Pretty Pastel Easter Brunch

Is this month just HOPPING by for anyone else?! I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying, and I swear it’s gotten worse since the time change. BUT I’m incredibly excited about today’s post because I’ve been wanting to share more large-scale content with you all, and today is finally my chance! This pretty pastel Easter brunch was so much fun to create, and it just made me look forward to Easter that much more. 

Our dining room is quite small (ugh, apartment living) but Andrew and I both like to entertain and continue to try to find ways to make it work, even in a small space. Our bar cart is a huge help because it acts as a spot for food and drinks, leaving room on the table for other things. This time, I used the top for some drinks for making mimosas. 

 

I have three different projects to share with you from our Easter brunch shoot, and I’ve linked to products below to recreate this look for your own brunch. Would you believe that a lot of these pieces are from IKEA?! In addition to the tableware, I decorated with two large balloon displays provided to me by Balloonzilla, an amazing local balloon company that serves LA and Orange County. All of the colors and polka-dots and confetti just made my day, and I want that extra large confetti-filled balloon to last forever and ever!!

 

Now, let’s start with the cake! This four-layer pastel cake is a classic vanilla cake recipe that I’ve shared several times before. I recommend doubling the recipe for extra thick layers. Then I separated the batter into four bowls and dyed each a pastel shade. 

 

Once assembled and crumb coated in a simple vanilla buttercream, I blended a light purple and light blue buttercream around the cake.  Then I added small sections of pink and scraped the colors together like watercolor. My favorite trick for creating the look of grass is to shake together coconut and a bit of green food coloring, which I sprinkled over the top. Then I lined mini Cadbury egg candies around the bottom of the cake. 

 

To top the cake, I made a simple cake banner with washi tape and stickers. I glued string between two dowels and folded washi tape over the string. Then I simply cut the pieces into a ribbon bottom and added stickers. It made for an easy banner that didn’t detract from the cake. 

 

In addition to the cake, I needed more little sweets (obviously!) so I added several cookie shots from The Dirty Cookie and added about 1/4 cup of lavender to my favorite sugar cookie recipe to make these egg-shaped cookies. I personally love lavender, but I know that’s not the case with everyone, so perhaps you’ll want to use a little less lavender to suit your tastes. 

 

To turn the sugar cookies into place cards, I rolled out white fondant very thin and cut the same egg shapes as the cookies. Then I brushed a little honey on top to stick the fondant onto the cookie and used food-safe markers to write the names.