Treat of the Week: Our Easter Feast

The Easter Bunny was very good to us.  By that, I mean my parents, of course, though I am convinced of the existence of the aforementioned anthropomorphic, long-eared mammalian giver of sugary delights and eggs.  Bertie enjoyed a long weekend at "Grandma and Grandpa's" and I got a chance to visit with my parents during the Easter holiday.   

On the Saturday before Easter, while my father and I worked on my rather difficult income taxes, my mother worked on the exceptional Easter cake.  We’re a cake family, as you all know, and I always look forward to the annual Easter cake.  The tradition of the checkerboard Easter cake continued this year.   Since I was a little boy, my mother has made checker-board cakes from scratch and, though I'm aware of how it's achieved, it's still a bit of magic to see that pattern when the cake is first cut.  This year, some of the squares in the cake would be spice cake and some would be white cake.  Once again, it's frosted in scrumptiously smooth buttercream icing and adorned with bright, piped spring flowers.  I even got to pipe some of the flowers on!  A lovely, thick and creamy chocolate ganache was spread between each later, giving each bite a luxurious blend of textures and flavors.  You'll see more of that later.

On Easter morning, we began with a breakfast of bacon, freshly-baked biscuits and our brightly-colored Easter Eggs.  I look forward every year to dying the eggs with my mom and dad.  I know, I’m thirty-nine and probably shouldn’t be as chuffed about these things as I am, but, I do anyway.

We always marbleize the eggs.  This is accomplished by first dying them one (or more) base colors.  Then, the dyed eggs are rolled in dishes containing food coloring and vinegar, and a little oil.  The oil doesn’t combine with the other media and, therefore, causes a marbling effect on the surface of the egg.  The finished eggs are then gently buffed to a shine with paper towels.

After breakfast, we began the preparation of dinner—a lengthy process (almost entirely for my mother), but very much worth it.  In between, we snacked on the the candy the Easter bunny left in footed silver compotes.  

We enjoyed roasted pork tenderloin with a savory sauce and sour cream season with mustard, fresh spring peas, glazed carrots, a creamy potatoes au-gratin, and an asparagus and gruyere tart in a lovely homemade pastry shell.  Wonderful stuff!

Then, the cake made it's official first appearance and all was right in the world.  

 

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter/Passover.