Sunset from Gina’s front porch in Virginia…those are the Allegheny Mountains in the distance…Gina, Tom and the boys just moved into their new home and Gina already had it settled and very comfortable and hosted us for the long weekend and an Easter Brunch for 9 adults, 3 children and a baby!!!  We had a wonderful time and my next few posts will be the recipes from brunch and visions of the fun time we had with our grandchildren!!!

Isn’t it so much fun playing in boxes??

And then they got this…Aaden’s expression says it all…they loved the gifts that Nina and Papa gave them, but especially the all-terrain remote vehicle that will go over their hilly yard!!!  (See the previous post, 🌸Spring and Easter…New Beginnings…🐇)

 

Aaden and Parker finding their baskets on Easter morning and Victor helping on the egg hunt with their cousin…So happy we could be there with them at this special time…

Table all set for Easter Brunch…birds with fancy hats placemats…A tradition in our family is to make an Easter Bunny Cake…this one Gina made with all natural ingredients…except the Samoa Girl Scout Cookies that she put around the bunny in case there wasn’t enough cake…The cake and frosting were so good I had to leave and go home to Massachusettes to stop eating it????  So here is the recipe for you to enjoy…

 

Yellow Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola or corn oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg, egg yolk, and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.  On low speed, mix in the oil and vanilla until blended.  Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain.  Mix in flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth.  Pour into prepared 8 inch cake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Butter Frosting Recipe

4 Tablespoons butter, softened

3 Cups of powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons milk

1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl until smooth.  Add the milk and vanilla and continue beating until smooth and well blended. 

Note:  Gina used all organic ingredients for the frosting and coconut as well.

 

Now your cake is ready to assemble into a bunny.

Cut cake in half as shown in the photo.  Put halves together with frosting to make the body.  Place cake upright on cut edge, on a platter.  Cut out wedge about one-third of the way up one end of the body to form the head, as shown in the photo.  Place the wedge on the backside of the cake to form the tail.  Frost with remaining frosting, sprinkle with about 1 cup of coconut.  Cut ears from pink construction paper (we used scrapbook paper) and lay on top of the notch.  Use jelly beans for eyes and nose (we used all natural colored jelly beans) and pipe cleaners for whiskers.  Use green food coloring to color about 1 cup of coconut  (Gina used food coloring made with vegetable dye and she had to mix blue and yellow to get green color.) Surround bunny with tinted coconut and add jelly beans if desired.

🌸

TIP ☛ Cleaning Silly Putty Out of Fabric

 

 

My little love, Parker, got an egg filled with Silly Putty in his Easter basket…these kids love Silly Putty!!…he so innocently thought it would be fun to make a necklace out of it…well, it melted all over the collar of his brand new Easter shirt…Gina tried her hardest to pick it out after chilling it with ice cubes,  while she was entertaining a house full of guests…after everyone had left and before she ordered another shirt online…I decided to google how to get Silly Putty out of clothing…very simple, hand sanitizer…just squirt it on the Silly Putty spot, rub it in with your fingernail and it’s gone…I don’t know where it went, it wasn’t on my fingers and as you can see it completely disappeared from the collar???…but it worked like a charm🤗