Easter in June ...

... not really but i just ... ahhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm ... didn't get around to posting the easter cake earlier this year. yeah, let's go with that ;o)

april was freakishly hot and hot weather doesn't coordinate well with a heavy creamy cake – just my opinion. i wanted a light fluffy cake with a hint of vanilla and to balance out the sweetness a good, healthy dose of fresh lemon jam. i would have loved to make the lemon jam myself, but i don't have a recipe and didn't want to start experimenting. i bought a real english lemon jam, not too bitter and just the right amount of sour to make it perfectly fresh.
the cake itself is the heavenly fluffy 1-2-3-4 cake by Cynthia Barkomi from her baking book "Backen – I love baking" (and i looooooooove that book!). just look at this dough. i'm about to start drooling, it's that good. i promise.

we had guests and family from danmark, switzerland and portugal this year. a very sweet but kinda crazy culture mix, making it the perfect german-danish-swiss-portugese-easter. add to that amazing food (thank you mum!) and good wine (thank you dad and mum!) and sunshine and you got yourself one of those days that are just too good to be true. i'm actually veryveryvery lucky cuz i have lots of those days (again, thank you mum and dad!).

it's true and i shamefully admit it, i wanted to impress with the cake. seriously impress the stuffing out of the family. but most of all, i wanted it to taste amazing. light, fluffy, lemony with just the sweetest hint of vanilla. i think – ohhhhh dammit, to hell with this demureness ;o) – i know, i achieved both.
am i actually allowed to say "hell" in a post about easter. isn't that kinda screwing with the heaven-hell-equation? doesn't matter, i'm going to make it right again by posting photos of the cake. that's somehow evening it all out again. who could stay screwed up after cake therapy?

i took over the kitchen with cakes and cookies (table decoration. noooooo, not the kitchen table. the easter lunch table.) and fondant and food colors and royal icing (hello there, princess world) and marzipan and confectioners' sugar and ...

8 hours later. the oven is cool again, the royal icing (i would be a great princess) dry, the cakes baked and cut and covered in lemon jam and marzipan and fondant and i'm exuberantly happy because i got to bake and decorate for 8 hours straight. at that point though i'm in desperate need of salt (thank you viking for ordering us pizza ;o)).

i simply can't decide which photo i want to show you. i would show you even more. this is actually me restraining myself quite badly. i was aiming for one. i promise. but i couldn't stop at 2. it just wouldn't have been fair to the cake.

i never make people eat the fondant. if you like it, go for it, dig in, enjoy yourself, go nuts, i'll give you mine too.

i love baking! and thank goodness it's christmas soon ;o)

xoxo and happy easter in june! J.