The Perfect Easter Bunny Cake

Easter time was always a special time for my niece and nephews when they were young. It was probably less for the significance of the holiday as it was for the many special things associated with it: dying Easter eggs, Easter egg hunts, jelly beans, and chocolates. And especially for the Easter dinner dessert, and Easter Bunny Cake, made either by their mother (my sister) or by me, "Aunt Wo-Wee" as they called me then. (Apparently "l" and "r" are hard for small mouths to say; I was given this name by my oldest nephew when he was about three, and it stuck for many years.)

My sister actually bought a Wiltons^TM cake mold in a bunny shape, as well as a lamb shape. Her creativity could turn that Easter Bunny into all kinds of things; once it became an "Andy" cake for their dog's birthday! But the Easter Bunny Cake was always something special. I never used my sister's pan or her recipe. I spent one dark cold winter trying to develop the perfect three layer white cake, and after much trial and error, found one I loved. But for the Easter Bunny Cake, the three layers don't stack; instead, they each become a part of the Easter Bunny's body.

For your Easter Bunny cake, you will need two 9" diameter round cake pans, a 5" diameter round cake pan, and a 6-cup cupcake pan. 5" pans are available at most baking supply stores and on-line; if you only have a cupcake pan that makes 12 cupcakes, use six of the cups and put some water in the ones that don't have batter. If you don't have the unusual items (like the 5" pan) then go ahead and make three 9" diameter round layers, and be ready to cut two of those layers into shapes! Please be sure to read the entire recipe before you start making your Easter Bunny Cake

EASTER BUNNY CAKE RECIPE

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1/2 cup shortening (important for texture)

2 cups sugar

5 egg yolks (save the whites, see below!)

2 cups cake flour or all-purpose flour (but NOT self-rising flour!)

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (use pure vanilla extract if possible, for better flavor)

1 can angel flake coconut (sweet)

(1 cup nuts, if desired; many children don't like them though!)

5 egg whites

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8 oz. package quality Cream Cheese

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

enough powdered sugar to make spreading consistency; about 3 cups

First, prepare all your pans by greasing and flouring them, or use a cooking spray for baking that contains flour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter, shortening, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolks. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and add alternately with the buttermilk; beat well. Add the coconut. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold gently into cake batter. Bake in the pans (described above) for about 35 minutes, or until tops are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove cakes from pans and allow to cool completely. (While the cakes are cool, prepare the frosting; reserve about 1/4 cup of the frosting and leave the rest white.) When cool, slice off the very top of each if it has raised, so that you'll have a flat surface to frost. You'll need a large rectangular tray; it needs to be bigger than 9 by 13 inches, so I generally use either a jelly roll pan, or a 15 by 15 piece of flat cardboard, covered in aluminum foil or waxed paper.

Place one of the 9" rounds near what will be the lower left hand corner of the cake, and frost the top and sides with the white cream cheese frosting. Take the 5" round (cut it from one of the 9" ones if you made three of those; be sure to cut it from the edge of the layer so you'll have room to cut a small circle, about 3" in diameter, from the same round) which will become the Easter Bunny's head, and insert a round toothpick, the kind that has points on each end, into the side of the cake. Place the cake on your tray or cardboard next to the top of the frosted 9" layer, and connect the two with the toothpick (you may want to use two).

Then from the third 9" round layer, you'll want to cut a sort of Marquise shape -- they'll be the ears, if that makes it clearer. See photo for help; you can make a 9" round template, and put it on top of the layer so that it covers about 3 inches of the layer at its widest point, then cut along that edge; do the same to the other side. Cut a small curved piece from the bottom of each ear. As you did with the head, stick a toothpick into the side of the bottom end of each, and attach them to the bunny head -- not too far apart, or they'll look goofy. Now, take the reserved frosting and using red food coloring, dye it pink. Frost the inside part of each ear with the pink, leaving a rim all around to be white, so that it will look like a real white bunny's ear, and try to save at least a teaspoonful of the pink frosting. Then with the white frosting, frost around the pink on the top of each ear, and frost the sides.

Next, take one of the cupcakes, or the 3 inch round you've cut, and using a toothpick, connect it to the body of the bunny, on the right side near the bottom, and frost it completely with the white frosting.

Now comes the best part of decorating your Easter Bunny Cake, and it's the part that the kids will want to help you with! Round up a good supply of gumdrops, hard candy, and licorice whips. Put two gumdrops on the Bunny head to make the eyes. My youngest nephew wanted to use purple; my niece always said they should be green like her mother's, but my oldest nephew said that white bunnies have pink eyes, and he usually overruled his siblings (make sure that one of the others gets to choose eye color next year!). You can also use flat hard candy for eyes, in the color of your choice. For the nose, my nieces and nephews always wanted the kind of black licorice gumdrop that I believe are called "Black Crows." They aren't covered in sugar like the other ones, anyway. My nephew would insist that bunnies have pink noses, but in this he allowed the younger two to rule, and our Easter Bunny Cake always had a black nose. Cut the licorice whips (my niece and nephews insisted on black, but let your own kids decide) into 3" pieces, and stick them near the nose to be whiskers. Finally, take that last little bit of pink frosting, and let the oldest (or youngest!) child make a mouth (which often looks like a tongue sticking out). Be sure to let them put the candies in place; it makes it so much more fun for them, and they don't really care if it's perfect or not. This isn't the time to morph into Martha Stewart! You're not quite done yet. Now you need some of the plastic green "grass" that is sold to line Easter baskets with. Put it on the tray all around your Easter Bunny Cake, so that he is nestled completely in green grass.

Now you should have the perfect Easter Bunny Cake to end your Easter dinner with. I hope this can bring as much fun to your children or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews, as it did to me and mine. Hoppy Easter!