Holiday Planning & Ideas Easter Easter Recipes Easter Desserts The Making of Martha's Magnificent Bedford Easter Cake Our founder created the most spectacular cake for Easter—now you can learn to do the same, too. By Martha Stewart Martha Stewart Website Martha Stewart is a true multi-hyphenate who has brought her knowledge of all things homekeeping to the masses via her television shows, magazines, and social media for generations. Based in Katonah, New York, where she helms her 156-acre Bedford Farm, Martha, the author of 99 books, an Emmy award winner, and America's first self-made female billionaire, founded Martha Stewart Living in 1990 and Martha Stewart Weddings in 1995. Editorial Guidelines Published on March 13, 2020 Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Thomas Loof As a young child, I was enchanted with Beatrix Potter's stories of Peter Rabbit. I loved following the mischievous bunny's adventures with his family and friends, and especially enjoyed imagining the colorful landscape they scampered around. Twenty years ago, I developed an oversize Spring Garden Cake that was inspired by Mr. McGregor's vegetable patch. It had two layers, zucchini and carrot, and was embellished with dozens of meticulously formed marzipan flowers, fruits, and vegetables. It was beautiful, but I admit that crafting all those elements was complicated. More Easter Cake Recipes Guaranteed to Steal the Show When I began thinking about Easter this year, I wanted to create a new twist on that cake, and worked with Living food editors Shira Bocar and Lauryn Tyrell to plot a design based on my Bedford farm in spring. We would re-create the old spruce fencing that edges the paddocks, the drifts of daffodils, the gravel path that runs between my clipped boxwood hedging, and, to play up the holiday, add colored eggs to represent my annual Easter-egg hunt. The cake is deliciously tender, flavored with orange zest and almonds and frosted with a light buttercream. The decorations —"boxwood" cake balls covered in nonpareils, marzipan "daffodils," and piped buttercream "grass"—look challenging but don’t require special skills. Once it was decorated, I nestled in a couple of small bunny figurines—my nod to Peter and his siblings. I can't wait to share the cake with my grandchildren. Get Martha's Bedford Easter Cake Recipe Stephen Kent Johnson Pipe the Lawn Swiss meringue buttercream that's been tinted green is piped at a 90-degree angle with a grass decorating-tip attachment ($8.75, amazon.com). Get Martha's Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe Stephen Kent Johnson Shape the Boxwood Cake balls (crumbled cake mixed with buttercream) are rolled in green nonpareils ($4 for 4 oz., confectioneryhouse.com). The "shrubs" are formed in two sizes, to mimic Martha’s undulating allée. Get the "Boxwood Shrub" Cake Balls Recipe Stephen Kent Johnson Construct the Fence A textured stamp ($22, amazon.com) presses a faux-bois finish into gray-tinted gum paste ($17 for 2 lb., nycake.com), which is cut into slats with a pizza wheel. Get the Wood Grain Gum-Paste "Fence" Recipe Stephen Kent Johnson Mold the Daffodils A six-point-star cutter ($14, amazon.com) forms the base of marzipan flowers, and a flower tool shapes inner petals ($13, nycake.com). Get the Marzipan "Daffodils" Recipe Martha's Makeup by Daisy Toye; Martha's Hair by Jovi Offitto. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit