Easter Tea Cakes – Dipped in poured buttercream frosting. Huh? Yep, that’s right Fancy Folks, poured fondant kicked to the side. These petite and dainty little tea cakes have been themed with a pastel color palette for Easter. Keep your teacakes fancy like these or crash the porcelain-tea-sipping party with some different shapes and colors.
Easter Tea Cakes
First let me confess, this is The Cheat version of my Easter Tea Cakes. Generally, when I make tea cakes I use Joy of Baking’s Pound Cake recipe. But with the Hub in the hospital and waiting on oven repairs, I wasn’t able to. Out of time and without an oven. . . .Sara Lee to the rescue.
For those who follow me you already know what Cheats are and that they usually follow a Purist version, that is recipes made from scratch
There was a time in my life when I use to really turn my nose up to boxed or pre-made bake goods—my one snobbery in life (okay, that and books). Then my family came along and between them and sometimes having a 50 hour work week, I’ve come to embrace some of my cheating recipes.
However, I will say, for me there’s just not the same satisfaction in using The Cheats. Yeah, it’s timesaving, but I love baking because I love creating, testing and discovering.
That being said, using the “The Cheat” Sara Lee pound cake, led me to my latest discovery. I originally planned to use CakeJournal’s poured fondant, but had to think of an alternative when I realized I did not have white fondant on hand.
Frustrated at first, but determined not to be completely beaten out of making my Easter Tea Cakes. I melted some buttercream for a poured version. After a few failed attempts that ranged from a lumpy mess to an oily and milky drool-like consistency and two pound cakes later, I finally hit it right. The key is to melting it slowly.
And boy do I love it! It’s so easy and so perfectly smooth. But the absolute best part—it taste so much better then fondant.
Much like my Irish Cake Bombs post the table below outlines the components for both The Purist and The Cheat version.
| The Purist | The Cheat |
| Pound Cake | Sara Lee Pound Cake (found in the freezer section) |
| Poured Fondant or Poured Buttercream | Pre-made Frosting (Betty Crocker’s Creamy style works best) |
Easter Tea Cakes
A few notes:
1. Use your favorite buttercream recipe.
2. For a pound cake, I like Joy of Baking’s recipe found here: http://bit.ly/cB6lyyShape cutters – Use any shape you prefer, but for pouring and decorating unless you have a deft hand try to stay away from intricate cutters and use simple shapes.
3. Any dense cake recipe will work well. Since I’m a novice at this, I like the density and hardiness of pound cake when I’m doing small detail work. That is, less room for my klutzy hands to ruin my cut-outs.
4. Work near a microwave as you will need to reheat your buttercream as you work to keep its pouring consistency. Mine is above the oven unit. If yours is as well, remove all moveable hardware like grates and throw down some foil over your work surface- this will make for a really easy clean up.
5. Use little ramekins as they are easier to work with.
6. Use plastic microwaveable spoons, so that you do not have to remove them when re-heating. I use Baby’s First spoons since they are non-toxic plastic and you can feel safe about placing them in the microwave.
7. Have everything you need in place and close at hand to work quickly. The fat content in the melted buttercream causes it to thicken quickly.
8. Heat your buttercream slowly. Start with heating in your microwave for 10 seconds. It should look like the consistency of heavy cream. If in doubt, heat at 5 second intervals to prevent overheating and separating. If it does separate, gently re-combine with a whisk and let rest.
9. Stir gently and slowly when heating to prevent air bubbles from forming in the melted buttercream.
GORGEOUS! I love the way you put them in the tulip wrappers and the colors are so springy! Can’t wait to try the poured buttercream!
I love those tulip liners, too! Perfect touch 😉
The piping on top of these is adorable, as well. They’re awesome!
I have always wondered about simply melting buttercream to use as poured fondant, but I’ve been too scared. Maybe I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks for the tip!
Wow!! I can’t believe how beautiful these tea cakes are! Wow. They are so dainty. I love the idea of using buttercream instead of fondant. Great job!! Wow. Thanks for the great tips.
How beautiful your dainties are. I just love them. Everything is just saying, “it’s Springtime”. So please share how did you make your pretty toppers? You are so talented.
THese are the sweetest prettiest cakes, petit fours I have ever seen. So beautiful.
.-= Lori´s last blog ..Daring Bakers: Orange Cherry Tian =-.
These are so beautiful!
.-= Katie @ goodLife {eats}´s last blog ..Welcome Costco Connection Readers! =-.
Cheat or no cheat these are sooooooo pretty!
.-= Gala´s last blog ..DB: Orange Tian =-.
Oh my, those are so pretty and quintessentially easter!
Beautiful! I love these. I am teaching a class on cookie decorating for Easter next weekend, but I might incorporate these into the schedule. Thanks for the inspiration! They are simply irresistible!!
these are beyond gorgeous! Thanks you so much for sharing your poured buttercream secrets. I much prefer buttercream and will definitely try this. I featured your cakes today on my column (ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com).
Oh my how adorable. I’m planning a baby shower of teacups and teapot theme for DD#2 (long distance). If I get up my nerve I’ll give these a try. They would be too perfect for High Tea. We’re using china, silverware, linen napkins … the works for the baby shower.
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..It’s A =-.
OMG they are sooo cute! So so so cute! They really do look marvelous
Perfect for my soon to be daughter in law’s bridal shower! I was given card blanch for desserts! Absolutely gorgeous. I too am a buttercream die hard whose palate just can’t accommodate fondant.
Gorgeous! I love how u’ve got both the cheat version and the purist one. NICE! happy easter.
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Those are absolutely beautiful.
Those are so pretty and Easter perfect.
I too, was a snob, now most of the recipes I use have a cheater version or some cheater tips.
That’s life!
Happy Easter 😉
I made these tonight! I think the cream I added was a tad cold so it was a little chunky, but when I microwaved them they were perfect. They are for a big Easter bunch. Thanks for the great idea, and I love the picture you have too!
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I feel like there are steps missing.. did you pour the buttercream from a measuring cup or did you spoon it over? Did you catch the extra icing and reuse? Also what frosting tips did you use for the flowers and the dots? These are gorgeous and I’d like to try.. xx
Can you elaborate on the buttercream? Do you have a recipe you like to use for this?
Wow!! I can’t get over how lovely these tea cakes are! Wow. They’re so delicate. I like the idea of using buttercream rather than fondant. Excellent work!! Wow. Thank you for the helpful advice.