Bunny Carrot Cake Recipes

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.

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.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F. Place a baking sheet in the oven to keep the cooked pancakes warm.
• Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, carrots and melted butter in a medium bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in the pecans.
• Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and brush with melted butter. Working in batches if necessary, use about half of the batter to make 4 round pancake "bodies" (about 1/4 cup batter per pancake). Cook until the pancakes are golden on the bottom and bubbly on top, 1 to 2 minutes, then flip and cook until they golden on the second side, about 1 minute more. Place the finished pancakes in the oven on the preheated baking sheet to keep them warm. Use the remaining batter to make 4 round "bunny head" pancakes and 8 oval "bunny paw" pancakes, using about 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake. Place the finished pancakes in the oven to keep warm.
• Mix together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until well combined and smooth. To serve, place a large pancake in the center of each plate, then place a small round pancake at the top of each large pancake to make a "bunny head". Pipe or dollop two small dots of the cream cheese mixture at the bottom of the large pancake to attach the "feet." Pipe or dollop a bunny "tail" between each set of feet.
• Peel and cut the top and bottom 2 inches from both bananas and cut the pieces in half lengthwise. Use the halved banana pieces to make "bunny ears". Slice the leftover pieces of banana crosswise into 8 slices total and add them to the feet. Finish the feet with 3 chocolate chips or raisins each. Serve the bunnies with honey or maple syrup on the side.

Steps:

• First, make the caramelised carrots. Put the carrots in a saucepan so they can sit in just about a single layer. Add the orange juice, butter, sugar and enough water to cover the tops of the carrots by just 1cm. Bring to the boil, then cook until the water has almost evaporated and the carrots are left in a sticky syrup - you may want to reduce the heat if the liquid looks more syrupy, and go a little slower at the end so the carrots don't catch. Can be made up to 1 day ahead.
• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease a 23cm cake tin. Lift the candied carrots from the pan and syrup, and arrange in the base of the tin, cut-side down. Keep the pan and syrup for later.
• Whisk together the 200g brown sugar, the oil, yogurt, eggs, vanilla and zest from 2 oranges. Mix the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon and grated carrot in a big mixing bowl. Stir in the whisked mixture until smooth, then spoon over the carrots in the tin - be careful not to dislodge their arrangement too much. Bake for 45-50 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 20 mins.
• Meanwhile, add the orange juice to the syrup pan with the 3 tbsp brown sugar. Simmer together until slightly reduced, then stir in the remaining zest.
• Turn the cake out onto a plate and spoon over the syrup. Eat just warm or at room temperature with more yogurt or crème fraîche.