You will need:

Edibles:

Equipment:

• chocolate cakes 15cm (6in) x 10cm (4in) deep, 15cm (6in) half sphere (recipe cards available from cake-school.uk)
• sugar paste chocolate 1.5kg, mango lily 500g, yellow 60g (Beau products)
• mexican paste white 40g, orange 50g, yellow 100g, lime green 50g, deep pink 40g, purple 40g
• brightly coloured sweets
• mini eggs
• chocolate ganache 650g
• piping jelly
• royal icing
• flower paste white, hydrangea (Beau products)
• edible glue
• edible glaze spray (PME)
• rejuvenator spirit (Sugarflair)
• cmc or tylo powder

• round cake drums 30cm (12 in)
• cake card 13cm (5in)
• rolling pin guide rings (PME)
• plastic dowel
• message embossing block with greetings and phrases set (Purple cupcakes)
• oval cutter plain and fluted edge 35mm (PME)
• number 2 piping nozzle (PME)
• stay fresh mat
• strip cutter number 2 (JEM)
• ribbon cutter (FMM)
• press ice tool polka 1 (FMM)
• circle plunger cutter 6mm (PME)
• double sided tape
• ribbon orange 15mm x 1m

1

Make the bag (this needs to dry before you assemble the cake) in advance: roll orange mexican paste 2mm thick (blue guide rings). Emboss your chosen message by pressing the message block into the paste. Then cut out using a fluted oval cutter.

2

Using a number 2 piping nozzle indent a pattern around the edge of your label. Leave the label under a stay fresh mat to stop it from drying out.

3

Roll a rectangle of white mexican paste and lay coloured strips on top. Cover with a stay fresh mat and roll over to create a striped paste. Tip: cut the strips of coloured paste either with JEM strip cutter 2 or using a cutting wheel and ruler.

4

Cut the rectangle 9cm by 27cm. Trim each of the shorter ends by rolling with the wavy cutting wheel on ribbon cutter.

5

Fix the label in place with a little edible glue.

6

Paint edible glue down each long side and fold paste over to create a bag. Open this out and support with cling film. Dry on foam.

7

Paint mini eggs using dust colours mixed with rejuvenator spirit. Create different patterns. Spray with edible glaze if liked.

8

Paint the cake drum with piping jelly, roll orange sugar paste 3mm thick and drape this over the board. Trim the excess and smooth with a smoother.

9

Prepare the cakes. Trim the tops off the 15cm (6 in) round and the half hemisphere so that they are completely level.

10

Place a 13cm (5 in) cake card on top of the round cake. Carefully carve from edge of board round to the base of the cake.

11

Place the 15cm (6 in) round on top of the half hemisphere and trim to create an egg shape.

12

Use a cake leveller or a sharp knife to slice the round cake into three layers and the half hemisphere into two layers.

13

Use chocolate ganache to sandwich the layers together.

14

Spread a thin layer of ganache over the cake as a crumb coat. Place the cake in the fridge for approximately twenty minutes to firm.

15

Roll chocolate sugar paste 5mm thick and cut a 13cm (5in) circle by cutting around a cake card. Place the circle of sugar paste on top of the cake.

16

Turn the cake upside down and rest it on an upturned bowl. Roll out the remaining chocolate sugar paste and drape over the cake. Smooth with your hands. Tip: if your sugar paste feels very soft add a little cmc or tylo powder.

17

Turn the cake the right way up and use scissors to trim the top edge into a zig zag shape like a broken Easter egg.

18

Spray the cake with edible glaze to achieve a lovely sheen.

19

Position the cake on the iced board, securing with royal icing. Insert a dowel at a slight angle into the top of the cake.

20

Use royal icing to secure the bag in place.

21

Pipe pearl beading in melted ganache around the base of the cake. This makes it look neater but it also adds a little stability.

22

Pour melted ganache onto the top of the cake and fill the top of the egg with a mix of different sweets.

23

Pipe melted ganache onto the bottom of the dowel and secure sweets around. Leave to set. Continue to work your way up the dowel, a few sweets at a time.

24

Roll a strip of yellow modelling paste 2mm thick and indent with a press ice tool. Tip: create the modelling paste by kneading equal quantities of sugar paste and mexican paste together.  

25

Roll orange and lime green paste very thinly and cut small polka dots. Press onto the indents marked on the yellow strip of paste.

26

Place a stay fresh mat on top of the patterned paste and roll firmly. This embeds the dots into the paste.

27

Cut the paste into strips 4.8cm wide using the ribbon cutter. Keep the paste covered with a stay fresh mat to prevent it drying out.

28

Fold one end of the strip into a pleat. Bend in the middle, and then bend each end over to create an ‘m’ shape and then pinch.

29

Paint edible glue around the centre of the egg and wrap the strip of paste around. Make a second pleat in the other end.

30

Make the bow tails by cutting a triangle from one end and pleat the other. For the loops, pleat each end and fold over and for the knot, fold each side over.

31

Paint edible glue on each end of the tail sections. Fix the top in place, bend and then secure the bottom.

32

Stick the knot strip on top of the tails, secure the loops and then fold the knot strip over.

33

Use cocktail sticks to support the bow until it is dry.

34

For the finishing touches stick additional sweets cascading down the egg and also onto the cake board. Fix ribbon around the cake drum with double sided tape.