By Cynthia Ferris-Bennett Sierra Chef
Friday, April 15, 2022
What a fantastic Easter project for the kiddos — “Bottoms Up Bunny Cupcakes.”
This project doesn’t require a lot of special equipment or tools. This is a quick, fun activity for you and your Junior Chefs to get in the kitchen and create some memories. “Bottoms Up Bunny Cupcakes” are a combination of a traditional cupcake on the bottom (chocolate cake mix) and a cake pop bunny on the top (white cake mix). Of course, it is completely up to you if you want to switch up your bunny flavors and decoration. They are, after all, your bunnies!
Ingredients
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box vanilla cake mix
3 cans vanilla frosting
1 bag sweetened coconut
Cupcake liner cups
White fondant
Food coloring – pink
Food coloring – green
Piping bags or quart size Zip Loc bags
Cupcake baking pan
Various bowls
Any other seasonal decorations you like: jelly beans, candy-coated malt Easter eggs…
Let’s get started:
Follow the directions on the chocolate cake mix to make the cupcakes, bake and set aside to cool completely.
Follow the directions to make the white cake mix and pour in a flat sheet cake, bake and set aside to cool completely.
When the white cake mix is cool take the white cake and crumble it up in a mixing bowl. Begin to mix in 1 can of vanilla frosting until you can make a ball and the ball holds together when formed – this is the cake pop portion.
Don’t add too much frosting.
Go ahead and make (12) 2.5-inch balls and (12) 1-inch balls.
Roll the balls in the Sweetened Coconut.
Place the 2.5-inch balls on a baking sheet and press down to make the top slightly flatter.
Take a small amount of the vanilla frosting (this is the “glue”) and place it on the bottom of a 1-inch ball and secure it to the flattened part of the 2.5-inch ball.
You have just attached your bunny tail to the bunny body. Complete the same steps for the remaining balls. Once all the “tails” have been attached to the bodies place the tray in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to firm up.
Set aside ¼-cup of vanilla frosting to secure the Bunny Feet.
Divide the remaining vanilla frosting between two bowls. Add pink food coloring to one bowl and green food coloring to the other bowl.
Start adding food coloring slowly … you can always add more to make it darker but you can’t take it away once added.
When you have arrived at your perfect shade, place each frosting in its own Zip Loc bag.
For the green frosting cut a small “V” shape in the Zip Loc Bag tip. This will allow you to pipe and create a grass-like texture on the entire surface of the chocolate cupcakes. Go ahead and do this to all of the cooled chocolate cupcakes and set aside.
Remove the bunnies from the freezer. Place a bunny body on the top of each chocolate cupcake and press down slightly to secure the bunny to the green frosting.
Bunny Feet
You will need to make two feet per bunny; you need 24 total.
If you would prefer not to create the bunny feet from fondant you can always cut them out from heavy white cardstock instead. Draw the foot accents on the bottom of the foot.
If you will be making the bunny feet from fondant you will need to create a template and cut them out. Just roll out your fondant to a thickness of ¼-inch. The foot accents are just painted on with a Q-tip and the pink food coloring. Place these in the freezer for 30 minutes to setup.
Secure the bunny feet to the bunny body with vanilla frosting.
Accents and finishing your bunnies…
Almost done! Snip a small hole in the pink frosting bag. Begin to pipe flowers around the base of the bunny feet and all around the bunny. You can also place jelly beans or any other decorations to personalize the bunnies. Place all bunnies back on a baking sheet and put in the freezer for 30 minutes for a final firm up.
We hope that you get some friends together, celebrate this beautiful time of the year and make some “Bottoms Up Bunnies!” We would love to see your creations and variations. Please email your photos to Events@SierraChef.com.
Hoppy Easter everyone!
