Ever since I made these St. Patrick’s Day pot of gold cupcakes, I’ve been obsessed with making “surprise” baked goods. And when I say surprise baked goods, I mean ones that you open up and find something you weren’t expecting to find. Kind of like my green velvet cupcakes (or the previously mentioned St. Patrick’s Day ones). It’s kind of like a piñata – you have to break it open to see what fun is hidden inside! Not only is this Easter layer cake full of fun sprinkles and mini chocolate Easter eggs, the cake and frosting themselves are both delicious. It starts with a box cake mix but you’d never know why the way the final cake tastes! Or why the way the cake looks – it’s decorated with frosting, mini eggs, and sprinkles for a beautiful look that doesn’t require fondant (not my favorite). So let’s get to baking – this will be the perfect ending to your Easter menu, right after the glazed ham, strawberry fluff, and homemade rolls! Or it would be a fun surprise for the Easter bunny to bring after doing this Easter bunny hunt!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy – this may look like a fancy DIY cake, but it’s really easy. Just a box cake mix (with a few little additions) plus a homemade pastel colored buttercream make this one as simple as they get! Cute – this cake really is beautiful to look even without knowing about the fun inside! Hidden surprise – filling the cake with eggs, sprinkles, and other treats makes this one about as fun as a cake can be! Kids and adults will love it (but really the kids!).
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Milk – whole milk will give you the best flavor but if you don’t have that, you can use any type of milk or even water. Yogurt – I recommend a plain Greek yogurt but if you don’t have plain, vanilla works as well. Or you can always use sour cream in a pinch as well. Cake mix – any white cake mix will work, just choose your favorite brand. Lemon juice – this is optional but gives the cake just a bit more flavor. If you don’t have lemon, you could also substitute lime or just leave it out altogether. Vegetable oil – you can use either this or canola oil (or even avocado oil if you want the more expensive route), just make sure not to use something like olive oil or coconut oil that will change the flavor of the cake.
how to make a surprise easter egg cake
While this cake overall is a bit time consuming (you’re making a layered cake after all), none of the steps are difficult. They just take a while.
1 – Bake the Cakes
Get started by lining four 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper and spraying the parchment paper with baking spray. By lining with parchment paper, you’ll be able to easily pop the cakes out of the cake pans once they’ve cooled! Preheat the oven to 350°F, or two ovens if you have two ovens and can cook all the cakes simultaneously! To make the cake batter, you will need to combine the cake mix, egg whites, milk, water, vegetable oil, yogurt, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated into a smooth batter. Pour the batter evenly between the four prepared cake pans. Place in oven and bake for about 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I typically like to split the cakes between two ovens if you have two ovens, if not, you can bake them all at once in one oven, just watch them closely. Remove pans from the oven and place on racks to allow them to cool completely. While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream frosting.
2 – Make the Frosting
To make the frosting, first cream the butter, vanilla, and salt together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Then slowly add the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until the frosting reaches the consistency you want. You will be spreading the frosting and piping it, so I recommend something that’s a little thicker but not too thick. Get out three bowls and place 1 cup of frosting in each bowl. Add a drop or two of pink food coloring to one bowl, yellow to the second bowl and green to the third bowl. Mix until each color is uniform and the shade you want. Leave the remaining frosting white to use later.
3 – Fill the Easter egg cake
After the cakes have cooled completely, remove them from the pans and cut a 3″ – 4″ circle out of the center of two of the cakes. You can use a sharp knife with a parchment circle as your guide or use a large circle cookie cutter. Take one cake without a hole in it and place it as the bottom layer on your cake stand. Frost the top of it with the leftover white frosting. Next you’ll take one of the cakes you cut a hole in and place it on top of the base layer, frost the top with white, then add the second cake with the hole in it and frost the top of it with white as well. This will give you a nice hole to add your Easter egg surprise inside! For the inside surprise, fill the hole with mini robin eggs, sprinkles, and mini pastel baking chips. Just fill until right below the top of the hole – don’t fill above the hole or the top layer of the cake won’t sit flat. To hide the surprise filling, add the final cake on top.
4 – Decorate the Cake
Frost the top and sides of all four layers of the cake with the remaining white frosting. This will be your base layer that sits underneath the pastel swirl layer on top. Once you have frosted the entire cake in white, place dollops of about 2-3 teaspoons of alternating pastel colored frosting all over the sides of the cake (kind of like I did with this swirled Easter cake). Using an offset spatula or bench scraper, smooth the frosting dollops around the sides of the cake in a marble-like pattern. Only smooth it enough to pull the color around. If you overdo it, you’ll end up with the frosting blending into one color, ruining the pastel swirl look completely. Place any remaining colored frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip and pipe stars around the top edge of the cake. Then add chocolate Cadbury Creme Eggs to the top of the frosting dollops on top of the cake. Serve the cake immediately or store it until you’re ready to serve! Serve in small slices since the cake is so tall and rich! You can either serve each slice with some of the goodies from the inside or just put those in a bowl and let people enjoy those separate from the cake or on their own! And don’t forget to make sure the kids are watching when you slice it so they can see the surprise center!!
Expert Tips
Store cake in an airtight container (or under a cake cover) at room temperature for up to three days. Do not over mix the cake batter, just mix until the cake mix has become incorporated into the other ingredients. Over mixing can cause the cake to become rubbery and crumbly, not soft and moist like you want. Use cake strips to get the cakes to rise as evenly as possible with a flat surface. If you end up with a round surface, you can use a bread knife to cut off the rounded portions.
More Easy Easter Desserts
Finish your Easter dessert table with these other delicious Easter treats!
Easter nest recipe – these 3-ingredient chocolate nests are easy to make and delicious to eat! Easter Oreo truffles – another easy 3-ingredient Easter dessert that combines Oreos, cream cheese, and candy melts! Easter bunny cupcakes – simple vanilla cupcakes get a fun Easter upgrade with the addition of marshmallow bunny ears! Peanut butter eggs with cream cheese – a super simple homemade peanut butter eggs recipe, even tastier than Reese’s eggs! Easter bark – a delicious s’more like chocolate bark that gets an Easter twist!
