Make Buddy Valastro's Easter Cake Your Weekend Baking Project
You'll never believe his hack for lump-free icing!
Brian David Photography
Get a Complimentary 1-Year Subscription to the Food Network Kitchen App
Download Food Network Kitchen to sign up and get access to daily live classes, thousands of on-demand cooking classes, in-app grocery ordering and so much more. Own a Fire TV or Fire tablet? You can now get a 1-year complimentary subscription to the app — read here for more details. Terms and conditions apply.
Looking for a fun Easter project for the whole family? Cake Boss Buddy Valastro has got you covered! In his latest class on the Food Network Kitchen app, Buddy teaches us how to perfect the art of buttercream frosting and become a cake-decorating pro by making an Easter Basket Cake. This basket weaving cake decoration will leave you with a beautiful treat everyone will love — complete with Peeps and jelly beans!
If you’re anything like us, trying to decide between chocolate or vanilla icing for a cake is an impossible decision — they’re just so tasty! Luckily, this recipe calls for both. While whipping up the first batch, Buddy tells us his cardinal rule for a cake decorator is perfecting the consistency of your buttercream. Buddy explains that, “The better your buttercream is, the better your cake is going to look,” and says that when the icing reaches that shaving-cream-like texture, you’ll be able to pipe “fluffy clouds” like never before. Including more butter than shortening is one of Buddy’s tips on how to secure the right texture for the frosting, but his key to making it extra flavorful? “Salt is the zinger that really intensifies it,” Buddy says.
Nathan West
And you’ll never believe Buddy’s ultimate hack for making sure your icing isn’t lumpy — filtering it through a new pair of panty hose! “Put the icing inside and squeeze it through, and your icing will be perfect,” Buddy says. Mastering the art of food coloring is essential, too. Buddy says he always adds yellow in with green coloring to ensure the right hue. “It’s got to have that 'Wow!' color because that’s what people are seeing."
This basket weave requires two tips: a grass tip for the top and border, and the basket weave tip for the fudge icing. Buddy assures us that though basket weaving looks impressively difficult, it’s actually easy albeit time consuming. His ultimate recommendation for seamlessly transitioning between different stages of decorating is a turntable.
One of the best things about the basket weave tip is that it helps you establish how to pipe. “Piping is pressure and control. It’s all about squeezing and a motion,” Buddy says. The final stage of icing the cake is using the grass tip, which he says requires a pull and jerk motion from different angles to make the grass look realistic.
Icing the cake is time consuming and involved a lot of details, making the earlier stages more of an adult project, but the final touches are the most exciting parts for the kids. Use their favorite Easter candies (Buddy uses Peeps, jelly beans and Easter egg candies) to fill the grass on top of the cake with and along the border at the bottom. Happy decorating!
Related Links: