Carrot Easter Bunny Cake Food

CARROT TOP PEEPS® BUNNY CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Spray bottoms and sides of two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray. Place paper baking cup in 1 regular-size muffin cup.
• In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, water, eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in carrots.
• Spoon 1/4 cup batter into baking cup. Bake cupcake 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely; remove baking cup from cupcake, and discard. Place cupcake in freezer until ready to frost. Divide remaining batter evenly between round pans (about 2 1/4 cups each). Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around edges to loosen. Remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Frost cake rounds using 2/3 cup frosting between layers. Reserve 1/2 cup frosting in small bowl. Frost side and top with remaining frosting to cover completely. Immediately attach 22 PEEPS® bunnies around bottom edge of cake, pressing slightly to attach to cake.
• Add red and yellow gel food colors to reserved 1/2 cup frosting to tint orange. Remove cupcake from freezer; frost bottom half of cupcake with orange frosting, and place frosted side down in center of cake. Continue frosting to cover cupcake completely.
• Using photo as a guide, sprinkle crushed cookie around base of frosted cupcake. Cut licorice twist in half crosswise; set aside one half for another use. Gently pull apart ends of remaining half, leaving one end intact, to look like a carrot top. Press intact end into top of cupcake to complete the carrot. Place remaining PEEPS® bunny next to carrot.

BUNNY CARROT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat an ovenproof 13-inch-diameter 6-quart bowl with cooking spray. Dust with flour, and tap out excess. Set aside.
• Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla seeds, and raisins in a large bowl. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a medium bowl. Stir flour mixture into carrot mixture. Transfer batter to prepared bowl.
• Bake until a tester comes out clean, about 2 1/2 hours. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool in bowl 40 minutes. Unmold onto rack. Let cool completely.
• Place cake, broad side down, on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, trim 2 sides to create a slightly pointed head and body. Using 2 scraps from sides, cut out two 5-inch-long ears. (Trim bases of ears at an angle so that they will lean toward tail.) Attach with frosting. From 1 scrap, carve a ballshaped tail that has 1 flat side; attach with frosting. Refrigerate cake 20 minutes. Spread a thick layer of frosting over cake.
• Cover entire cake (except for insides of ears and the tail) with marshmallows. Press in espresso beans for eyes and the jelly bean for a nose. Add 8 pieces of licorice for whiskers. Just before serving, cover ears and tail with cotton candy.

STRAWBERRY BUNNIES AND CARROTS CAKE

Steps:

• For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Prepare the cake batter and bake according to the package directions using the prepared pan. Remove to a rack and let cool completely in the pan.
• Spread the frosting over the top of the cake and sprinkle with the cookies to resemble dirt.
• For the bunnies and carrots: Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with parchment. Cut the stems off half of the strawberries. Divide the white chocolate evenly between into 2 medium microwave-safe bowls. Add the coconut oil and orange food coloring to one of the bowls. Microwave each separately in 30-second intervals, stirring in between each, until the chocolate is melted and silky smooth.
• For the carrots: Dip the strawberries with the stems into the orange chocolate, lifting and twisting to coat completely and letting any excess drip back into the bowl. Place the strawberries on their sides on the prepared baking sheet. Transfer the remaining orange chocolate into a small resealable plastic bag. Snip a very small piece from a corner of the bag and drizzle the chocolate back and forth across the width of each carrot to create horizontal lines.
• For the bunnies: Dip the stemmed strawberries into the white chocolate, turning them with a fork to coat completely. Use the fork to scoop the fruit out of the chocolate, letting any excess drip back into the bowl. Place on the prepared baking sheet cut-side down. Refrigerate until hardened completely, about 30 minutes. Transfer all but 3 tablespoons of the remaining white chocolate to a small resealable plastic bag. Add the red food coloring to the reserved white chocolate in the bowl and stir until completely smooth and light pink, then transfer to another small resealable plastic bag.
• For the bunny ears: Snip a very small piece from a corner of the white and pink chocolate bags. Use the white chocolate to pipe 2-inch skinny hearts on the parchment that the strawberries are on. Pipe as many hearts as you have white strawberries. Fill in the hearts with the white chocolate. Pipe a small pink heart on each white heart to create the inner ears. While the chocolate is still wet, lay the pointy end of a white strawberry flat against the bottom point of a heart; this will be the ears on the bunny's head. Repeat with the remaining white strawberries and hearts. Pipe 2 tiny dots of white chocolate in the middle of each strawberry and adhere the mini chocolate chips for eyes. Use the pink chocolate to pipe a small nose beneath the eyes. Refrigerate until hardened completely, about 30 minutes.
• Stand the bunnies up and use the remaining white chocolate to pipe a bushy tail on the back of each. Refrigerate until hardened completely, about 30 minutes.
• For the grass: Meanwhile, combine the coconut and green food coloring in another small resealable plastic bag and shake until the coconut is green all over. Decorate the cake with the carrots, bunnies and green coconut grass.

EASTER BUNNY CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Make, bake and cool cake as directed on box for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.
• Reserve 1 layer for another use or to make a second bunny. Cut 1 layer in half as shown in diagram. Put halves together with frosting to make body. Place cake upright on cut edge on tray.
• Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up one end of body to form head (small end) as shown in diagram. Attach half of cutout piece from tail with toothpicks. Frost with remaining frosting, rounding body on sides. Sprinkle with 1 cup coconut. Cut ears from construction paper; wrap ends that will be inserted into cake with plastic food wrap. Press into notch on top. Use jelly beans for eyes and nose.
• Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops food color in tightly covered jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Add additional jelly beans if desired. Remove ears, plastic wrap and toothpicks before serving. Store loosely covered.

EASTER BUNNY CAKE

Steps:

• Prepare cake mix according to directions on box for 2 round 9" layers.
• Tint 1/4 cup of the coconut pink (I'm guessing at the amount) for the center of ears and feet.
• Tint 2 tablespoons of the frosting brown for decorating face and feet ( or you can buy one of those prepared decorating icing tubes).
• When cake is cool, cut layers as shown in diagram (see other photo).
• Take 4 of the 8 outer ring pieces and frost the tops. Place 1 of the remaining 4 on top of each and frost top and sides. These will make the feet of the bunny.
• Place round-cut center piece next to the top edge of the square, keeping them both flat, to form body and head.
• Assemble the 4 side pieces in twos, flat sides together (you can use a little frosting to hold them together) to form the ears and arrange at the top of the head.
• Frost entire cake and attach the completed feet, 2 on each side of the body.
• Sprinkle coconut over entire cake and decorate with jelly beans/gumdrops for eyes, nose, etc. as desired, using pink-tinted coconut for center of ears and feet.
• Here's where you can really have fun and get creative! You can tie the ribbon in a bow and place on the cake as a bowtie, make buttons out of the candy, add a hat, etc.
• ** Tip for using frosting to decorate without a pastry bag: Spoon the frosting into one corner of a small plastic sandwich baggie, twist tightly and snip off the tip of the corner. Voila!
• Note: The finished cake is almost 2 feet long so be sure to have it on a large enough cookie sheet or platter!
• Servings vary on how you decide to divide up the body (er, bunny) parts -- .

BUNNY'S CARROT CAKE MARTINI

Steps:

• Dip rim of chilled martini glas in cinnamon and sugar.
• Combine the vanilla vodka, buttershots liqueur and cinnamon schnapps in a cocktail shaker filled with ice cubes.
• Shake well, strain into a Martini glass, and serve.
• Top with optional water to lighten.