Easter isn't crazy commercialized.
It shouldn't be, right? Because it is such a wonderfully marvelous celebration of the Christian beliefs in Jesus as our Savior, the risen Lord, the Son of God... Wonderful, Counselor, Amazing Grace Kind of Guy!
So after 40 days of prayerful contemplation, beautiful services, the poignant joy of Palm Sunday and the grave sorrow of Good Friday, we have the amazing blessing of EASTER!!!!
And we like to have fun on Easter... A big Easter egg hunt on the farm for the grandkids, a nice ham, some kind of cheesy potatoes, crepes for breakfast (RECIPE HERE!) and of course desserts...
Here's a super easy fun Easter centerpiece, Lacey's "KIT KAT CAKE" done with pastel M&M's and ... wait on it... Kit Kats! This is so simple... Bake a 6 or 8" cake, any flavor.
Layer cake together with frosting of your choice. If you don't choose chocolate, I will make fun of you. Nicely. Of course. :) Trim top with large serrated knife so it's level. Frost top and sides. Press Kit Kats against frosting. Tie with ribbon.
Set top bunny in place, sprinkle M&M's around.... Done! Remove bunny and ribbon to serve.
Now here's a favorite that Beth Jamison (my editor daughter) does for us:
And the kids love them! Most popular part of Easter for the littles and the mediums!
Then there's this idea. Easter Cookie Cake done with chocolate chip cookie dough... laced with pastel M&M's:
First I draw a circle (using a dinner plate) on parchment paper. Flip paper. Press cookie dough of your choice onto paper to fill in circle about 1/2" thick. (Cookie will "spread" a little as it bakes. To help prevent this I use a folded piece of aluminum foil to form "sides" and help keep it in place.) Or... if you have a round pan, press the dough evenly over pan leaving about 1" EMPTY at sides because dough will spread to fill in. This avoids that puffed up overdone edge.
I bake it at 325 so it takes a little while, generally about 15-19 minutes.
Then you can frost or decorate anyway you want! I couldn't find the Easter Cookie picture, but here's a Christina birthday cookie cake pic:
This was all done with drop tips... nothing fancy!
And here's a project we did a couple of years ago and I meant to do it this Lent... but we had so many sick people this year! And Lena wasn't here to do preschool, so we'll do it next year and the pot will stay under my dresser for another 11 months....
But it's a beautiful centerpiece to make with kids, or just for yourself.
The base of a 10 or 12: flower pot.... potting soil. Sprinkled with grass seed. You use a small plastic cup to form the cave. A handful or two of pepples... and the crosses we made with twigs and twine. So simple. So poignant. So thought-provoking.
We did this as a lesson with 5 year olds and we watered every other day. It took about four weeks to get the grass grown enough, and then I just trimmed it even with scissors.
Such a great reminder of the true reason of the season!
We are all praying for a beautiful Easter for all of you. God bless you. May He keep you and yours safe and sound and may you be blessed in so many ways. And may the strength and grace of the risen Lord be with you now... and always. Especially during this trying time, but then we remember that plights of all kinds befell our forebears in the Bible and in history, even in the history of settling America.
At least this time, we saw it coming!
God bless us, around the world, everyone!
Ruthy I remember you sharing that pot before and just love it! This Easter we can't go anywhere of course so we are just going to chill out and relax. Maybe even just order a pizza. Nothing special, but Jacob has a 3 day weekend still so we get to be together!
ReplyDeleteThis is funny because I answered Katie at like five AM and it's not here... Blogger!!!! Stop messing with me.
DeleteBlogger likes naps.
Katie, you enjoy that nice weekend with the cute Drexler guy... (big grin) and whatever you have for Easter dinner, it's the praising God that counts. Not the food. Bless you!
Ohhhh -- I remember this post and all your good ideas. That Kitkat cake is sooooo brilliant! And I've seen those flower pot Easter scenes cropping up all over instagram. What a great reminder for us all.
ReplyDeleteAren't they wonderful? And the cake is so stinkin' simple..... and I wish I'd thought of the Easter scene, I'd have sent the supplies to Beth for Lena and Finn to do, but I got sick at the wrong time, and then the world got sick, too!!!!
DeleteGood to see you, Kav!!!
I love all these ideas, Ruthy! Such a wonderful celebration at your house!
ReplyDeleteAren't they some nice ideas? I do the scenes (normally) with kids and grow them in my bay window... Beth does the eggs and I think Lacey did the cake once and I did it once.... But I like any kind of cake, so a pastel and white cake works for Easter, too... and of course the cookie cakes are a huge fave!!!
DeleteI love all of this, Ruthy! Especially the KitKat cake. Of course, I LOVE KitKats and am apt to only eat those. And the centerpiece is gorgeous. It's funny, this is the time of year where everyone in our region would be doing lots of planting and the garden center would be overrun. Not this year. Makes me think I need to run by there and get while the gettin's good.
ReplyDeleteI discovered yesterday that there's a shortage on mum pots (the 8" pots I use for mums) because no one is working to make them. So I was only able to find 50% of what I need in 7 weeks... so I'm hoping that the problem will rectify itself, but I never thought of that being in short supply. I order my seeds and plants early, but my pots and medium are usually in April... Ooops! Should have done it last month..... so yeah, it's weird not having ANY garden centers open. None. Of course there's nothing open but grocers and pharmacies and gas stations, and it's funny to walk with all of those empty parking lots and almost no traffic.
DeleteIt's like a scene from the 50's.....
Cars are occasional.
Not the steady stream of the 2-and-3-car family of today.
Every year I think I should do an empty tomb centerpiece...and every year I forget about it until a few days before Easter.
ReplyDeleteSomeday - maybe when I have grandchildren hanging around.
This year, we won't be doing a lot of the usual traditions. But of course, our celebration of the resurrection has nothing to do with eggs, bunnies, chicks and family dinners, but all about the risen Christ. Pandemic or not, that's still the reason to celebrate!
Amen, Jan!
DeleteExactly! That empty tomb is the best message ever, and I couldn't agree more.
DeleteBut I'll try and remind us all next year because it is a cool centerpiece or table piece.
The other thing I saw because I've been doing a lot of walking, is a simple 1" x 4" cross, driven into the ground and just a simple purple shawl or wide ribbon draped around it.
Simple.
Stately.
A reminder.
I've never done eggs in trees or bunnies outside because to me the sanctity of Easter is its saving grace. We haven't ruined it!!!! It's so perfect!!!!