Easter brunch just got cuter with this chocolate cake, bunny butt combo!
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS:
For the Cake:
1 ½cupall-purpose flour190g
1 ½cupgranulated sugar300g
¼cupcocoa powder25g, nice quality
¾tspbaking powder3g
½tspbaking soda3g
½tspkosher salt3g
¼cupsour cream120g, room temp
½cupbuttermilk118mL, room temp
2eggsroom temp
¾cupcoffee177mL, hot, strong
⅓cupvegetable oil79ml
2tspvanilla10mL
For the Buttercream:
2lbsconfectioners sugar907g
5sticks butter565g, unsalted, room temp
Pinchsalt
2tbspcocoa powder15g, nice quality
1/4cupdark chocolate45g, chopped, melted
2tspvanilla extract10mL
1tbspheavy cream15mL
Soft pink food coloring
Green food coloring
For the Bunny Butt:
½cupfondant
Pink food coloring
Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS
For the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 3 six inch cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together until incorporated. Including the sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until combined. (The batter will be clumpy! Do not worry!)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
Distribute the batter into three 6-inch cake pans fitted with damp baking strips.
Bake for 30 min or until the centers are set and the cake is springy to the touch.
For the Buttercream:
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature butter, confectioners sugar and salt until fluffy. Add a dash of cream and vanilla.
Separate into 4 batches. 3 batches can be equal, the last must be double the others.
Add melted and cooled dark chocolate and cocoa powder to the largest batch. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag and snip off the tip.
Use a drop of soft pink food coloring in one batch. Mix until desired color is reached.
Save about 1 cup of the pink. Add 2 tsp cream to soften the consistency.
Transfer both pink buttercreams to piping bags. Snip off the tips.
Add a drop of green to another batch. Mix until you get a soft green. Transfer to a piping bag. Snip off the tip.
Add pink and green bags to 1 piping bag fitted with a large round tip.
Add multiple drops of the green food coloring to another batch. This will be used for the grass. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a grass tip.
For the Bunny Butt:
Roll white fondant against a cup or glass with a rounded bottom to create the body of the bunny
Roll out 2 medium ovals for the feet.
Dye some fondant pink. Cut out circles for the pads of the bunny feet. Add them to the white ovals. Place the feet on the body.
Roll a ball. Dip in water then in white sanding sugar. Attach to the body for a tail.
For the Assembly:
Pipe the pink/green swirl between each layer.
Cover the cake with chocolate buttercream. Pipe pink buttercream on the top of the cake. Smooth with an offset spatula and scraper. Transfer to the fridge to chill for about 10 min.
Use a comb to create a grooved, horizontal stripe pattern. Chill the cake again for about 10 min. Using the softened pink buttercream with added cream, pipe over the grooves. Smooth with a scraper.
Pipe grass on top of the cake.
Add the bunny butt and chocolate eggs.
Arrange a skirt of chocolate eggs along the bottom.
Notes
The key is to have a smooth but slightly firm buttercream, which you smooth with a straight edge then use the toothed side of the comb to create the stripes.Don’t let your buttercream sit too long before using as it will loose consistency, give it a final whip, transfer into the piping bag and assemble the cake.Once you’ve combed your grooves then it’s time to chill the cake so the buttercream firms up. Afterwards you’ll add some soft pink buttercream to the side of the cake, smooth and remove the excess.