Easter bunny cupcakes recipe

The kids are just going to love these Easter bunny cupcakes topped with ready-to-roll fondant bunny faces. 

This has to be one of our favourite Easter cupcakes; Easter bunny cupcakes. A sweet buttercream tops each vanilla-infused cupcake. This cupcake recipe is made with golden caster sugar, milk, and softened butter for extra light, moist cupcakes.

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g softened butter
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3tbsp milk, room temperature

For the buttercream:

• 200g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 400g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3tbsp milk

For the toppers:

• 750g ready to roll white fondant
• 50g black fondant
• 1tsp tylose powder (optional, but keeps the ears in place)
• Chinese noodles (for the whiskers)
• White sprinkles
• Yellow and pink/red food colour paste/gels

You will also need:

• Deep muffin pan with cupcake cases
• 68mm circle cutter (optional)
• Drinking straw
• Sharpe knife
• Cocktail sticks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line the baking tray. Add all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until smooth. Don’t over beat or the cakes will be greasy.
2. Fill the cases with an ice cream scoop and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the tins for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack.
3. For the buttercream: Add all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until smooth, about 8 minutes with an electric hand whisk.
4. For the toppers: 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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, Use some cardboard bent to size, as this will help the ears set in place. 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.
11. 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.

Top tips for making Easter bunny cupcakes

Use different coloured fondant and make a whole range of multi-coloured bunnies.

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