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Bunny Butt Cake

Bunny Butt Cake

Bake a playful Bunny Butt Cake with moist chocolate layers and creamy buttercream for a festive spring dessert.

Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time75 minutes
Yield12

Ingredients

Instructions

Step 1: Prepare the pans and sift the dry mix

Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter and flour three 6-inch cake pans, then line or fit them with damp baking strips so they bake evenly. In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt until fully incorporated and aerated; the dry mix should feel light and powdery, no lumps in the cocoa.

Step 2: Whisk the warm wet ingredients

In a separate bowl whisk the room-temperature eggs with sour cream, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla until smooth. Slowly whisk in the hot, strong coffee — the batter will look loose and slightly clumpy at first because of the temperature contrast; that’s normal. This warm, glossy mixture is what gives the cake its tender crumb and deep chocolate lift.

Step 3: Combine, distribute, and bake

Add the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined; the batter should be glossy, thick but pourable, with tiny air bubbles and some streaks of cocoa. Distribute the batter evenly into the three prepared pans, smoothing tops, then bake for about 30 minutes or until the centers spring back and a skewer comes out with only moist crumbs. Let the rounds cool briefly in the pans, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Step 4: Make the buttercream base

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the room-temperature butter with the confectioners’ sugar and a pinch of salt until light and fluffy. Add a splash of heavy cream and the vanilla extract to loosen and flavor the buttercream; you should end up with a velvety, scoopable base that holds peaks but spreads smoothly.


Step 5: Divide and turn one batch into chocolate

Split the buttercream into four batches: three equal smaller portions and one batch double-sized. To the largest batch add the melted, cooled dark chocolate and the cocoa powder; beat until the chocolate buttercream is glossy, dense and ribbon-like. Transfer this chocolate buttercream to a piping bag and snip the tip so it’s ready for application.

Step 6: Color and prepare the piping bags

Tint one small batch with a soft pink; reserve about one cup of this pink and add a little extra cream to soften its texture for final smoothing. Tint another small batch lightly with green to a soft sage for small accents, and tint the final batch with multiple drops of green to an intense spring green for grass; fit the grass batch with a grass piping tip. Place the pink and green small bags together inside one larger bag fitted with a large round tip for the intermittent swirl detail.

Step 7: Sculpt the fondant bunny butt

Roll white fondant against a rounded cup or glass to form the bunny’s rounded rear. Roll two medium white ovals for feet and press small pink fondant circles into each for the pads. Form a small ball, dip it in water and roll it in white sanding sugar to create a sparkly, textured tail, then attach the feet and tail to the body so the little bum reads playful and dimensional.

Step 8: Assemble, texture, and decorate

Stack the layers, piping the pink/green swirl between each cake layer so a delicate colored ring appears in the strata. Cover the whole cake with the chocolate buttercream and smooth with an offset spatula and scraper; chill briefly. Use a comb to create horizontal, grooved stripe textures in the chilled chocolate exterior, then chill again. Using the softened pink buttercream, pipe into the grooves and smooth to create soft pink highlights against the chocolate ridges. Top with piped green grass, scatter pastel candy eggs across the grassy top, tuck the fondant bunny butt into the center with the sugared tail facing up, and arrange a skirt of chocolate eggs around the base for a festive finish.

Notes