Celebrate Easter with this cute bunny cake by Sherry Hostler of Sherry Hostler Cake Artistry
Bunny Cake Tutorial by Sherry Hostler
You will need
For the cake
• one 15cm (6in) sponge cake, filled with buttercream and crumb-coated
To decorate
• 1.6kg (4lb 6½oz) white sugarpaste
• 500g (1lb 1¾oz) pale green sugarpaste
• small amount of dusky pink sugarpaste
• small amount of black sugarpaste
• small amount of pink sugarpaste
• small amount of yellow sugarpaste
• 100g (3½oz) white modelling paste
• paste colour – green
• edible dust colour – pink
• bourbon biscuits
• royal icing
• icing sugar
• edible glue
• pearlised dragee balls – small
Equipment
• 15cm (6in) round cake card
• 25.5cm (10in) round cake board
• non-stick rolling pin
• smoother
• dresden tool
• small paint brush
• supatube nozzle
• piping bag
• sharp knife
• small flower cutter
• plastic sandwich bag
• 2 x lollipop sticks
• length of white ribbon to go around the board and the base of cake
Covering the cake and board
1. Roll out 800g (1lb 12oz) of the white sugarpaste on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to 3mm (1/8in) thick. Brush your cake drum with a little water and cover it with the sugarpaste. Use the smoother to create an even surface. Cut off any excess and allow to dry overnight.
2. Adhere the cake to the cake card using a little buttercream, then fix it to the cake board.
Decorating the cake
1. Dust a surface with icing sugar and roll out the pale green sugarpaste to a 3mm (1/8in) thickness so that it is large enough to cover the cake. Lift the sugarpaste over the cake and smooth down with your hands. Use the smoother to create an even surface and cut off any excess. Leave for 24 hours to harden.
Creating the rabbit
1. To make the rabbit ears, roll out two 50g (1¾oz) balls of white modelling paste into sausage shapes, then flatten slightly. Stick a wooden lollipop stick into the end of each, and push up around two-thirds of the way. The sticks should protrude by about 5cm (2in). Curl the tops of the ears over slightly. Leave to harden for around 24 hours also.
2. For the rabbit head, roll approximately 200g (7oz) of white sugarpaste into a ball, and secure to the middle of the top of the cake with edible glue. Then roll out two 20g (¾oz) balls of white sugarpaste and mark one side of each of them with three lines using the dresden tool. These will form paws, and should be stuck just in front of the bunny’s head with edible glue. Next roll out two 25g (¾oz) balls of white sugarpaste to create the back paws. Flatten slightly and mark with three lines at the wider end using a dresden tool. Stick these to the front of the cake with edible glue – you may have to hold them in place for a little while until they adhere.
3. Roll out a small grape-sized piece of dusky pink sugarpaste, and form into an oblong. Attach to the front of the bunny’s face with a little edible glue to form a nose. Roll out two more balls of the same size, and flatten with your fingers to form an oval shape. Stick these to the base of each of the large paws. Roll out six more pea-sized balls in the dusky pink, flatten into circles and stick to the paws between the marked lines.
4. Form two small pea-sized balls of black sugarpaste and stick these on the bunny's face to form eyes. Roll two very tiny balls of white sugarpaste and stick each one to the top right of the black eyes to give them a little direction.
5. Using a dry paintbrush, add a little of the pink dust colour to the rabbit’s cheeks.
6. To decorate the sides of the cake, roll out the yellow and pink sugarpaste thinly and cut out several flowers with the cutter, then stick them around the cake. Add a dab of glue to the centres of each, then stick on a dragee ball.
7. Before adding the grass, place your ribbon around the bottom edge of the cake.
8. Leaving a little white royal icing to one side, mix up the green paste colour into the royal icing, and using a the supatube piping nozzle, pipe grass all around the base of the cake, and also above the ribbon in a haphazard manner. You can also pipe small leaves to come out of the flowers, if you like.
9. To achieve the flower bed, pipe a haphazard shape of grass all around the bunny. To create the earth, remove the cream centre from three or four bourbon biscuits, then put the biscuits into a plastic sandwich bag. Use your rolling pin to roll over the biscuits so they become crumbs, then pour the crumbs into the inside of the grass area surrounding the bunny.
Finishing touches
10. To add the bunny’s ears, pipe a little white royal icing around the base of the ears where the lolly sticks protrude, and then insert them into the bunny’s head. You will need to hold these in place for a little while until the royal icing sets a little.
11. Add a birthday or Easter message around the cake drum if required, and finish with a ribbon around the edge of the drum.
