Easter Bunny Strawberry Cake

Easter is early this year. To celebrate we’re making our favorite Easter Bunny Strawberry Cake. It is so moist, tasty and absolutely adorable.

Last December, Nick and I moved from our apartment back into my parents house. Since we’ve been here it’s been great to be able to visit with my parents every day instead of only once a month or so and my parents have been very welcoming.

However, it’s also been an adjustment…my parents live a very healthy and active lifestyle compared to mine. To give you an idea, my mom just finished her first Olympic distance triathlon and  she is currently training for a half iron man.

As you can probably guess I’ve been dragged out for some of these events as of late. The 5k I did last weekend for example *insert forced excitement here*. In addition to the constant pressure to exercise, junk food rarely crosses the threshold and I’ve been on a mandatory diet for the past two months.

I’m sure you can imagine how perturbed my mom was when I made a giant cake in her kitchen on a Saturday night. I on the other hand was thrilled! My mom used to make these for us when we were kids and it brought back some really sweet memories…and it served as a perfect payback for all the running I’ve been forced into. I’ve earned this right?! Happy early Easter Mom and Dad!

Ingredients:

• 1 Packet of classic white cake mix
• 1 3 oz packet of strawberry jello
• 1 16 oz bag of frozen strawberries
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• Cream cheese icing of your choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven at 350 F and grease two round, 9 inch cake pans.

Combine cake mix, eggs, jello, water, oil and strawberries in a large mixing bowl. Be sure to thaw the strawberries before using in the cake batter.

If you prefer fruit chunks in your cake, leave the strawberries whole. If you prefer fruit distributed evenly throughout, puree the strawberries before adding them. Admittedly, this cake is easier to work with if you puree the strawberries but I like fruit chunks in my cake so I leave them. It’s up to you.

Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth. Divide the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans.

Bake time is approximately 20 minutes but it may vary depending on the type of pan and the oven you use. Start with 15 minutes and check to see if it is done by putting a toothpick through the center. If it comes out clean it is done. If it doesn’t, cook for about 5 more minutes and test again. Repeat until toothpick comes out clean.

If your oven cooks unevenly like mine you may consider switching the position of the pans on the oven rack halfway through cooking.  This way, even if your oven is uneven, your cake should come out evenly cooked.

When the cakes are done baking, let them cool completely. This may take several hours but if you try to work with the cake before it is completely cool it may fall apart more easily and it will be very difficult to get out of the pan in one piece.

Once the cakes are completely cool, carefully remove them from the pans. I used a butter knife and worked around the edges then flipped the pan over and let the cake fall out.

Flip the cake out onto a paper towel to make it easier to flip it right side up without breaking.

One of the cakes will be the bunny’s head and the other will need to be cut into three sections to make up the ears and the bowtie. Arrange like so:

If you mess up like I did and cut something unevenly, you can trim the pieces and stick them back where you want them by using icing as glue. In the picture above, I cut too much off of the bow tie when cutting out the ear. I trimmed the extra off of the ear and stuck it back onto the bow tie with icing. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect. You won’t be able to tell once the whole thing is complete.

Once you have the pieces arranged like you want them, you just have to put the icing on however you would like. I did mine with cream cheese icing and I added red and blue food coloring to get the different colors. For the black outline, I used black cake decorating gel from the baking isle of the grocery store. Get creative with it! Decorate with candy, fruit or different color icing. This is definitely a project the whole family can be involved in.