Perfect for Easter Cake

Although holiday cooking is one of my very favorite things, I am not overly crazy about cooking for Easter.  This is probably because we spend a good chunk of the morning at church dealing with the crazy parking and crowds and I don't want to have to rush home and spend the rest of the day in the kitchen.  We go out for brunch on Easter Sunday after church.  I love this little tradition almost as much as I love the fact that Easter hats are coming back in style.  They are, right? 

I did, however, make this lovely cake for us to enjoy during the Easter weekend....


Picky Palate

It tastes as good as it looks.  I improvised a little from the original recipe (no shocker there) to cut down the calories and I doubled all the ingredients to make the layers bigger.

Easter Cake

2 boxes white or yellow cake mix (I used yellow)
2 small boxes sugar-free/fat free instant vanilla pudding mix
16 oz. container of fat free sour cream
1 cup water
1 cup (2 jars) baby food pears (or of course you can use 1 cup of it goes straight to your thighs oil)
1 cup egg substitute
Food coloring (red, blue, green, yellow)
Can of whipped cream cheese icing (of course you can make your own, but I didn't have time for that)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease four 8-in round cake pans.  In a stand mixer, stir together cake mixes and pudding mixes.  Dump in sour cream, water, egg and baby food.  Mix all together and beat for several minutes until thoroughly combined and smooth.  Pour batter evenly into 4 separate bowls.  Add your food coloring a little at a time to make the pastel colors of your choice.  Pour batter into the 4 prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350 for about 22-27 minutes.  Start checking with a wooden skewer around 20 minutes since all ovens vary.  Place pans on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove cakes carefully and let cool completely on racks.  Once cooled, stack layers, spreading a thin layer of icing between each one.  Once stacked, ice the entire cake.  I decorated with some Robin's Eggs.

Tips and tricks:
* The baby food works really well in this recipe.  We did not miss the oil at all.  However, baby food tends to make cakes a little more dense, which is why I used 2 boxes of cake mix (and doubled all ingredients) here.  I wanted to make sure my layers were thick enough.
** When you first put everything in the mixing bowl, stir it with a large spoon before turning the mixer on so the dry ingredients don't go flying everywhere.
*** Make sure you add the food coloring a little at a time because you're going for pastels here.  A few drops of red made the pink color, a few drops of yellow made the light yellow, same with the green, and a few drops of red and a few drops of blue together made the light purple.
**** Make sure your cake pans are well greased and floured so that cooked cakes easily fall out.