How to Make and Decorate an Easter Bunny Cake

An Easter bunny cake is placed on the table at my father's house each year, compliments of one of my sisters. She has been making this Easter bunny cake for each Easter holiday since as far back as any of us can remember. The bunny cake is adorable, and because we're all candy hounds, she makes sure to decorate it with plenty of candies and coconut. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Because a bunny cake can be made with a box cake mix and a tub of white frosting, it is extremely easy to create. To add a bunny cake to your Easter party table this year, just follow the easy steps below.

Easter Recipe for Bunny Cake
Ingredients You Will Need:
1 box cake mix (any flavor)
1 or 2 tubs white frosting
Red food coloring
Blue food coloring
1 cup coconut
Small candies for decorations
3 long thin red or black licorice whips

Prepare a large piece of cardboard to use as the cake base. Wrap the base with plastic and then with foil. You can add paper doilies to the surface of the base or make a rabbit outline out of colored paper and place it in the center of the base. The centered outline serves as a guide to help you place the bunny in the correct position on the base.

Make the cake mix according to the directions on the box. Spray two round pans with non-stick vegetable oil, dust with flour and pour in the batter. When the cake mix is done, remove the pans from the oven and immediately use a clean dish towel to flatten one cake top. To do this, first place the clean dish towel over the top of one of the two round cakes and gently press to compress the cake a bit. This must be done immediately after the cake is removed from the oven, while it is still hot. Compressing the cake in this manner will create a flatter top to the cake. The flat cake will then be used to create the ears and the bowtie. By using a flattened or compressed cake to make the ears and bowtie, it allows the face cake, which will have a rounded dome to it, stand out more.

Remove the face cake from the pan and place it on the baseboard. Use a paper plate that is the same size as the cake pan for your ears and bowtie pattern. When you have finished making the pattern, the bowtie will be in the center with one ear to each side. The best way to make the pattern is to fold a paper plate in two and then, while holding it in the folded position, cut a long oval from the open end. When you have cut the oval, you will have two ears in your hand and the remaining piece is in the exact shape of a bowtie.

Carefully remove the ears and bowtie, one at a time. Position them on the baseboard and decorate them. Place the baseboard with the bunny cake on it into the freezer. Freezing the cake will make it much easier to frost.

Divide one can of frosting. Tint one portion of the frosting pink for the ears and the other portion blue for the bowtie. Use the second tub of frosting to cover the rest of the cake with one layer of white frosting. Once you have frosted the frozen cake, use coconut to cover the face and outside of the ears. Use licorice whips to make the whiskers. Make a pink nose and blue eyes. Decorate the bowtie with small candies such as M&Ms.