[1] A simple Bundt or tube pan cake into a delightful Easter cake. While any chocolate bunny will do, you may be able to find one with “personality” (photos © Betty Crocker).

[2] Another easy Bundt or tube Easter cake: sprinkle with powdered sugar and fill the center with chocolate or malted milk eggs (photo © Freestocks).

[3] It’s easy to decorte with store-bought Easter eggs and shredded coconut. If you want to tint the coconut, here’s how (photo © Mackenzie Limited).

[4] If there are young children, an assemblage of Peeps rabbits or chicks will delight. Here’s the recipe for this “Easter garden” sheet cake (photo © Foody Schmoody Blog).

[5] You don’t have to be good at icing or frosting to make a naked cake like this one or the one below. The “rustic” look is just fine (photo © Good Eggs).

[6] Just two layers, some frosting, and some decorations (photo © Cutter & Squidge).

Here’s an easy Easter cake for people who don’t have the time or the gift to create an elaborate one. This Easter Bunny Bundt is simple, and can even be a lesson in baking for kids (and adults) just starting out. Make it in a tube pan if you don’t have a Bundt*.

You don’t need to know how to ice a cake (the drippy icing in photo #1 doesn’t require skill with an icing spatula).

You don’t need to know how to use a piping bag.

You just need to know how to mix flour and sugar, or buy a boxed mix.
 
 
DECORATIONS FOR YOUR EASTER CAKE

Before we get to the recipe, here’s a tip for people who don’t even want to turn on the oven.

Just buy an iced cake, and decorate it yourself with your choice of:

 
 
RECIPE: EASTER BUNNY BUNDT

This dark, moist chocolate cake from Betty Crocker tastes like it took hours to make, but it’s ready in just about an hour.

While it’s easy to use fresh mint sprigs to add a green touch, we tinted shredded white coconut bright green. Here’s how to color the coconut.

Prep time is 30 minutes, total time is 3 hours 20 minutes.

Ingredients

For The Cake

 
For The Icing

 
For The Decorations

 
Preparation

1. HEAT Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Generously spray 12-cup fluted tube or Bundt cake pan with baking spray with flour. Sprinkle with cocoa to coat pans; tap to remove excess cocoa.

2. BEAT the cake mix, eggs, butter, and water in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed, for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Stir in the chocolate.

3. SPOON the batter into the pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

4. PLACE a cooling rack or heatproof serving plate upside down over the pan; turn the rack and pan over. Remove pan. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

TIP: Once the cake is cool enough to tip out of the pan, you can speed the cooling process by placing it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

5. MAKE the icing. Beat the powdered sugar, corn syrup, cream, and peppermint extract on low speed in a medium bowl, until blended. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add just enough milk to the icing to make it thin enough to stick to a spoon, dripping off of the spoon slowly when tipped down toward the bowl.

6. SPREAD the icing onto the cooled cake with a spatula. Place a bunch of mint sprigs in the center of the cake. Decorate: Press one chocolate bunny onto opposite sides of the cake. Press malted milk eggs around the bottom border of the cake. (Instead of mint sprigs, we sprinkled coconut around the top rim of the cake.)

TIP: To get that beautiful icing drip, make sure you test your icing for the perfect consistency by placing a small spoonful on top of the cake, then waiting to see if it will gently flow down the side of the cake after a minute or so.

If it stays on top of the cake, thin the icing slightly with a bit of milk.

If it runs down the sides of the cake in puddles at the bottom of your plate, add powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the icing mixture to thicken it up.
 
 
MORE TO DISCOVER
 
> The history of cake and the different types of cake.
 
> The difference between icing and frosting.

*Why is Bundt capitalized? Bundt refers to the pan or the cake baked in it. The name is derived from the German word Bund, which means turban. All German nouns are capitalized, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bundt should be capitalized in English as well.
 
 

April 2nd is National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day. We’ve enjoyed PB&J sandwiches every which way, but here’s a different PB&J sandwich from Fix & Fogg, manufacturers of our favorite artisanal peanut butter.

For fun and a bit of tart flavor, they added crunchy freeze-dried raspberry flakes to match the raspberry jam (photo #1).

Freeze-dried raspberry flakes a.k.a. raspberry chips (photo #2), are available in strawberry and other flavors.

