Saturday, March 26, 2016

Bunny Cake



In the mid 70's we moved to a new house on a new street in North St. Paul, Minnesota, and we quickly made friends with the Thomas family down the street. My dad and Mr. (Pat) Thomas were Bert and Ernie. They had great times fishing, playing cards on Selby Ave (while the kids were on the ice), and just hanging out. In the summer, after my dad had finished his work around the house, he would pull out the old white wobbly wagon, put the big brown Coleman chest cooler on it, load it up and head on down Buhl Ave to see his buddy Pat. Remember this was the 70s, before we had invented coolers with wheels on them. On these Saturday's My mum and Mrs. (Sue) Thomas would be stuck at the Maplewood Mall Bachman's working hard. Don't worry mum and Sue would be greeted with margaritas as soon as they got out of their deep purple smocks.

We spent a lot of time with Pat and Sue Thomas and their kids Wendy and Mike. We were our own that 70's show and then the 80's came, the Thomas clan moved to Hudson, Wisconsin, and then a few years later we moved to St. Joe, Michigan. Need a visual of Pat and Sue Thomas, think the neighbors in That 70s Show. The Pinciotti's 

You get it our families were close. I remember one away bonspiel weekend I was shipped off to the Thomas' house to stay.  I was raised to be on my best behavior as a guest in someone's home. One night they served fried chicken, and I tried to eat it with a knife and fork. Pat and Sue let me saw at it for a little bit, before Sue said, "Susie, fried chicken is a finger food." Sue Thomas, was (is) beautiful and was a little intimidating to my tom boy goofy dressing self, so I had to get double permission from her to eat with my fingers. 

If you don't live in the same area as your relatives you need friends like the Thomas'. We were never alone at the holidays as we were always invited to their holiday dinners. And lucky for us there was always good food. At Easter, Grandma Cookie (Pat's mother) would bring bunny cake. I remember thinking how cool it was that you could take a round cake and with one cut make a bunny. As an adult, I like that you don't have to buy a mold to make a cake to look like an animal. Most of us have plenty of cabinet space, but too much shit to put in them. You don't need to buy anything else that you will use once a year, at best.

It really is very simple to make a bunny cake, my first bunny cake I made was a success and everyone after that has been as well. 

The Cake Part:

Make your favorite layer cake (if you want to use a box mix-I won't tell). I like covering my bunny cake with cream cheese frosting, Cakes that work well with this kind of frosting include red velvet and carrot. Vanilla cake with coconut icing works nicely as well, but coconut is one of those things that some people just don't like. Or you could do a icing (confectioner's) sugar and butter frosting. Even if you do a boxed cake, please make your own frosting-it doesn't take that much time and it is so much better than that crap in a can. To cover your cake you may want to make a double batch. 

Pour your cake into two prepared 9" round cake pans. Prepare your pans by patting a little butter around the pans, then lining them with parchment or waxed paper, butter and then flour the wax paper. This will make getting your cake out in one piece much easier. 

After your cake has cooled, frost it:

1. cut it down the middle (if you don't cut cleanly-don't worry, the cut edge goes down on the serving plate)
2. Frost one the top of one of the halves. Then take the other half and stick it to that half, making a big half circle. Place this cut edge down on your serving plate.


3. Frost the rounded top of the cake, trying not to get too many cake pieces mixed in. It will be really noticeable if you made a red velvet cake. Scrap your knife on the edge of your frosting bowl as you go.
4. Frost the sides.
5. Frost a large marshmallow and stick it at the bottom of one of the rounded ends. Or just take a couple of spoonfuls of frosting to make the tail.
6. If you want and you have enough frosting repeat for the other round cake you baked.

Decorate your bunny:

1. Use Jelly Beans for the eyes and the nose.
2. Cut licorice twists to 2.5 or so inches.
3. Ears: take a saucer plate and lay it on the bottom edge of two white or same colored pastel envelopes. Open to see how large they are, trim around the open edge if needed. Wait to put the ears on your bunny, the frosting will soak into the paper, not a major deal but you not like the slight discoloration.



Green Grass:

I read on The Cake Blog that there is something called edible green grass. Well, seeing as I don't live in Colorado, I decided not to do a google search to see where I could buy edible grass. I instead decided to color some coconut.

Colored coconut, put about one cup of flake coconut into a small bowl and add a couple of drops of green food coloring. still it will cover the flakes very easily, I ended up adding a bit of water as my coconut was a little dry.

Finishing touches: put the coconut around your plate, throw some jelly beans on top of the coconut grass, I like to place a pile of the black ones back by the tail. Place the ears and serve.