition of little purple dots. :)
@Melissa – I’m so sorry to have bothered you with more questions. I know you’re busy. I’ll just apply different thicknesses of icing and see what works best. I’ll figure it out! Maybe you mentioned it in the video. I’ll go back and check there again.
Not too bad for a beginner! I sure learned a ton. Shape could be better, but overall I’m happy since so many techniques in this was a first for me. Thanks for this beautiful cake Melissa. I’ll try to upload a photo. Not sure how to do it yet.
I don’t know why it uploaded sideways or how to fix that. Sorry.
Gloria, I’m just now seeing your photo and it is AWESOME! I’m thrilled that you made the cake and you did an excellent job. I’m sorry I missed your question earlier about the thickness but it looks like you did everything perfectly. (I probably apply my frosting about 1/4 inch thick…although it may have been slightly less with this particular cake since it was ganached beforehand.) –
As for the sideways picture, I’ll have to experiment a little to see if I can duplicate the issue. Are you uploading from your phone by chance? I’ll let you know if I can figure it out (I wish we had a rotate button!) ;0)
Congrats on a fantastic cake!! xoxo
Thanks so much Melissa for the kind words. ? My husbands going to see if he can figure the picture problem out later today. I did upload from my phone to 2 other sites, but it only showed up sideways here. He thinks it photo may have been to big.
I love it. now I will never get any real work done, will just want to watch videos and make cakes.