I really think Easter is my favourite time of year for baking; there are so many cute little chocolate eggs and bunnies popping up that it's hard to resist them all!
My absolute favourite (Creme eggs aside, maybe mini eggs too) has to be the Maltester Bunnys, preferably the mini ones! They're so adorable and ridiculously addictive; plus they fit pretty nicely on top of a cupcake!
I decided to pipe some little carrots in their arms and pop the bunnies in a chocolate cornflake basket, very Eastery. So here's the recipe!
Vanilla chocolate bunnies.
Ingredients
For the sponge
150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g self raising flour
12 tsp strawberry jam
For the frosting
250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Pinch of salt
2-3 cap fulls of milk
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. One by one add in the eggs, mixing between each one. Add your vanilla and mix again. Finally sift in your flour and mix until combined.
2. Line a muffin tray with cases. Evenly distribute the batter between the cases so they're 2/3 full. If you have cake mix left over make some more! Don't overfill these cases up as they'll overflow when baking and it'll look pretty sad :( Once you've filled them, pop them into your preheated oven for 16 minutes. When you take them out, pop a skewer/knife in the middle of one, if it comes out clean, they're done!
3. Whilst the cupcakes are baking you can make the chocolate nests to go on top. You will need:
120g milk chocolate
100g cornflakes
12 mini Malteaster bunnies
You can melt the chocolate in the microwave for around 2 minutes, checking it every 30 seconds. Or pop the chocolate in a bowl and melt it over a simmering pan of boiling water.
4. Once you've melted the chocolate, chuck the cornflakes in and give it a good stir, making sure everything's covered (feel free to eat some to make sure it's ok, I like to call this quality control..) You can make 12 little nests out of this, take a golf ball size dollop and pop an Easter bunny on top, slightly pushing him in. Do this for all 12 and pop them on a baking tray and put them in the fridge to harden.
5. To make the frosting, cream together the butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla. This will look like powdery breadcrumbs, gently add the milk a bit at a time so that you get a good spreadable consistency, not too wet. You can take 2 teaspoons of the frosting in two seperate bowls and add colourings to make the carrots*.
6. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, cut a hole in the top and remove a small bit of sponge; put a teaspoon of jam in and pop the top of the sponge back on. You can then frost the cupcakes how you wish, I like to use a palette knife. You can then add your bunny Easter nests to the cupcakes!
Alternatively, if you don't want the chocolate nests on top, you can always add some of these little guys and some sprinkles!
*you'll just need orange and green food colouring and 2 piping bags. If you don't have any small nozzles, cut the very tip of the piping bag off, so your left with a really small hole.
