Festive Easter Bunny Cake Recipe

Easter is quickly approaching and you may well be starting to plan your Easter weekend menu. To celebrate properly, you'll definitely want a showstopper of a cake at the center of your Easter spread, so why not try this delicious, fun, and super cute Easter bunny cake, created by recipe developer Jennine Rye.

This adorable bunny cake may well have been created for Easter-time, but don't let that stop you from serving this four-tier celebration cake any time of year. It would also make a really wonderful themed birthday cake and can be adapted to be any color you choose. And, although we absolutely love the bunny themed design of the cake, let's not forget that it's what's on the inside that really matters. This cake is created using vanilla-flavored sponges in four festive pastel colors, making it both beautiful and universally loved. Read on to find out how, with a bit of time and patience, you too can make this super fun Easter bunny cake at home.

To make this Easter bunny cake, first you will need to gather the ingredients. You will need white fondant icing, a selection of gel food colorings, and edible glue, to make the bunny ears and face. For the cake you will want butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, salt, and powdered sugar. To decorate, you might want to use chocolate mini eggs, decorative sugar flowers, and decorative sugar carrots. You will also need two cake pop sticks to attach the bunny ears to your completed cake. 

To create the bunny ears, add a little pink gel food coloring to fondant icing and mix it until the fondant is a uniform light pink hue. Roll the fondant icing out, and then, using a homemade or online template for bunny ears, cut out the fondant bunny ears using a sharp knife. Use edible glue to attach cake pop sticks to the ears, and then set them aside for at least 24 hours to dry. 

If the ears are not dry enough, they will likely bend and break when stood upright, which is why it is important to give them ample time to dry out. To help them dry out more quickly, it is possible to turn the fan on in the oven (but not the heat!) and place the fondant bunny ears into the oven for a few hours.

To make the eyes and nose, color a little fondant icing with black gel food coloring. Roll a small amount of the icing into a thin strip and bend it into a 'V' shape to create the bunny nose, and then roll a little more of the fondant icing into oval shapes for the eyes. Set these aside to dry.

Fondant icing can be quite polarizing in the culinary world — you either love it or you hate it. But whether you enjoy the taste or not, it certainly has its uses in baking and cake decorating. This recipe only uses a fondant icing for a few decorations, and it's doesn't affect the final flavoring of the cake, giving you the best of both worlds!

When the fondant decorations have hardened, it's time to make the cakes. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease four 6-inch cake tins. Start by beating butter and sugar together until it is light and creamy. It's important to allow the butter and sugar time to reach the correct consistency, as these humble ingredients are key to creating a lighter textured cake with a finer crumb. Then, beat the eggs and the vanilla into the mixture, and finally mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

To color the sponges, divide the cake batter into four even-sized portions, and add different colors of gel food coloring to each. Mix the coloring in, making sure not to over-mix the batter, before pouring each bowl out into the prepared cake tins. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the cakes are springy and bounce back when you touch one.

While the cake sponges cool, it's time to create the buttercream icing. For this step, all you need to do is mix together butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until it is thoroughly combined. Separate out a little of the buttercream, and then use gel food coloring to tint the rest of the buttercream a soft pink hue. Although it is possible to use liquid coloring for this stage, we recommend using gel coloring as it is often more concentrated, thus less is required and it won't affect the resulting thickness of the buttercream. 

It's finally time to assemble your Easter bunny cake! Gather together the cooled sponges, the buttercream, the bunny ears, eyes and nose, and any other decorative items you plan to use. On a plate or cake stand, begin to assemble your cake by placing a sponge down and then piping a layer of buttercream, before sandwiching another sponge cake on top. Once all four sponges have been layered up, you may want to use a skewer to hold the cakes steady. Simply push it down from the top of the cake through the layers. Pipe more of the buttercream around the outside of the cake, and then use a palette knife to smooth it down.

Now that the cake has been assembled, it's time to add the finishing touches. Using the reserved white buttercream, pipe two swirls on the top of the cake, and then push the pop cake sticks with the hardened bunny ears down through the swirls of buttercream icing, until you are happy with their placement and they are firmly held in place. Place the eyes and nose on the front of the cake, and then use the remaining icing to pipe around the top edge of the cake. Decorate with mini eggs, as well as sugar flowers and carrots if you are using them.

This fun Easter cake can be safely stored at room temperature, and should ideally be covered and consumed within three days.