Easter Bunny Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is delicious and usually eaten around Easter so I thought this recipe would be great to post, courtesy of gimmesomeoven.com (with a few alterations). And of course you can’t have carrot cake without cream cheese frosting, I used a recipe from Sugarspunrun.com. Let’s get baking!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 2/3 mild-flavored oil (like avocado oil, vegetable oil, or olive oil)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 3 cups finely-grated carrots
• 1/2 cup shredded/sweetened coconut shavings (optional)
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I didn’t add the nuts)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8-inch round baking pans.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the oil, and your two sugars. Whisk until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Avoid lumps.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg) until fully combined.
4. Add your dry ingredients to your egg mixture. Stir until combined (this may take a wile because the wet mixture is really thick)
5. Once your wet mixture and dry mixture is well combined, fold in the grated carrots and then the coconut. Add in the nuts if you want.
6. Pour the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes. You will know when the cakes are done when a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean. Move cake to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Cut off the rounded tops of both cakes to make them flat.
7. Spread the cream cheese frosting in between the layers and on the outside. Do this with an offset spatula. (you can find the recipe for cream cheese frosting if you keep scrolling.)
8. Once the cake is frosted, make my marshmallow fondant. Roll out the fondant and carefully place on cake. Make sure the whole cake is covered. Smooth out the fondant. 
9. Now, it is time to decorate! You will want to make ears out of fondant, eyes, nose, and little flowers of different colors for around the ears. Be creative and make your cake however you want. Remember, mine is just an example.
10.  Once you have made all of your shapes out of fondant, use water to stick it on the cake. The water is use like glue for fondant.
11.  Now you have made a cute bunny cake. Enjoy!

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese (brick style)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups of powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine your butter and cream cheese. Beat until creamy and well combined. Avoid lumps.
2. Add in your salt and vanilla. Stir in well. 
3. Gradually add in the powdered sugar. Only doing this 1/2 cups at a time. Combine well and now you have your frosting (scroll back up to step #7 and continue assembling your cake.) 

Thanks for baking with me (and Happy Easter)!

~ Natalie