Easter Cake

The perfect easter cake, this is a super moist Neapolitan marble cake frosted with pink buttercream and brown flecks for Robin's egg look. Step-by-step photos teach you how to bake this delicious cake recipe.

Ingredients

Don't let the ingredient list scare you, this goes pretty quickly. There are a couple of things you might not have in your pantry but trust me they are worth the trip to the market!

• Cake Flour. Cake flour has a lower protein content helping to create a softer textured cake.
• Baking Powder. This chemical leavening agent helps the cake rise while baking.
• Baking Soda. As the baking powder is already activated, baking soda needs an acid to activate it while baking, the buttermilk and sour cream serve that purpose.
• Salt. Salt enhances the flavor profiles of all of the other ingredients, don't skip it.
• Granulated Sugar. The sugar helps sweeten the cake and build the structure.
• Butter. Your butter should be softened to room temperature
• Netural Oil. I like Avocado Oil or Vegetable Oil
• Buttermilk. Buttermilk works with baking soda to help the cake rise while also helping create an incredibly moist, tender crumb. Make sure it is at room temperature.
• Sour Cream. The moisture bomb is my favorite to add to cakes. This also needs to be at room temperature.
• Pure Vanilla Extract. When making a butter cake I love to use vanilla extract to give it that warmth.
• Large Egg. Your eggs should be at room temperature to ensure they evenly incorporate into the rest of the cake.

For the chocolate cake batter you will need to add this to the vanilla cake batter:

• Dutch-process Cocoa Powder. I much prefer to use the dutch process cocoa powder as it has a stronger, smoother chocolate flavor.
• Dark Chocolate. Use good quality, it should be melted and slightly cooled. 
• Buttermilk. Since the cocoa powder is so dry we add more buttermilk to moisten it back up, again make sure it is at room temperature.

And for the strawberry cake batter you'll need:

• Freeze Dried Strawberries. I know this is a pain to get but they are worth it, in my opinion. I find I get the best strawberry flavor with a combination of freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry extract. The freeze-dried berries need to be finely crushed, I suggest a blender or food processor.
• Strawberry Extract. You can find this online or in some select stores. It really helps punch through the strawberry flavor.
• Buttermilk. Since we are adding the powdered strawberries I wanted to add back some moisture.
• Pink Food Dye. The freeze-dried strawberries provide some color but if you want a really intense pink add some food dye.

While I haven't tried this myself I bet you could make a vanilla box cake mix and then divide and add the chocolate and strawberry flavors.

I use my American Vanilla Buttercream Recipe. but use your favorite! Swiss Meringue Buttercream would be perfect too, especially if you want this frosting to be stable.

This is totally optional but if you want to add those Robin's egg flecks just mix together cocoa powder and vanilla extract and use a paintbrush pulled back to flick the cake with.

Top the cake with your favorite Easter candy and Easter chocolates. Fresh berries would be delicious.

For ingredient quantities please reference the recipe card below. On the recipe card there is a button for US or M (Metric) measurements.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F and heavily grease two 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch cake pans, and set them aside. Your oven must be properly preheated for your cake to bake properly.

In a bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a large bowl with an electric handheld mixer combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar. Once fully combined for 30-60 seconds add the softened butter in chunks and mix until incorporated and the mixture becomes like wet sand.

In a bowl combine the buttermilk, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract then add to dry ingredients and mix for 60 seconds, you want to really incorporate everything to make sure the batter builds structure. 

Add in the eggs and mix for an additional 45-60 seconds, there should be no trace of egg left. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. 

In a clean bowl take a heaping cup of cake batter and add the melted chocolate, cocoa powder, and buttermilk. Mix until just combined, there should be no white cake batter anymore. 

In a separate clean bowl take another heaping cup of cake batter and add the strawberry extract, freeze-dried strawberry powder, buttermilk, and a tiny bit of pink food coloring. Mix until just combined, there should be no white cake batter anymore.

Drop large spoonfuls of batter into the prepared pans, alternating between colors, and dividing the batter evenly among the two pans.

Quickly and gently place the pans in the oven and do not open the oven door until the 25-minute mark. Do this very quickly and don't close the door too abruptly. Your cakes should be done baking in the 28-33 minutes mark for 8-inch cakes and 27-32 minutes for 9-inch cakes. If you press a toothpick into the center it should come out with no wet batter, or you can gently press the top center of the cake and it should bounce bake immediately, the sides of the cake will be coming away from the edges of the pan. Set on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes before inverting onto the wire rack to cool completely.

Once completely cooled frost with your favorite frosting recipe. I place pieces of parchment paper on the serving cake plate and place the first cake layer on top. The parchment or wax paper pieces should only be one to two inches thick so you can easily pull them out front under the cake when done frosting. This helps create a cleaner serving plate.

I use a small offset spatula to spread an even layer of frosting onto the first cake layer then top with the second cake layer upside down to create a flatter top surface. Make sure to get down and look at the cake at eye level to see if it is level or not, and adjust as necessary. Add a thin layer of frosting around the whole cake to create a crumb coat, then place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or freezer for 10 minutes to set it.

Then frost with the remaining frosting. In a small bowl combine the vanilla extract and cocoa powder and use a clean brush to flick specks onto the cake. Flick some of the cocoa mixtures first on to a paper towel to practice first.  

Gently remove the parchment paper pieces. Top the cake with your favorite Easter candies. Store the cake in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, if the frosting is okay at room temperature, or store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

More Easter dessert ideas

This carrot layer cake is one of my all-time favorites. Or for a quicker recipe try my easy carrot cake recipe.

This lemon curd cheesecake is unreal, and you can make it ahead!

My mini egg blondies are a hit every year!

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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