This sweet and savory breakfast cake is one of the best Easter brunch recipes ever. It’s like having four easy brunch recipes all in one delicious cake! Your family and friends will be saying this is one of best brunch recipes ever!
This year Easter is going to be a little strange because we’re having my son’s 4th birthday party the day before Easter and will likely be eating mostly party leftovers plus these twice baked potatoes for our Easter meal instead of the traditional ham, scalloped potatoes, and rolls. Since we won’t be having a traditional Easter dinner, I thought it would be fun to at least go all out for Easter brunch with my husband’s parents. Easter is the perfect time to try new things out and get creative, and I’m hoping my in-laws love what I make this year!
Once upon a time back when I was working as a project manager, I made a cake for my boss that I found on Pinterest before I even knew what Pinterest was. It was basically a cake topped with colorful chocolate candies and encircled by chocolate wafer candies. My boss loved those chocolate wafer candies, so it was the perfect birthday cake for him.
This year for Easter, I decided to create a new brunch inspired take on that birthday cake I made my boss so many years ago. Since there’s already so much candy on Easter, I decided to skip the candy and made this cake with pretty much all of my favorite breakfast items – pancakes, whipped cream, fruit, and Johnsonville breakfast sausage links.
The pre-cooked links are so convenient (just brown and serve!) and packed full of flavor without the fuss or time of actually cooking the sausage on your own. And they’re made by a team dedicated to making the best sausage in America, and I’d say they’re doing a pretty great job!
I told my husband about my idea, and he was a bit skeptical at first. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical at first.
But this cake was amazing, kind of like a big slice of breakfast heaven.
While it looks impressive, it’s actually really simple to make and best of all, you can actually make the cake itself ahead of time and then just reheat and top right before it’s time to eat! Using the sausage links makes it SO easy, like make it in just a few minutes easy. The hardest part is putting it all together and that it still pretty simple.
Sweet & Savory Breakfast Cake
Pin it with other Easter Brunch recipes to your Easter board!
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To make this cake, first your pancakes. I found that five fluffy ones was the perfect height to match with the sausage links. To get perfectly round and fluffy pancakes, I used this recipe and cooked them in a metal ring to make them perfectly round and the same size. Stack them up tightly so they form one big cake.
Once your pancakes are ready, brown the Johnsonville Sausage links lightly on both sides. They come pre-cooked so as long as they are warm, you’re good to go. After they are cooked, use a part of a toothpick to secure to the edge of the pancakes. When you’re serving the cake, make sure people know you used toothpicks. It’s pretty obvious when you cut into the cake, but a reminder never hurt anyone.
Now’s the fun part. Top with maple whipped cream and fresh berries then if you want you can drizzle a bit more maple syrup on top, or just have maple syrup out for people to add if they want. Seriously, so good.
Some of the Best Easter Brunch Recipes
There are some of my other easy ahead brunch recipes. If these don’t work for you, the Johnsonville website has tons of easy brunch recipes and make ahead brunch recipes too!
- Breakfast Muffins with a Hash Brown Crust
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Pineapple Monkey Bread
- The Best Breakfast Burritos
- Mini Maple Bacon Rolls
What are your favorite Easter brunch recipes to make with sausage links? Leave me a comment with your favorite so I can add to my brunch table this year!
Sweet and Savory Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 18 Johnsonville Breakfast Sausage Links
- 5-6 of your favorite fluffy pancakes
- Fresh berries
- Maple whipped cream
- 10 Toothpicks
- Maple syrup (optional)
For the Maple Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 TBS white sugar
- 2 TBS pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp maple extract
Instructions
For the Cake
- Cook pancakes according to your recipe or package using a metal ring to keep them even and fluffy.
- Stack pancakes on top of each other.
- Brown sausage links.
- Break toothpicks into three pieces. Place one toothpick in each of the sausage pieces then use the other end of the toothpick to secure in place around the pancakes.
- Repeat until the pancakes are completely circled with sausage links.
- Top with whipped cream, fresh berries, and maple syrup (syrup is optional).
For the Maple Whipped Cream
- Put mixing bowl and beater or whisk in the freezer for 10-15 minutes or until thoroughly chilled.
- Add all ingredients into the mixing bowl and whisk on high until stiff peaks form. Remove from mixing bowl and refrigerate if not using right away.
Nutrition
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Johnsonville. The opinions and text are all mine.
Christina says
What a great holiday breakfast!
April says
This is such a creative way to serve breakfast! I always chop up some sausage links to add to my pancake batter, but I love the presentation of this!