Easter ideas...

…and a strawberries and cream cake

Apr 16, 2025

Hello, Friends! And, happy Easter to all who celebrate!

Now, please enjoy this throwback Easter picture from 1990 that dad recently found at home. That’s me on the right. I love that not a single one of us - person or dog - is looking at the camera. But, it sure does unlock some core Easter memories!

New Easter dresses and hats. Always a hat, I was a hat girl. (Apparently for 1990, I did big bow plus hat?)

Dapper looking little brother in his Easter finest. One year he wanted to cut the tag off his new Easter suit by himself and ended up cutting a hole in the sleeve. Poor kid.

Dyeing eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide around the yard. Jack, the little, scrappy looking white dog found one three months later. That might be the last time we did real eggs.

And the family Easter picture, can’t forget that! I’m pretty sure we have one from every year, posed somewhere in the yard. I’ll have to see if I can find them all just so we can see the fashions of the time!

These days we do a casual Easter lunch, complete with neighborhood egg hunt, over at my mother-in-law’s house. We all bring food, she hides a billion plastic eggs, and a good time is had by all!

If you’re also doing Easter brunch, lunch, or dinner and still need some ideas, I have a few! (These would also work for any other fun Spring gathering!)

From the In This Kitchen Archive…

Breakfast/Brunch - grits casserole or hashbrown casserole, lemon poppyseed muffins, angel biscuits or sweet potato biscuits stuffed with shaved ham

Lunch/Dinner Sides - braised honey carrots, cheesy broccoli rice casserole, white mac ‘n cheese

Desserts - blueberry buttermilk pie, lemon blueberry ricotta cake

And then there’s this week’s recipe (below!) - a Strawberries and Cream cake that everyone just wants to dive right into.

The cake is the same vintage yellow cake from my grandmother that I also use for my peach upside down cakes. This time, instead of splitting the batter into 2 pans, I let it all bake up a little higher in one spring form pan.

Then, the cake is topped with heap of fluffy mascarpone whipped cream and a mountain of juicy, sweet strawberries.

It feels both impressive and un-fussy all at the same time, looks supremely springy, and would make a beautiful centerpiece to the Easter dessert table.

That’s all for today, go have a wonderful weekend - I hope you share a good meal, find all the eggs before the dog steals one, and take a fabulous family picture you can look back on in 35 years.

MONDAY - Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Wedges

Ground turkey burger patties flavored with lots of garlic, oregano, and feta cheese. Sliced tomatoes and tzatziki for topping and roasted sweet potato wedges on the side.

TUESDAY - Chicken, Broccoli, Rice Skillet

One skillet dinner with everyone’s favorite chicken/broccoli/rice combo and ~~maybe~~ definitely extra cheese on top.

WEDNESDAY - Ramen Bowls

Simple and easy, but so good! Homemade ramen bowls with chicken, shredded carrots, edamame, and jammy eggs.

THURSDAY - French Onion Pasta

There are a bunch of recipes out there for French Onion Pasta - caramelized onions, wine, cheese, pasta - all the best things. I’ll take a look at what other recipes do for some ideas, and then probably do my own mash-up.

FRIDAY - Friday Night Pick-Up!

SATURDAY - Dinner at Yaya’s (the in-laws)!

Someone got a Blackstone (spoiler: it’s Yaya)! She’s been looking up all the fun things you can do with it, and I think we’ve voted on Philly Cheesesteaks and home fries (potatoes and onions).

SUNDAY - Easter Lunch

We do Easter Lunch pot-luck style, which means there’s always too much food and we over-do. Later in the day, if anyone feels like eating dinner, it’s usually a leftover ham sandwich and another bite of dessert!

LUNCHES for this week -

I have some chickpea curry already portioned out with a quinoa base in the freezer from the last time I made it - easy to thaw and heat for a quick lunch. I may also make a quick version of my Asian Chicken Salad using a bagged slaw mix and extra poached chicken from ramen night.

EXTRAS for this week

Baking banana bread to welcome new neighbors, testing a romesco sauce to use in an appetizer, and then for the end of the week, I’ll prep the braised carrots and lemon bars I’m bringing for Easter.

Printer Friendly Strawberries And Cream Cake

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Strawberries and Cream Cake

Makes one 10-inch cake

Cake Batter

· ½ cup (1 stick) Butter, softened

· 1 cup White Sugar

· 2 Eggs, room temperature

· ½ cup Buttermilk, room temperature

· 1 ½ cups All Purpose Flour

· 3 teaspoons Baking Powder

· ½ teaspoon kosher Salt (Morton or other store brand)

· 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Strawberries

· One-pint fresh Strawberries, hulled and quartered

· 2 tablespoons White Sugar

Whipped Cream

· 8 ounces Mascarpone Cheese, room temperature

· 1 cup Heavy Cream, cold

· ½ teaspoon Lemon Zest (about a quarter of a lemon)

· 2 tablespoons White Sugar

· ½ teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325⁰ and arrange a rack in the middle position. Coat a 10-inch springform cake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line with a parchment circle and lightly spray again.

Make the cake - In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Then, using a hand-held mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined, lighter in color, and slightly fluffy (about 3 minutes).

Mix flour mixture into butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk. (One third flour, then one half milk, then another third flour, then second half of milk, and last third of flour.) Mix each addition just until combined, do not over mix. Stir in vanilla.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan and set the springform pan on a large baking sheet (for easier transfer in and out of the oven).

Bake for 40-42 minutes, until a cake tester (or toothpick) comes out almost clean with just a few crumbs. Remove cake from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen. Remove cake from springform, remove bottom piece and parchment, and set on a rack to cool.

While cake is baking, combine the strawberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl, stirring well. Store in the refrigerator until time to serve.

To make the cream – in a large bowl, with a handheld mixer (or in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment), beat the mascarpone cheese until smooth. Beat in the lemon zest, sugar, and vanilla. Add a little of the cream and beat until completely incorporated. Continue adding cream a little at a time and beating until mixed until all the cream has been added and the mixture can hold stiff peaks. Be careful not to over mix or the cream may curdle.

Once the cake is cool, transfer it to a serving plate. Put all of the mascarpone cream on top and gently spread to the edges, smoothing as you go. Leave a little border all the way around the edge that is a bit higher than the center to make sure the strawberry juices don’t all run off.

The cake with cream can be assembled an hour or two ahead and stored in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, use a slotted spoon to pile the strawberries on top, then add as much of the extra juices as you would like.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading! See you back here next week!

(Don’t forget you can see all of the past newsletters and recipes at the archive link below!)

In This Kitchen