Trivial Spring | Easter Nest Chocolate Cake

ITS SPRING TIME!! AND EASTER WILL FOLLOW SOON

Everyday I walk down the same way to pick and drop my daughter to school. The trees which had few leaves now looked like a bride dressed for a wedding, they were covered in spring blooms. I don’t know how many like to stop and admire its beauty but I do. My charm and awe at the change of seasons is a gift from my stay in the UK. I dance like a girl when the first hail arrives, I start picking the spring blooms when they dance in the light, I shop like a manic when summer sun shines and crush the autumn leaves as they carpet the ground. Seasons evoke the child within me and fill me wonder and cheer.

This year I feel so different for the first time in the last few years. My heart aches and swells at the same time. There are too many things which are going on in my life now that I feel vulnerable. You find beauty in the most splendid blooms but is it possible to find lasting beauty when the blossom glooms. The smell , touch so supple and that soft flurry such a beholding sight.  It held my gaze in the yesteryear but today it seems so strained to my worried eyes. When doubt takes the form of an ominous ghost you start to dread the present beauty as a trap. No matter how much your heart aches to dance in the spring breeze the fear within you rivets you to the ground. I just wish the spring whizz pasts by and resurrects the fruits of my labour in the summertime. All my unanswered questions which seem like riddled hopes will unfold into a simple silken surety. You have been beautiful in your strength so now is the time to find beauty in one’s vulnerability. You have been strong and you have been vulnerable, you have faced both, you have sailed both. This makes me human, makes me sane, makes me ‘ME’. I am….

The beginning of last year was about motherhood and it still continues to be so in this year too. Easter marks the resurrection of christ in the christian calendar though its occurrence dates further back into history. Culture is an evolving element and so are celebrations, some emphasise it as a pagan festival of celebrating the worship of goddess Easter, the goddess of spring. Some say the eggs came with the western traders of Germany, while nests were made by the americans for their fabled bunny to lay eggs.

Eggs to me mean life, a fragile life, a fertile creation of love. I am fluid like the water, give me a little taste of food in your culture and I swoon with a lilt. Half intoxicated by the fervour and half hungry with the feast. Right from childhood I was crazy for the Easter bunny. Much attributed to the strong catholic education as a part of my curriculum while studying in a not so ordinary missionary school. I celebrate Easter for my kids. Though this spring is trivial to me but not the tradition. I cannot cheat myself to that. I have begun my easter preparations for dying eggs and thinking fun egg hunts and baked a cake much in advance to warm up my kids for the fun which follows.

According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs. Eventually, the custom spread across the U.S. and the fabled rabbit’s Easter morning deliveries expanded to include chocolate and other types of candy and gifts, while decorated baskets replaced nests. Additionally, children often left out carrots for the bunny in case he got hungry from all his hopping. – Quoted from Times Magazine.

Easter Nest Chocolate Cake

This cake inspiration is from BBC good food but I have modified the recipe. The look it self is so attractive and it would make kids weak in their knees at the Easter party. Well my cake has been devoured by full grown adults and a few kids. Its quite addictive as the Cadbury chocolate eggs and creme eggs are quite a sweet treat. There is a simple two layered chocolate cake with a hazelnut frosting in the middle layer and top. It is topped with a Weetabix and marshmallow nest. All the ingredients are edible and the cake stays up-to five days if refrigerated properly.