Easter Eggs with a twist!

This year, I'm giving out Easter eggs with at twist.  Not your traditional chocolate egg but a cake baked in an eggshell. Yes you read that right - it really is a cake in there. Just crack the egg and eat the cake :) 

I'm really excited to finally share this Easter treat with you. I got this idea more than 6 months ago from the cupcake project and thought how cool, I really must try that! Of course I had to wait very patiently for Easter to come around and finally got a chance to bake these last night.  I've been diligently saving eggshells for the last few weeks and managed a total of 34. Most have been used in baking which is a shocking amount of eggs or baking depending on how you look at it! 

The idea is very simple which is baking a sponge in an egg-shell. I decided to jazz it up a little and make my cake multi-coloured, very similar to my rainbow cupcakes.  I wanted pastel colours to fit in with spring so used a very tiny amount of food colouring and am really pleased with the final result. I used a basic vanilla sponge although I debated about carrot cake, lemon sponge and chocolate sponge. 

I'm sending these cute Easter egg cakes to Tea Time Treats hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked and co-hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.  The theme for this month is Easter so these are perfect for the occasion! 

I'm also sending these to Bookmarked recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes as I've had this bookmarked since last year.

And to show your stuff hosted by Julie from Just winging it 

And Sweets for a Saturday over at Sweet as Sugar Cookies 

And Cast Party Wednesday at Lady Behind the Curtain

 my collection of egg-shells. I found the easiest way to save the egg shells was to poke a hole at the top with a sharp knife then slowly peel the edges back and pour the egg out. I worked out later that this is a great way to separate eggs. You need a skewer or something similar to get the egg yolks out. Rinse the egg-shells and soak in salted water for at least 30 minutes. Rinse again and dry on paper towels. Store in an airtight container until required. Click here for step-by-step photo instructions. 

 My selection of 'spring' colours 

 I know its not environmentally friendly but it really saves the washing up (and extra piping bags) I use ziplock bags to put a portion of sponge mix and food colouring. Seal and massage the bag gently until the colour is evenly spread. Cut a small hole at the end of the bag and use it to pipe the mixture into the egg-shells. 

 I used some foil to help prop up the egg shells. Pipe the mixture directly into the egg shells. 

 I got some cute Easter stickers to put on the eggs. 

 The 'egg cake' 

 I love the colours!! 

 packed into little gift bags with a baby chick and a spring themed ribbon. Who wants one? :) 

For the vanilla sponge

(I made 1.5 recipe to fill 34 eggshells and 1 cupcake)

For 1 recipe: 

250g butter

250g caster sugar

250g flour, sifted

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time until well mixed.
• Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste.
• Finally, add the flour and mix well.
• Divide into portions and colour each portion. 
• Pipe the mixture in layers to create a rainbow effect. 
• Alternatively you can just pipe the vanilla sponge directly into the eggshells. 
• Fill the egg-shells about 3/4 full or the mixture will overflow. 
• If it overflows (mine did), just peel off the excess cake and wipe the egg-shells with a damp cloth.
• If you underfill the eggshells, you won't get a proper egg shape.
• Bake for approximately 16-18 minutes depending on size of egg-shells. 

Tips and variations: 

• You can make a different flavoured sponge - lemon, orange or chocolate are perfect for Easter
• You can make a white sponge mix, fill the egg-shells about 1/4 way then push a small oval of yellow marzipan. Top with more batter until 3/4 full. This will create an "egg effect" with the marzipan resembling the egg yolk.  Thank you mum for this brilliant idea! She also tried a piece of mango which worked well but the marzipan tasted better!
• You can paint and decorate the eggshells (or be lazy and add stickers like me!)

~ Happy Easter ~