Bunny cake

A bunny cake created from single classic sponge cake -- a Betty Crocker design. You could even use a carrot cake as the base. An obvious choice for our little girl's March birthday, surrounded by easter eggs.

• 175 g self raising flour
• 1 rounded tsp baking powder
• 3 large eggs at room temp
• 375g butter at room temp
• 175g golden caster sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup raspberry jam
• 400g icing sugar
• 100g shredded coconut
• Jellybeans for eyes and mouth
• 1 sheet white cardboard
• large ball cotton wool or candy floss
• ½ cup dessicated coconut
• ½ tsp green food colouring

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Line a 22cm cake tin with baking parchment cut to size.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.

Add the eggs, 175g of the butter, caster sugar and vanilla extract and whisk with an electric hand whisk until all the ingredients are well combined.

Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin, smooth the top and place on the centre shelf of the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, make sure you don't open the door to peak before 30 minutes has passed otherwise the cake might sink in the middle.
Test the cake with a skewer to see if it is baked through.

Remove from the oven and wait 5 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack. Carefully peel off the baking parchment. Leave to cool completely.

Slice the cake in half, giving you two semi circles. Glue these together with the raspberry jam, with the edges that were covered with baking parchment facing outside (as they will be smoothest). Stand the joined together parts up so that the flat edge is on the bottom. Cut a wedge out as shown in the drawing, where the bunny's neck would be. I made paws from the wedge. (Don't worry too much about their shapes, they'll be covered in coconut anyway.)

To make the icing, combine 200g butter with the icing sugar. Using a palette knife, quickly cover the cake and paws with icing and gently press the shredded coconut onto the icing.

Make bunny ears and teeth from the cardboard (see drawing and photos.) Insert the bunny ears and teeth, and add jelly beans for the eyes and nose. Fashion a tail from the cotton wool or candy floss, and attach with a toothpick.

In a glass jar, shake the dessicated coconut with the green food colouring. Once the cake is on its setting, gently add the green coconut around the base to look like grass.

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