Every Bunny Loves Carrot Cake

I'm a fan of Easter simply because it's the Spring Edition of "There Are No Rules: We Begin Eating Chocolate at Sunrise," much like how Christmas is the Winter Edition of "There Are REALLY No Rules: Cake Pairs Well with Spiked Hot Chocolate at Dawn." I knew I wanted to do a bunch of baking for the holiday weekend, but I turned into a bit of an Easter basket case Thursday when our fridge stopped working (despite my best efforts to repair it). I was down to a tiny beer fridge in my husband's office and a small fridge out in the garage...I wasn't sure I'd have room for a single cupcake after moving everything out of our broken kitchen fridge and freezer. Needless to say, after throwing out a ton of spoiled meats and fancy ice creams, some bunny needed cake (it was me. I'm some bunny).

They are simply ear-resistible.

Where there's a will to bake, there's a way to make those baked goods fit into a tiny fridge. I'd like to thank Tetris for preparing me for this exact life moment because these carrot cake and cupcakes are 14-carrot gold in the flavor department. Filled with pineapple, carrots, Craisins, and the most delicious cream cheese frosting, each bite is eggs-travagantly delicious. I'm not a huge carrot cake person (really, vegetables in a cake?), but since carrots are a sweeter veg, I'd say hoppiness can sometimes be as simple as a really good carrot cake. However, the moment anyone tells me to put riced cauliflower or spinach in a dessert recipe is the day I quit baking. These appropriately-vegetabled cupcakes and cakes are only 173 a slice/cupcake (20 servings total). I'd say it's an Easter miracle, but well, I don't want to walk outside and get struck by lightning or anything smite-adjacent.
 

I may be a cake eggs-pert, but this box mix threw me for a loop.

I tried a Natural Grocer's find as the base for this cake. I don't like to throw too many of my own adaptations into a brand/mix I've never worked with before, so I mainly followed the directions on the cake box for the carrot cake recipe. I had a gut feeling the batter needed more liquid in it, but I went ahead as it told me to. Unfortunately, my gut was right (it's a seasoned pro at cake eating, after all), and the cake ended up being very tough. It wasn't over baked or over mixed, so I attribute a lack of moisture to be the culprit. Don't get me wrong, the flavor is still AMAZING, but I like each bite to taste like a fluffy cloud of cakey goodness, not a cement brick of cakey goodness. I'll add my suggestion below; I'll definitely use this mix again because the flavor is SO GOOD, just with added liquid to keep things softer and lighter and less like (weighs an actual) pound cake.

• 1 box of Namaste GF spice cake mix
• 3 egg whites (92 grams)
  
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (111 grams)
  
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots; I processed into a fine pulp in my food processor (75 grams)
  
• 1/2 cup of less sugar Craisins or regular raisins (80 grams)
• 8 ounces crushed pineapple with juices (226 grams)
• I would add 1/4 cup of milk to this next time
  

Because the batter was thicker than a solid chocolate Easter bunny.

Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners and spray an 8-inch round pan with cooking spray. Alternatively, you could make 24 cupcakes or two 8-inch rounds. Blend the cake mix, egg whites, applesauce, and pineapple on medium-high in a stand mixer for 30 seconds. Add in the Craisins and carrots until everything has come together. Pour into your prepared pans and bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes and the cake round for 25. A toothpick should come out of each with just a small amount of crumb on it.

This made my house smell good for THREE WHOLE DAYS (avoid joke about Easter miracle).

Let everything cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a cooling rack. Or, you know, in a fridge if you have one that works.
 

What, you don't buy your vanilla extract in the same size as a handle of booze?

The cream cheese frosting is super simple to put together but an absolute must with carrot cake. Without cream cheese frosting, it's just a mix of fruits and vegetables in bread pretending to be cake. 

• 8 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp (225 grams)
• 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt, strained overnight (226 grams)
• 3 cups of Lakanto powdered monkfruit or powdered sugar (360 grams)
• 2 tsp CLEAR vanilla extract (we're making Easter bunny, not dust bunny cupcakes, no brown extract)
• If your frosting is too thick, add 1 TBS milk

Whip the cream cheese until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Then add in the yogurt, blending well, then half the monkfruit, and the 2 teaspoons of extract. Mix, scrape the bowl well, and add the remaining sugar.

