Carrot Easter Bunny 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:

• 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:

• 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.

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 -- .

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:

• 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.