What have eggs got to do with Easter? Easter Sunday is one of the most celebrated Christian festive events around the world. According to the Christian Bible, Easter celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death on the third day after his Crucifixion. Dyeing and decorating Easter egg was long practiced since the middle ages, the eggs symbolises new life hatching from the egg itself.
So here’s my rendition of the Easter egg. The new life that comes out from the egg is the chick and in this recipe, I’ve used the egg cake recipe, also known as 鸡蛋糕 (ji dan gao) in Chinese. Also inspired by the cute little Elvis Presley chicks made by Keempossible on Instagram, my little Easter egg chicks had their hair flowing so naturally out of the egg shell, I thought why not just make full use of their unique hairstyle. When I bake or cook, I always have in mind my family and their tastes. So I made both vanilla and dark chocolate Easter egg cake as the babies in our family love these flavours. I also reduced the amount of sugar used in this recipe, as well as using Stevia sweetener in place of sugar. Check out my other recent recipes using Stevia sweetener, such as my two-layer dark chocolate basque burnt cheesecake, Hershey’s Kisses Blossom Cookies and Melt-in-your-mouth Bunny Shaped Pineapple Tarts, now my mummy can enjoy eating these little sweet treats without worrying too much about her sugar level.
Decorating these Easter egg cake chicks is really therapeutic. I think trying to pick up the tiny little sesame seeds and the cranberry bits took so much concentration and attention that there’s no room nor time to think about other things.
Tips on making Easter egg cake cutie chicks
- I reduced the Stevia sweetener amount to 50g, if you prefer it sweeter, you can increase to 100 for this recipe.
- This recipe makes 8 large egg shell cakes.
- When filling the egg shells with the cake batter, fill it up to 2/3 of each egg shell. During baking, the cake will flow out of the egg shell and you can use that as the unique hairstyle of the chick.
- Since the amount of batter is quite little in the egg shell, the baking time should take around 12 minutes, depending on your oven.
- To make the egg cakes in more interesting colours, you can add strawberries (pink), pandan (green), blue pea flower (blue) to the batter. I personally prefer to use natural food colourings rather than synthetic ones.
- Use room temperature eggs for whipping the cake mixture as it can trap air better than those that are cold.
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Easter Egg Cake – How to Make Cutie Chicks
Detailed Step-by-Step Video
Ingredients
- 70 g cake flour
- 50 g Stevia sweetener, optional to increase sweetness to 100g.
- 20 g vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder, optional
For egg shells
- 6-8 large eggs, for the egg shells
- Water
- Salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
For decoration
- 1 tbsp cranberries, crushed, optional, for decoration for the chick's cheeks
- Black sesame seeds, optional, for decoration for the chick's eyes
- Carrot, optional, for decoration for the chick's crown
Instructions
Prepare the egg shells
- Use knife to poke a tiny hole on top of 6-8 large eggs, then pluck off part of the egg shell, leaving a half-inch hole.Stir the inside of the eggs with chopstick or a satay stick, empty the egg content into a bowl.
- Wash the emptied egg shell under running water. Soak emptied egg shell in a salt solution (Salt to Water ratio is 1:4) for at least 30 minutes. Make sure all the eggs are fully submerged into the salt solution.
- Rinse the egg shells under running water and drip it dry by placing the egg hole-side-down on a cooling rack or a plate.
- Once dry, add some of 2 tbsp vegetable oil into the the egg shells, swirl the oil around to coat the interior of the egg and drip off the oil. This is so that the cake will not stick to the egg shell after baking.
- Place the egg hole-side-down on a plate to drip off excess oil.
Make the cake
- Pre heat oven at 180C or 356F with top and bottom heat setting with fan.
- In a food mixer with whisk attachment, add 2 large eggs and 50 g Stevia sweetener, beat until ribbon stage at high speed. This takes about 4-5 minutes. Note: egg mixture would have thickened, batter will fall off the whisk in thick trails.
- Sift in 70 g cake flour, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Use a spatula to fold to combine the ingredients carefully.
- Add 20 g vegetable oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract and mix with spatula. Take note not to over mix. Optional for chocolate cakes: Divide the batter into 2 portions. Add 1 tbsp cocoa powder to one portion and mix well.
- Transfer batter to egg shells with either a piping bag (with small opening), or a measuring cup. Fill up to about 2/3 of the egg shells. Be careful not to spill the batter outside the egg shell as it'll be baked and stuck on the egg shells, making it difficult to peel the shells later. Note: The baked cake might overflow a little after baking and that forms the 'hair' of the chick. Place the egg shells on crushed aluminium foils in a muffin tin to hold the egg shells properly when baking.
- Bake in preheat oven at 180C or 356F for 12-15 min until golden brown. Once baked, let it cool completely before decorating.
Decorate the cakes into chicks
- Carefully remove egg shells from the upper half of the egg. If the cake 'overflow' from the hole of the egg shell, you can use that as the 'hair' of the chick.
- Use Black sesame seeds as the eyes, crush 1 tbsp cranberries and use the red juice to brush onto the cheek of the chick, cut a tiny bit of the cranberry skin and use it as the red lips of the chick. Trim a slice of Carrot and use it as the crown of the chick. Optional to use a little egg white as 'glue' to stick these ingredients onto the cake.
Notes
Sharing this recipe with Fiesta Friday with Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook, Lazy Gastronome, and Meal Plan Monday.
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