 Now, to make bunny cupcakes you will need a few more items:

• Hot pink gel dye
• Black gel dye
  
• Hot pink sanding sugar
• White sanding sugar
• #2 round tip (2 of them)
• Large marshmallows

 To make the bunny cake you will need:

• Blue gel dye
• Hot pink gel dye
• Black gel dye
• Tips 125, 104, 1A, and 2 (having two here also helps)

You can take a tiny bit of frosting to dye black since you only need it for eyes on either cake or cupcakes, and you don't need much more dyed pink for the noses and ears. You need more plain white frosting than anything else, and a decent amount of blue to frost the top of the cake. I had a bunch of leftover frosting, so you don't have to skimp. Once prepared, decorating is an absolute breeze.

Cut a large marshmallow in half diagonally.

The cut sides will be nice and sticky, so roll those face down in some pink sanding sugar.

Add a layer of white frosting to the top of every cupcake, then gently roll in the white sanding sugar.

Gently press the backs of the ears into the frosting.

Then use your black frosting with a #2 round tip to pipe little eyes.

And do the same with the pink frosting to make little noses. You could easily pipe a heart for the nose, but I was going 'minimalist bun' to match my cake.

Which I slathered a layer of blue frosting on first, then let chill in the tiny amount of free space left in our garage fridge.

I also had my prepared frosting chilling in the fridge for 10 minutes.

 For reference, the 1A large round tip and 125 petal tip are for the bunny ears and face. You'll need to alternate between the 2 tip and the 104 petal tip with the pink frosting for the nose and ears; the other 2 tip can be used with the black frosting for the eyes.

I am literally all ears.

 I just randomly piped ears first with the #125 tip; the round side of the tip should be pointed up to make the top of the ears. You just need to apply gentle pressure to pipe each ear and gently pull away. A full video can be found at my inspiration for this cake here. 

At this point, we've got a sky full of bunny clouds.

Add the heads with the 1A round tip, and use an angled spatula to smooth out if needed.

Giving me real Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit vibes. How hare-raising.

Use the round tips to give your bunnies eyes and noses unless you want some weird dystopian Easter thing going on. Use the 104 tip, also round side pointed up, to gently place pink onto the whites of the ears. I found it easiest to pipe and gently pull down, then away for this.

Don't worry. Be hoppy.

I have to add in that my calorie calculation for these cupcakes does NOT include the marshmallow ears because marshmallows are only edible when melted and sandwiched between chocolate and a graham cracker. Don't even get me started on Peeps. They are an abomination and must be stopped. Whoever decided to take a marshmallow and make it even less edible than usual, but dye it hot pink!, is clearly evil.

These little bunnies though? Pure innocence.

But this cake is absolutely my favorite.

Oh look, it's a bunny getting a photo taken of itself while also getting more bunny ears. This was accidental, but perfect positioning nonetheless.

The one on the bottom left just looks like it doesn't carrot. It's a punny rabbit.

Well not exactly Easter hot cross buns, but insanely cute buns abound instead with either the cake or cupcakes, so you can't go wrong. Add in a little extra liquid with this recipe, and I know it would be absolutely the perfect balance of dense carrot cake with a spring in each bite. I love the spices that come together in carrot cake, and anything that has pineapple in it I will eat with reckless abandon (especially pizza--where it belongs--and I will fight you on this). The cream cheese frosting is extra tangy with the use of the Greek yogurt, so it's a perfect addition to the spices and the sweetness of the pineapple and Craisins. Basically, this is the recipe that will make you a carrot cake lover and not just a carrot cake tolerator. I am hoping for a hoppy ending with the fridge saga, but at least I carved out enough space to keep these beautiful bunnies refrigerated. I hope you eat your body weight in ham, chocolate eggs, and carrot cake today--as is Easter tradition.'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

These bunnies won't judge you.