Speckled Egg Cake

It's become our tradition to have friends over for Easter Brunch.  This was our fourth year of hosting Easter Brunch, and we love spending it with other friends who don't have family in town.  I'm always in charge of the dessert, and this year I decided to try something really fun!  I had seen this cake on Pinterest and had been saving it for Easter.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out! 

This is a picture of my cake.  It's a little distorted in this picture - but you get the general idea.  For purposes of pride, I'm not going to post a picture of the original cake I was trying to imitate... just take my word for it - mine's REALLY close!)

SPECKLED EGG CAKE
a DIY by Carrie Sellman
From: thecakeblog.com
Supplies

• cake of choice, assembled and crumb-coated (I made the Southern Living Almond Wedding Cake - so good!)
• buttercream icing (I also used the Southern Living icing)
• food coloring
• 1 T cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 T vanilla extract
• clean paintbrush
• wax paper
• paper towels, for clean up
• speckled eggs

STEP 1: Color your buttercream frosting with a few drops of food coloring. I used 2-3 drops of Americolor Sky Blue gel. When tinting buttercream, I like to add one drop of color at a time until I reach the right shade. If you’ve ever ruined a batch of icing before, you already know the benefit of adding color gradually. And when in doubt, I like to error on the light side. Buttercream naturally darkens slightly as it sets.
STEP 2: Frost your assembled and crumb-coated cake with your pretty blue buttercream. Smooth and shape to your liking. It does not have to be perfect. We’re about to splatter it up!
STEP 3: In a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract. Stir well until cocoa is completely dissolved and you have a thin, chocolate paint.
STEP 4: Cover your work area with wax paper. Lightly dip your new (or totally clean, never used for paint) paintbrush into the chocolate. Holding the paint brush with one hand, gently flick the bristles with your other index finger to splatter the chocolate paint. Practice first onto your wax paper until you get the hang of it. No need to move on to the cake until you master the flick. When you’re ready to start speckling, hold the paintbrush fairly close to the cake and start splattering.
NOTE: A little chocolate paint goes a long way. So dip your brush lightly. If your paintbrush becomes ‘clogged’ with paint and is no longer splattering nicely, rinse it with water. Dry with a paper towel. And start again.
STEP 5: Keep splattering away! Move up, down and all around to completely cover the cake.
NOTE: As you work, you will undoubtedly get a splatter that is bigger than you would prefer. Or accidentally get carried away and bump the cake with your paintbrush. (Don’t ask me how I know this!) You have two options here. Either embrace the imperfections and let it go. Or wipe it off quickly with a light dab of water and paper towel. Then go back to speckling. If you look closely, you can see where I wiped one of my oh-no-it’s-too-big splatters. Left-middle. Not too bad of a correction and I think it adds to the speckled egg charm.
STEP 6: Now that you have the hang of splattering, you’ll also speckle the eggs you previously made. While you wait for the cake and the eggs to dry, now is a good time to wipe off any stray splatters on your cake pedestal. Once both the eggs and the cake are completely dry, arrange eggs on top of cake. Use a dab of buttercream to hold them exactly where you want them.
STEP 7: Cut, eat and enjoy!

Couscous Salad with Fresh Spinach and Chicken

My church hosted a Spring Fling event recently for women in the church.  This lovely dish was served for dinner and was so wonderful!  All of the ladies at the table talked about how great it tasted.  I can't wait to try it at home!  It goes well with pita bread or chips.

Couscous Salad with Fresh Spinach and Chicken
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 ½ cups cooked couscous
2 cups baby spinach leaves, rolled and sliced into slivers
1 cup dried cranberries

1 English cucumber, chopped

1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 small red onion, chopped

Cooked and sliced chicken (marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and Nature’s Seasoning)

Dressing:

½ cup plain low fat yogurt
3 T olive oil
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves minced garlic

 

Directions:
Combine the almonds and the red onion in a bowl. Whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and

garlic. Pour over salad and toss. Season with salt and pepper. Chill, serve with sliced chicken.