Can’t get raspberry flakes fast enough? Head to the next section.

> And check out nine more peanut butter and jelly recipes below.

> The history of peanut butter and jelly.

> The history of peanut butter.

> The year’s 12 peanut butter holidays.
 
 
PB&J VARIATIONS

Change or add just one thing to make your PB&J special. For example:

 
 
MORE PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY RECIPES

 
 
MORE PEANUT & PEANUT BUTTER HOLIDAYS

[1] Garnish your PB&J with crunchy dried berries (here, freeze-dried raspberries to match the raspberry jam (photo © Fix & Fogg).

[2] Freeze-dried raspberry flakes from Market Spice (photo © Market Spice).

[3] How about a peanut butter and jelly quesadilla? Here’s the recipe (photo © U.S. Apple).

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[1] A treat for National Soft Pretzel Month, with an extra “twist” (that’s a pun): chocolate filling. Bake a batch (photos #1 and #2 © Beyond Good).

[2] One of the nine different bars from Beyond Good. The company specializes in ethically sourced, single origin dark choccolate bars.

[3] Brown sugar is added to the dough, cinnamom sugar (photo #4) to the top of the pretzel (photo © Grafvision | Panther Media).

[4] The pretzels come out of the oven to a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar (photo © King Arthur Baking).

[5] Twisting the ropes of pretzel dough (photo © Pampered Chef).

[6] Six classic soft pretzels sit on a parchment-topped baking sheet (photo © Williams Sonoma).

April is National Soft Pretzel Month; April 26th is National Soft Pretzel Day. This year’s treat, a recipe for Chocolate-Stuffed Soft Pretzels, is compliments of Beyond Good, a producer of organic chocolate bars made with a rare heirloom variety of Madagascar cacao

Beyond Good is a feel-good artisan brand. The world of cacao beans has long been structured so that too many middlemen walk away with too much of the profit, keeping the small farmers in poverty.

Beyond Good has pioneered a trade model of sourcing heirloom cocoa directly from the farmers who grow it.

Hopefully, more craft chocolate producers will follow, to change the industry, forever.

Beyond Good sells chocolate and vanilla products. In addition to its cacao, Madagascar is one of the world’s great producers of vanilla—the variety known as Bourbon vanilla*.

The company has expanded its ethically-sourced cacao with organic beans purchased directly from farmers in Bundibugyo, Uganda.

Beyond Good products are available in stores nationwide and online at BeyondGood.com.

There are more soft pretzel recipes below.

The original pretzels were soft pretzels, baked by monks to encourage their students. Here’s the history of pretzels.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE-STUFFED SOFT PRETZELS

These snack (or dessert!) pretzels are delicious and easy to make. They are stuffed with Beyond Good Salted Caramel Chocolate, a 73% cacao chocolate bar. If you prefer milk chocolate or lower-percentage-cacao dark chocolate, use the bar of your choice. You need 2.64 ounces or more.

If you prefer a sweet-and-salty profile, you can sprinkle the warm pretzels with kosher salt or other coarse salt instead of cinnamon sugar.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the ganache first. Heat the heavy cream in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until it is hot, but not boiling. Pour it over the chopped chocolate bar and let it sit for 1 minute. Then whisk until the chocolate is melted and completely smooth. Set aside to come to room temperature, stir occasionally, it will thicken as it cools.

2. STIR together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, the warm water, and yeast. Let sit for 1 minute, then whisk in the brown sugar, and butter.

3. ADD the flour 1 cup at a time, then knead on medium for 4-5 minutes. If the dough is still sticky, add 2 tablespoons of flour at a time until you can press the dough with your finger and it bounces back. Cover with a towel and set in a warm spot for 15 minutes.

4. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and prepare the baking soda bath by adding the water and baking soda to a large stockpot and bringing it to a low boil.

5. DIVIDE the dough into 12 equal pieces, then roll out into 24-inch ropes. Press the dough flat, then spoon the chocolate ganache down the center all the way down the dough.

6. FOLD the dough over and pinch to seal. Then using your hands, roll back into a rope.

7. FOLD into a pretzel, then dunk the pretzels one at a time into the baking soda bath for 30 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pretzels, shake off any excess water, then place 6 pretzels on each baking sheet.

