These adorable Mini Easter Egg Cakes begin with a vanilla snack cake recipe that is filled with a marshmallow buttercream and dipped in vanilla almond bark. Similar to a Little Debbie snack cake, this homemade version is sure to wow your friends and family for Easter brunch!
Mini Easter Cakes
I’ve always been such a sucker for a cute dessert. If you add in a mini size and festive colors, I’m sold.
These Mini Easter Egg Cakes fit every single criteria: they’re super adorable in all of their festive Easter glory of pink, green, and blue, and they’re cut into a mini egg shape. Cute, right?
These vanilla snack cakes are super reminiscent of a Little Debbie snack cake, as they have that classic soft vanilla cake texture filled with marshmallow buttercream and are coated in a vanilla almond bark. Personally, despite finding those Little Debbie cakes incredibly nostalgic, this homemade version is so much tastier.
Plus, these mini Easter Egg Cakes can be used as an Easter dessert or even as a homemade addition to your Easter baskets!
Why I Love This Recipe:
- Easy: Homemade Little Debbie cakes are so easy to make, especially because we begin a doctored up vanilla cake mix.
- Flavor: These egg shaped vanilla cakes are soft and sweet, and the flavor pairs so well with the homemade marshmallow buttercream filling.
- Shape: Don’t have an egg cookie cutter? Use any shape you have on hand, or you can even just cut the cakes into small squares if you don’t have a cookie cutter.
If you’re looking for other Easter cake ideas, I love this Lemon Bundt Cake, this Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake, this Spiced Carrot Cake, this Classic Coconut Cake, and finally, this Lemon Coconut Cake!
Ingredients:
These copycat little debbie easter cakes are made with simple ingredients—most of which you probably have on hand!
- Vanilla Cake Mix: You can use any vanilla cake mix you have on hand. Alternatively, you can use a homemade vanilla cake recipe if you prefer.
- Canola Oil: This gives us the soft, spongy texture we want in a snack cake.
- Milk: Use whole milk or 2% for best results.
- Eggs
- Sour Cream
- Vanilla Extract
- Almond Extract: Almond extract is what makes these easter cakes so good! It’s the secret ingredient.
- Marshmallow Fluff
- Unsalted Butter
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Cream
- Salt
- Vanilla Almond Bark: You can also use white chocolate or candy melts.
- Coconut Oil: This helps thin out almond bark, which gives for an even coating on the mini egg cakes.
How To Make These Mini Easter Egg Cakes:
This is a brief overview of how to make these Easter mini snack cakes, but you’ll find a more detailed and printable version below.
- Cake Mix: First things first, do not follow the instructions on the back of the box. Next, with an electric mixer, mix boxed cake mix, canola oil, milk, eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract together.
- Sheet Pan: Line an 18×13 sheet pan (half sheet pan size) with parchment paper, or grease it well. Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
- If you don’t have a sheet pan this large, you can use two smaller ones. Or, if you want the cake extra thin, you can divide the batter into more rectangular pans.
- Bake: Bake for just about 15 minutes, or until it’s lightly golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool: The sheet cake needs to cool completely before you cut and frost the cake.
- Frosting: Once the cake has cooled, make the frosting. In a large bowl, cream the butter and marshmallow fluff together with a hand mixer until really light and fluffy. (Alternatively you could use a standing mixer.) Add in heavy cream, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until combined. Lastly add in powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix until well combined.
- Cutout: Use an egg shaped cookie cutter to cut out your mini cakes. The size of your cookie cutter will determine how many cakes you can get out of your sheet cake. I was able to get 16 individual egg cake pieces (which makes 8 mini cakes).
- Assembly: With a knife or with a piping bag and tip, pipe frosting on 8 cakes, leaving a little bit of a border on the edge of each cake. Place the remaining 8 cakes on top of the frosted ones and gently press them together. Place the cakes on a parchment lined sheet pan (you can also use wax paper) and refrigerate or freeze for 30-60 minutes. This will make it easier to coat in white chocolate, almond bark, or candy melts.
