Oh Spring, you are such a tease. Warm one day, snowing the next. Almost as bad as those pesky hollow bunnies this time of year. You know that feeling: you get your taste buds prepared for a delicious mouth full of chocolate, only to have your teeth clamp together in pain and bits of chocolate buny crumble all over your favorite shirt. I might spearhead a movement. No more hollow bunnies. It’s Boulder; I’m sure I could find a few people to protest in front of the dollar store with me.
Well, I have a dessert that won’t be toying with your emotions or taste buds. Lemon Coconut Easter Basket Cake. Now, if you aren’t one to celebrate the Easter bunny phenomenon, then by all means this is just a Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake. And please, for the love of everything sweet, don’t pronounce the “d.” It is “bunt.” Why I feel the need to point that out is really beyond me. I’m a non-hollow-bunny, no-“d”-in-bundt-cake protesting diva. Good thing I’m worried about the important things.
OK, this cake is really good. And the way we glaze and decorate it to resemble a basket is too cute. You place it on a platter right side up, just the way it bakes. Cover with some tinted coconut to look like Easter grass, add a few touches here and there, and boom! Oh, it’s revolutionary, I know, really groundbreaking. I must admit, it is pretty darn cute.
Simple and delicious, and that, to me, is key for so many holiday treats. And what’s even better is there are no hollow bunnies or Peeps involved. And haven’t Peeps really lost their swagger as of late anyway? Now that they are everywhere for every stinking holiday, the little chicks and bunnies aren’t so special anymore. Maybe they should stick a Peep inside a hollow bunny. Now that would be a treat and an Easter Miracle.
But for now, the only Easter treat (or delicious bundt cake, if you prefer) you need, is this little recipe. I’m hitting the bunny trail like Peter Cottontail. “Hoppy Baking” to you.
Now follow the directions, put some love into it and invite me over when it’s done.
Lemon Coconut Easter Basket Cake
1 cup softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. water
few drops of green food coloring
(any color you want, but this is for the
Easter grass)
1 cup shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease an 8- or 10-inch bundt pan. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Add in zest and vanilla.
In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Beat slowly into wet ingredients. Mix in lemon juice and fold in coconut. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Take out and let cool completely.
Flip cake over onto plate and then flip back right side up onto your serving platter (you want cake to be sitting on platter the same way it was in the pan). Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice to make glaze. You might need to add more or less lemon juice to get to consistency you prefer. Pour over top of cake, letting glaze drip down sides. Let glaze set.
To make Easter grass: Mix water and food coloring in small cup. Adjust color to your liking. Pour over coconut that has been placed in a plastic sandwich bag. Secure top and shake until coconut turns green. You may want more grass; just repeat the process.
Fill up hole in cake with candy, coconut, plastic eggs or such. Spread the green tinted coconut over top of cake, making sure not to get close to edges. You want it to look like grass in a basket. Arrange your favorite Easter candy over top of “grass.” Enjoy!
Note: Use your imagination with the candy and the coconut grass. You can fill up the hole in the middle of the cake with something special that falls out when you cut your cake. I use the robin’s eggs Whopper candy. You can fill up the hole with them and place them on top of grass.
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