By the
time you are reading this, Alex and I will be at the White House for the annual
Easter egg roll. We have a busy Easter weekend planned, as we will be spending
the first part with Andy’s family in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the
second part with my family (Alex and I will anyway) in DC.
BUNNY CAKE
I made a
few desserts for the celebration with Andy’s family: a bunny cake and some nest
cupcakes. I completely copied a blogger I follow for the bunny cake (see
original cake here). I did use a
different cake batter, however—I used a basic vanilla recipe, but added about
10 finely chopped strawberries, a touch of lemon juice and the zest of a lemon
to give the batter a more spring-like taste.
Strawberry-Lemon Cake
INGREDIENTS
3 cups of
all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons
of baking powder
½ teaspoon
of salt
1 ½ cups of sugar (I usually add just a touch more
than this)
12
tablespoons of unsalted butter (I warmed in the microwave until just soft, not
melted)
2 large
eggs
2 large
egg whites
4
teaspoons of vanilla extract
¾ cup of
whole milk
10 finely
diced strawberries
Juice of
one lemon
Zest of
one lemon
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350
degrees.
2. Combine all of the
ingredients above and mix together (note: the recipe in my book is slightly
different than what I do, as I put everything into my KitchenAid mixer and mix
on slow, then medium, then high speed—mix until no flour traces remain).
3. Once mixed, pour half
the batter in a greased cake pan.
4. With the other half of
the better, divide evenly among 12 muffin cups (or a greased muffin pan); fill
each about three-fourths full.
5. For the cake pan, bake
for 35-40 minutes; for the cupcakes, bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a
toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
 |
As
directed in the original post, I covered a piece of cardboard with parchment
paper to put the bunny on. Tape did not hold for me, however, so I stapled it.
|
Cream Cheese Frosting
INGREDIENTS
2 sticks
of butter, softened
1 block of
cream cheese, softened
1 pound of
powdered sugar
1 teaspoon
of vanilla
1/4 cup of
milk
DIRECTIONS:
1. Cream together butter
and cream cheese.
2. Add powdered sugar,
vanilla and milk. Stir together until
creamy (do not whip).
Once
cooled completely, cut the cake in half, frost one side and add the other half
on top (note: I frosted the flat side of the cake, so that the bunny would be a
bit more round). I also put a smear of frosting on the
cardboard/parchment base.
Cut a
small part of the cake out for the head and ears; use this piece for a portion
of the tail.
Frost the
entire cake liberally.
Once
frosted, I added a small pink nose (using cardstock) and then added coconut to
the top of the frosting. This part can get a little messy.
For the
ears, I used white and light pink cardstock (the same cardstock I used for the
bunny’s nose). I cut out a larger shape for the ear and then cut out a smaller,
internal pink portion; I adhered the pink portion to the white portion and
stuck into the cake.
I then set
the bunny on my serving tray and added Spanish moss around it.
NEST CUPCAKES
For the
cupcakes, I used the same batter and frosting mix as detailed above. I used the
white frosting as the base and then dyed the remaining frosting a brown (a sort
of peanut butter color). I piped this in a circle on the top of the cupcake
and added two Cadbury mini eggs (in white) to the tops.
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