8. Brush the pretzels with egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons water), then bake for 12-13 minutes.

9. REMOVE the pretzels when they are golden brown. Brush with melted butter and toss in the cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

10. The pretzels will keep on the counter, wrapped in plastic, for up to 3 days.
 
 
MORE SOFT PRETZEL RECIPES

 
 
________________

*The term “Bourbon vanilla” refers to the vanilla beans’ provenance. They come from the Bourbon Islands, which include Madagascar, Mauritius, and Réunion. The name comes from the period when the island of Réunion was ruled by the Bourbon kings of France.

Bourbon vanilla has no direct relation to Bourbon whiskey, which is named for Bourbon County in Kentucky. The county also took its name from the House of Bourbon, but otherwise has nothing to do with the vanilla beans.

Not April Fool, but April fun: a fun surprise for dinner. This cheese stuffed meatloaf recipe came to us from Roth Cheese, created by Meggan Hill, executive chef and head of the Culinary Hill Test Kitchen.

Meggan gave her mom’s meatloaf a “cheese upgrade” using Roth Organic Havarti cheese. “The leftovers make great sandwiches, too,” she says.

You can use your own mom’s recipe, of course.

And you can use any good melting cheese: Cheddar, Fontina, Gruyere, mozzarella*, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Provolone, and numerous others.

You can find other stuffed meatloaf recipes online. For starters, here’s an Italian Stuffed Meatloaf recipe, and a Spinach Stuffed Meatloaf with provolone cheese and prosciutto.

National Meatloaf Day is October 18th. National Cheese Day is June 4th.
 
 
RECIPE: CHEESE-STUFFED MEATLOAF
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet or dish with foil for easy cleanup.

2. COMBINE in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a spatula, the beef, onion, eggs, oats, ½ cup ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix on the lowest speed until combined.

3. RINSE a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with water. Pack the meat mixture tightly into the pan. Leaving a ½-inch wall on each side…

4. CARVE out a well about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide and set aside the meat you pulled out. Fill the well with the shredded cheese. Using the reserved meat mixture, cover and seal the shredded cheese carefully and thoroughly.

5. FLIP the pan over and carefully jiggle out the loaf onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 60 minutes and remove from oven.

6. INCREASE the oven temperature to 400°F. Brush the remaining ¼ cup of ketchup all over the meatloaf. Return to the oven and bake 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes before serving.

________________

*Why isn’t mozzarella capitalized? All of the other cheeses are formal place names. Monterey Jack has two formal names! Mozzarella, on the other hand, is named after its specific production process. In Italian, the verb mozzare refers to the way the curd is hand-stretched in strips and then cut into balls. Food history: The term “mozzarella” first appeared in print in 1570, in a cookbook by Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to the papal court. However, the cheese may have existed for centuries prior. Cheese-making with water buffalo’s milk was first recorded in the 12th century, although the name “mozzarella” was not used.

[1] Cheese-stuffed meatloaf (photo © Culinary Hill | Roth Cheese.

[2] Roth havarti is a good table cheese and a good melter for grilled cheese and other recipes (photo © Roth Cheese).

[3] This recipe uses rolled oats (a.k.a. Old Fashioned Oats). Some cooks prefer bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (photo © Quaker Oats).

†This means 80% lean, 20% fat. That might sound like a lot of fat, but a large amount of the fat will render out as the meat cooks.
 
 

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March 30th is National Hot Chicken Day. That’s hot as in hot and spicy, cayenne-coated fried chicken. It’s Nashville’s signature food, just as Baltimore has its crab cakes, Boston its clam chowder, Buffalo its wings, Chicago its deep-dish pizza, Denver its omelet, Memphis its barbecue, New York its bagels, New Orleans its po’ boys, and Philadelphia its cheesesteak*.

And just as those foods have expanded beyond their home turf, hot chicken restaurants sprouted up first in Music City (Nashville), then nationally and beyond. Even KFC created its version.

It’s not easy to get your share. In Nashville, residents and tourists alike stand on long lines at the original, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s (see the history of hot chicken below), Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish, at Pepperfire Hot Chicken, and Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

The Music City Hot Chicken Festival, is celebrated annually on July 4th.

