While doing some Easter window shopping, I saw an adorable cupcake pick with a bunny sticking up out of an Easter Egg, and in a flash, I realized it would make a wonderful cake. Easter recipes are plentiful, but the Hatched Easter Bunny Cake will be an egg-citing addition to any Easter celebration!

Ingredients

• 2 cake mixes or your favorite cake recipe (enough to make 2 small oval cakes and 2 large oval cakes )
• Your favorite decorator icing in white (enough to ice your 4 cakes)
• 2 7.75-inchX5.5-inch oval pans (these are your small oval pans; make sure these 2 oval pans are slightly larger than your small oval pans)
• shredded coconut
• pink food coloring
• food coloring in whatever color you choose (to color the icing for the egg portion of the cake)

• 2 jellybeans in black or blue
• 1 jellybean in pink
• cakeboard or large piece of cardboard
• aluminum foil
• parchment paper or scrap sketch paper
• pencil

Instructions

1. 

   Bake the cakes in the oval pans according to the package or recipe directions. Each box of cake mix will make one Small Cake and one Large Cake if you use the pan sizes above. This recipe is for a double-layer cake (which means you will be baking four oval shaped cakes total: two Large Cakes and two Small Cakes), but if you want to make a single layer cake, simply bake two cakes (one Large Cake and one Small Cake) and ignore instructions on stacking.

2. Make your cake pattern: Trace around the bottom of the cake pans onto parchment paper or a scrap piece of sketch paper to make your Bunny Egg Cake Pattern. Trace halfway around the larger cake pan to make the bottom of the Egg, trace the other half around the smaller cake pan to make the (top) Bunny. Draw in the details of the Egg shell and the Bunny's face, and cut out the shape and set it aside to use as your Bunny Face Pattern.

3. 

   To make a Bunny Ears Pattern trace around the smaller oval pan, and cut it out. Cut the oval in half down the center and trim the halves up to form the ears.

4. Lay the Bunny Patterns aside until you're ready to use them.

5. Level off the tops of all your cakes with a serrated knife or a cake leveler, so all the cakes are about the same height and level.

6. Ice the top of one of the Large Cakes, and place the second Large Cake on top to create a double-layer Large Cake.

7. 

   Use the Bunny Face Pattern you made as a guide and cut the double-layer Large Cake into the shape of the Bunny Face Pattern with a serrated knife.

8. Ice the top of one of the Small Cakes, and place the second Small Cake on top to create a double-layer Small Cake.

9. 

   Cut the double-layer Small Cake vertically down the center, lay the Bunny Ears Pattern over the two halves of the cake and cut out the ears.

10. Cover your cakeboard or cardboard (or you can alternatively use the back of a large cookie sheet) with foil to make a base for the cake.

11. Put a spoonful of icing on the covered board and spread it out before you put the cake on to hold the cake in place.

12. 

    Very carefully place the Large Cake on the board and gently put the ears in place. Put a thin layer of icing between the Bunny ears and the Bunny to hold the ears in place.

13. 

    Use a toothpick to gently carve into the Large Cake; sketch out the shell of the Egg and where you want the Bunny's eyes and nose.

14. 

    Ice the whole cake with a light layer of icing to seal in all the crumbs; use white for the Bunny portion and another color of your choosing for the Egg portion (to make colored icing, simply add some food coloring to it).

15. Add another layer of white icing to the Bunny portion of the cake and sprinkle it lightly with shredded coconut for the Bunny's fur.

16. To make the pink center for the Bunny ears, color some coconut pink with pink food coloring. To do this, mix a tiny bit of the food coloring into some of the shredded coconut with a fork.

17. Sprinkle the colored coconut into the center of the ear.

18. Place jellybeans on the bunnies face for the eyes and the nose. Use two black jelly beans for the eyes and one pink jellybean for the nose.

19. Apply a second layer of icing to the Egg part of the cake in the color of your choice. Use a small round decorator tip and a cake decorating bag to outline the top of the Egg all the way around (NOTE: I used a Wilton #7 decorator tip.)

20. 

    Color some of the icing pink. Use a larger round decorator tip (NOTE: I used a Wilton #12 decorator tip) to make the polka dots on the Egg. Hold the decorator tip right above the cake and squeeze the icing out through the tip until the dot is about ½-inch wide. Repeat the process several times to make a polka dotted Egg shell.

21. Once the polka dots have dried, use your fingers and a small piece of waxed paper to gently pat the tips of the dots down flat.

22. Make a shell border around the bottom of the Egg with a star tip (NOTE: I used a Wilton #21 decorator tip) and a decorator bag. Squeeze icing through the tip then lift up and forward to form each shell all the way around the base of the Egg portion of the cake.

23. Serve. This finished cake will make a beautiful display for your Easter brunch table until your guests dive in!

Tips

• As a nice finishing touch, roll out some fondant and cut it into strips to make a bow for the Bunny's ear.
• Black string licorice can be added for whiskers.