make an easter bunny cake
Every year around Easter time I’ll make this Easter bunny cake, which can be any flavour as long as you have a circular cake mould, so you can easily transform it into a bunny. It’s super fun and easy to make, and looks great! I’m sure it would be lovely as a children’s birthday cake as well.
Just a heads up, this is not a recipe but more an explanation of how to create the bunny shape with a simple round cake. To save time, hassle and money, I cheat and use a ready-made powder mix for a lemon flavoured sponge (the Betty Crocker Lemon Cake Mix, about £2), but a simple Victoria sponge works just as well. You will need to make the icing though, and top it with desiccated coconut.
I tried doing this with cupcakes (I loved the idea of lots of smaller bunnies rather than one large one) but it was a mess and the cupcakes just crumbled. Alas!
You will need:
1 round cake
1 bag of desiccated coconut
1 tub of soft cream cheese, for the icing
1 small pot of double cream, for whipping
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
1/2 cup of sugar (or use sweetener)
2 tablespoons of lemon curd or juice of 1/2 lemon
Method:
1. Make a lemon sponge cake in a round cake tin, and leave it to cool.
2. To make the icing, whip the double cream with an electric whisk until thick and fluffy, and slowly pour in the sugar and vanilla essence whilst whisking. Then fold in the soft cream cheese bit by bit using a spoon or spatula, mixing well, and stirring in the lemon curd (if using, otherwise squeeze in some lemon juice instead). Taste the icing, and add more sugar, vanilla or lemon to taste, then leave the icing to firm up in the fridge.
3. Take the cake and cut it down the middle so you have two semi-circles. Place them on their side with the curved hump facing up.
4. Take the icing and spread a little in between both semi-circles so that they stick together.
5. Take a bread knife and carefully slice away about 2cm off the top in one long strip from left to right – stopping before you reach the end, leaving two ‘ears’. Use part of the scrap you have cut off to form the bunny tail.
6. Take the cake spatula to spread the rest of the icing over the whole bunny, including the ears and tail. Make sure to push a generous dollop of icing behind the bunny ears to help them stick up more. If the ears are to weak, you can try sticking them up with a toothpick.
7. While the bunny is still wet, cover it in the desiccated coconut, patting it on to make sure it sticks to the icing. Collect any coconut that falls along the sides to pour back over the top again, until the whole bunny is fluffy looking!
8. I created a slight fold in the bunny’s ear just by running my finger through the icing, to help them look more like ears.
9. The bunny will stay fresh for up to a few days.
