Easter Bunny Cupcakes

I love Easter – there are so many amazing recipes around and decoration ideas that blow my mind. When these cute little bunnies came up in my news feed I knew I had to try them. They are just adorable.

They do take a little time but the end results are so cute. The only problem I found was that these tasty bunnies don’t travel too well…their delicate little ears fell off on the journey so I wouldn’t advise making these if you have to transport them further than the living room table! However,  in saying that, I didn’t use the tylose powder to stiffen them so maybe they would be ok if you use this.

The cupcake underneath can be any flavour but I chose carrot cake – come back tomorrow for the recipe!

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• 750g ready to roll white fondant
• 50g black fondant
• 1tsp tylose powder (optional, but keeps the ears in place) – I didn’t use this so maybe that’s why their ears were so fragile!
• Chinese noodles (for the whiskers) – I didn’t have any so my bunnies don’t have whiskers!
• White sprinkles – I used white pearl decorations
• Yellow and pink/red food colour paste

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Method:

• When the cakes are completely cool, ice with the buttercream, carefully spreading across the top but not up to the papers or it will squish out when you top the cakes with fondant.
• Colour 550g of fondant light yellow. Using 400g, roll to 1/8 of an inch thick and cut 12x 68mm circles and smooth over the top of the icing, smoothing the edge into a dome with your fingers.
• For the cheeks: Using 100g of fondant, roll 24x small balls of white fondant and flatten with your thumb. Stick them on the face for cheeks with a brush of water. Make a few whisker holes in the cheeks with the cocktail sticks.
• For the teeth: Cut 12x tiny squares of fondant and trim one end into a point. Emboss a line down the centre of the square. With a brush of water, stick in the middle at the bottom of the cheeks.
• For the eyes: Roll small balls of white fondant and push flat with your finger into an oval shape. Repeat with smaller balls of black fondant and stick the black to the white with a brush of water. Then with another brush of water, stick the eyes to the face and push a single white sprinkle into the black for a reflection.
• For the nose and mouth: Colour 100g of fondant pink. Using 40g of pink fondant roll 12x small balls of fondant for the nose and stick on with a brush of water. Using 10g of pink fondant roll tiny strips of pink fondant and stick under the teeth.
• For the ears: Add ½ tsp of tylose to 150g of yellow fondant (if using) and knead for a couple of minutes. Roll quite thin and cut 24 large oval shapes. Using 50g of pink fondant, add a ¼ tsp of tylose, roll and cut 12x smaller ovals and stick to the yellow with a brush of water. Glue the ears to the top of the head by making some glue with a piece of left over fondant and a touch of boiled water, bending the bottom back over the edge of the top of the cases. Then rest the ears on something – I used a glass and had to leave them for 24hrs before they were firm enough to stay in place without it. . It helps to roll the fondant for the ears quite thin and then they are not so heavy. Leave them supported until the icing is dry and stays in place.
• For the eyebrows and chin: Cut the drinking straw in half long ways to make a half moon shape. The push onto the icing over the eyes for eyebrows and one under the tongue to make a bottom lip. Make a little dimple in the chin and cut the Chinese noodle to size for the whiskers. Push three in each cheek.

I love them. If I was to make them again I would make the ears bigger and use the tylose powder to see if it makes much difference to the firmness.

If you have kids that love bunnies you should definitely try these – they are easier than they look! And to be honest, I only used the guide above as a really rough guide. I just looked at the photo and copied it however I wanted. I didn’t worry about weighing anything out – you can tell if it looks good or not so don’t need to worry about getting it all spot on.