And if you can’t get to anyplace that sells hot chicken, here’s a recipe to make your own (photo #1).
 
 
SO WHAT’S HOT CHICKEN?

It’s spicy-hot fried chicken—searingly hot, some say. The bird with the spicy red crust has become the signature dish of Nashville.

First sold at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville in the 1940s, the original hot chicken was coated with a paste of cayenne pepper and lard, other seasonings, and flour. It’s served with a slice of white bread and pickles (photo #2).

Other chefs use everything from ghost peppers to hot sauce—or both.

Originally only fried bone-in, some places now offer boneless tenders for those who don’t like to wrangle with the bones.

The fried chicken is served with typical sides: fries, coleslaw, dill pickles; and less typically, it is served with a slice of white bread. The bread, along with the pickles, is the classic accompaniment to the chicken as presented by Prince’s and those eateries that followed.

Some places have even more sides to tempt you. At Hattie B’s in Nashville, you can add baked beans, black-eyed peas, pimento mac and cheese, red skin potato salad, and Southern greens.

Waffles with your chicken, anyone? Yes, they’re on more than a few menus. Coleslaw? Of course!

And if you still have room for dessert: banana pudding (Lea Jane’s has it in Dulce de Leche, Nilla Peanut Crumble, and Sea Salt), peach cobbler, ice cream, and floats. And don’t forget the pie: apple, pecan, Mississippi mud pie?

Perhaps the most quirky spin is the signature dish at Pepperfire Hot Chicken. This Nashville mainstay serves three jumbo hot chicken tenders, set atop a deep-fried grilled cheese sandwich. That’s it, in photo #6.
 
 
HOW HOT IS IT?

It’s as hot as you want it to be.

Over time, to please more palates, hot chicken emporia have come to offer levels of spice. In a survey of five different places, we found Plain (no spice), Mild, Medium, Hot, and at more than one spot, an even higher level of heat: Damn Hot, Cluckin’ Hot, and Shut The Cluck Up!, the latter from Hattie B’s.

The exclamation point is theirs, and it gets our nod for best name, followed by Pepperfire’s sixth and highest level of heat, called No Refunds (but will they call the EMTs for you?).
 
 
THE HISTORY OF HOT CHICKEN

Timothy Davis, Nashville chef, writer, and author of The Hot Chicken Cookbook, traces the dish’s origins back to the late 1930s at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, a restaurant still going strong under the management of Thornton Prince’s great-niece, Ms. André Prince Jeffries.

As the story goes, a woman sought revenge on her cheating partner by cooking him some painfully spicy chicken. But the act backfired: The man, Thornton Prince III, loved the dish. He asked her to cook more, for himself and his friends.

Eating well is the best revenge, so Prince created his own recipe and opened a restaurant in the 1940s. Hot chicken took off like a bird out of hell, and Prince’s imitators grew.

And the rest is history.

You can hear Ms. Prince in this video:

Hot Chicken from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

For more history and insights, pick up a copy of the Hot Chicken Cookbook.

[1] Make Nashville hot chicken at home, with this recipe from Bon Appetit (photo © Bon Appetit).

[2] Leg quarters from the original Nashville hot chicken hot spot: Prince’s. Their hot chicken is always served with white bread and pickles (photo © Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack | Facebook).

[3] Hot chicken moved west, here at Lea Jane’s in Colorado. There are also locations in California, Louisiana and Texas. Note that the white bread turned into a roll (photo © Lea Jane’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[4] Hot chicken served the traditional way—with white bread and pickles—at Hattie B’s in Nashville (photos #4 and #5 © Hattie B’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[5] How about a side of Hattie B’s red jacket potato salad?

[6] A different take at Pepperfire Hot Chicken in Nashville: hot chicken tenders atop a fried grilled cheese sandwich (photo © Pepperfire Hot Chicken | Facebook).

*Some dishes we’ve never even heard of: Chislic (Sioux Falls, SD), Hot Browns (Louisville, KY), The Coney (Detroit, MI), The Garbage Plate (Rochester, NY), The Half Smoke (Washington, DC), The Horshoe Sandwich (Springfield, IL), The Juicy Lucy (Minneapolis, MN), The Slopper (Pueblo, CO), and numerous others. Check out Food Your City Is Known For.