Its almost Easter, and a bunny cake is a fun way to celebrate the holiday with your family.
Kathy Greer is a children's writer, part time chocolate snack maker and mother of three. She still finds time to bake a bunny cake every year. Here's my interview with her.
Do your children help bake the cake? My children are all grown now, but I've been baking this cake for decades. The youngest of our three helped more with the baking, but I don't think our oldest two did. I had more time and patience by the time the last one came along!
Is this something that your family looks forward to, every year? I think they do look forward to it since I've been doing it every year forever, it seems. I know they'd ask where it was if I didn't do it, but they've never been ones to make a fuss over things, so they don't make a big deal about it.
Here's Kathy's Bunny Cake Recipe
- white cake mix
- white frosting
- shredded coconut
- jelly beans
Take one box of your favorite white cake mix. Bake in two eight or nine inch round pans, according to directions. Turn out to cool. One of your cake rounds will be used for the ears and bow tie; the other will be the bunny face. To cut the ears and bow tie, imagine the cake is a clock. Starting between one and two o'clock, cut a graceful arch toward the middle, then back out to the edge, ending between four and five o'clock. This will be one bunny ear.
Then, starting between ten and eleven o'clock, cut another arch toward the middle and down to between seven and eight o'clock. Now you have your other ear. What is left will be a big bow tie. Cover a large cookie sheet or piece of cardboard with aluminum foil. Place the round cake about 2/3 of the way down, or far enough down that the ears will fit on the head. Place the bow tie under his chin, and the ears at the top of the round cake, positioning them like "rabbit ears," or a wide-bottom "V."
Using your favorite white frosting, frost the whole cake. If you like, you can frost the bow tie a pastel color. Use coconut to cover the bunny face and ears in fur. (Or if some of your family doesn't like coconut, leave the ears and bow tie without it.)
Using jelly beans, give the bunny eyes, a nose, and mouth, line the inside of the ears with pink jelly beans, and give the bow tie some colorful jelly bean polka dots.
What does Easter mean to you and your family? Our family observes Easter in the Christian sense, as in "Resurrection Day." The bunnies and Easter baskets and yummy meals are great, but worshipping our Risen Lord together at church is our real reason to celebrate.
For Easter dinner recipes see Easter Feast for Two
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