- Almond Bark: In a microwave safe bowl, melt coconut oil and almond bark together. Once completely melted, reserve about 2/3 cup of almond bark for decorating. Using two forks, dip each cake in the almond bark making sure to cover the cakes completely. With the forks, gently lift the cakes out of the almond bark and let some of the excess almond bark drip off. Then, place back on the parchment lined baking sheet to set.
- Decorating: Use the reserved almond bark to decorate the cakes. I divided it into three bowls and colored the candy coating pink, blue, and green. Then I poured each into a ziplock bag and drizzled over the tops of each cake. Top with sprinkles too!
Storage Tips:
Store these Easter mini cakes in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.
Is This A Little Debbie Copycat Recipe?
This Easter snack cake recipe is definitely based on those adorable Little Debbie cakes! While I do think making little debbie cakes from scratch has a much richer flavor, this recipe is very similar: layers of soft vanilla cake filled with marshmallow frosting and covered in white chocolate.
Variations and Substitutions:
- Cake Flavor: Don’t want to use boxed vanilla cake? You can make a homemade vanilla cake too! Or try using lemon cake, coconut cake, or even chocolate cake!
- Almond Bark: If you don’t want to use vanilla almond bark, you can use chocolate almond bark!
- Frosting: While I highly suggest using marshmallow frosting to truly get the essence of that nostalgic snack cake flavor, you can add in a little lemon zest or coconut if you want to give it a really springy or summery flavor. Or, you can add it some cocoa powder if you want a chocolate marshmallow frosting.
Think These Easter Egg Cakes Are Cute? Try These Next:
Best Quick and Easy Baking Tips:
- Boxed Cake: This recipe calls for doctored up cake mix! It’s doctored up because I wanted this cake to have a richer flavor. The additional ingredients of sour cream, milk, vanilla and almond extract just add to the overall flavor.
- Fridge: It’s really important to refrigerate or freeze these cakes before dipping in almond bark. The cakes will dip so much easier! If you skip this step, the cakes might start to slide and fall apart.
- Decorate: Don’t forget to save some of the almond to decorate the cakes later. I used to gel food coloring to dye the bark different colors to give each cake a little festive Easter color (given my color choice, these cakes would make a really fun baby shower dessert too).
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 32 oz vanilla almond bark or candy coating
- Sprinkles and food coloring
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking pan with parchment paper. Use an 18×13 pan with edges. (If you don’t have that size, you can use two smaller pans.)
- In a large bowl, mix cake mix with oil, milk, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract. Using a hand mixer, mix until well combined.
- Pour the cake batter in the prepared baking pan and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely.
- Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and marshmallow fluff together. Add in the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until combined. Lastly add in the powdered sugar and salt. Mix until combined.
- Using an egg shaped cookie cutter, cut out about 16 eggs*.
- With a piping bag or with a knife, pipe/spread frosting on 8 of the egg cakes, leaving a little bit of a border (so the frosting won’t fall out once you put the top cake on top). Top with remaining 8 cakes.
- Refrigerate or freeze the cakes for 30-60 minutes (this makes them easier to coat in the almond bark).
- Melt coconut oil and almond bark in the microwave in a large bowl. Once melted, save about 2/3 cup for decorating.
- Use two forks to dip each cake in almond bark, making sure to cover completely. Gently remove the cake with the two forks, and allow a little of the excess almond bark to drop off. Then, place onto a parchment lined baking sheet (or wax paper) to set.
- Color the reserved almond bark with gel food dye, if desired, and drizzle on top of each cake**. You can drizzle with a spoon or pour the colored almond bark into individual ziplock bags and drizzle. Top with sprinkles.
*Depending upon the size of your cookie cutter, you might get more or less cake pieces. You just need an even number since you need two pieces per mini cake.
** I divided my remaining almond bark into 3 different bowls and used gel food coloring to dye the bark pink, blue, and green. I poured each into a ziplock bag and drizzled on top of each cake. Then I added sprinkles.
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