This is an easy and adorable Easter Bunny Cake that makes a memorable Easter cake, and also works for baby showers, birthday parties and more!
Get step-by-step instructions to make this bunny butt cake for Easter that will have everyone talking!
Originally published March 2016, updated with new details, photos and video March 2021.
You know what they say… what goes around, comes around. So many cookbooks and magazines that inspired our mothers and grandmothers offer great inspiration for today – with a few modern tweaks.
Today I’m bringing back the bunny butt cake, the ultimate Easter cake – without the fluorescent green grass and hard to chew coconut.
This little bunny butt cake is an easy Easter cake that everyone of all ages can enjoy. It makes an adorable display on any dessert table and it’s deceptively easy to make!
It makes an adorable centerpiece for Easter brunch and chances are you (or a neighbor) have everything you need to make one of your own. It’s a fun alternative to a traditional sheet cake.
Yes, sometimes I don’t have the right “tool” and call upon a neighbor or two. Okay, 10. Anyone who is around last minute on a random Wednesday morning. I found almost everyone {but me} had a simple glass Pyrex mixing bowl to bake a bunny butt cake.
If you know me, I prefer to keep clutter to a minimum, so if it’s not something I’ll use everyday, I’d rather borrow. No cake pans are needed to make this easy bunny cake.
Why You’ll Love this Bunny Cake
It also makes a darling baby shower or birthday cake. In fact, I regret not making it for this Woodland Baby Shower! Easter desserts have never been so cute and easy.
- Pantry ingredients
- Starts with a cake mix
- Made in a classic Pyrex mixing bowl
- No special baking molds or tools required
- Can be made in any flavor combination
Easter Bunny Cake Ingredients
- Cake Mix – Any flavor!
- Icing – Buy two tubs of pre-made icing or make your own using one of the suggested recipes listed below!
- Cotton Candy – For the tail cotton tail. Substitute a large marshmallow or miniature cupcake.
- Pink Icing – To create cute paws. You can substitute pink candies.
- Grass – If you want your bunny butt to sit on the cute toasted grass shown in these images, you’ll need sheets of phyllo dough for toasting. You can use edible flowers, edible grass or dyed coconut as well.
Variations
Mix up the flavors of your cake! Try one of the following options.
- Carrot Cake
- Lemon Cake
- Chocolate Cake
- Pound Cake
How to Make a Bunny Cake
You can watch just how easy it is in the video.
- Make Batter – In a greased mixing bowl, combine ingredients to make batter.
- Bake – Bake in mixing bowl (I used a 2 quart Pyrex I believe, with an 8 inch diameter across the top) and 2 greased cupcake tins.
- Cool – Cool 10 minutes, then invert on to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Ice Cake – Ice with buttercream.
- Make Feet – Freeze cupcakes for a few minutes to prevent crumbs from going into icing. Construct on your serving dish or platter placing the butt directly on the platter and shaving off each side of your cupcake to create feet. Ice feet with buttercream.
- Top With Cotton Candy – For the bunny tail, use cotton candy. You can substitute a mini cupcake or marshmallows if needed!
- Decorate Feet – Use pink icing (I like using these for ease) to make little paw pads or gently press pink candies into feet.
Optional: fill in with “grass” (tips to make it below). You can make phyllo grass, dye coconut green or use edible grass or edible flowers. Enjoy!
Tips for Making an Easter Bunny Cake
- It doesn’t have to be perfect. Bunnies aren’t smooth!
- Any size of Pyrex bowl between 1.5 quarts and 3 quarts will work. Just watch your timing based on how deep the batter is. I used a 2 qt, 8 inches across the top.
- You can use tubs of icing, but I made the girls’ favorite marshmallow icing. It’s light, fluffy and so good! See below for more of my favorite frosting ideas.
- You can add a little milk or heavy cream to any frosting you choose, if needed, to make it even easier to work with.
- You can find white cotton candy at Chuck E Cheese, often near the checkout of Home Goods, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, anywhere that makes cotton candy (we have a local candy store that can make it) or here online.
- In lieu of cotton candy you can use a cupcake or large marshmallow for the bunny tail.
- I recommend putting the cotton candy on just before serving as being exposed to air will make it evaporate. Save a little icing to help it adhere.
- If you’d like, you can even add a little food coloring to this Easter bunny cake.
How to Make Toasted Phyllo Grass
It’s so easy to make this cute toasted edible grass, but I like this pretty faux Easter basket grass as well. You can add jelly beans to appear like Easter eggs scattered around it if you’d like.
To make your own, you’ll need six sheets of frozen (defrosted) phyllo dough.
- First, you’ll roll your sheets of phyllo dough lengthwise. Keep the rolls tight as you work.
- Slice them as thin as you’d like to look like grass nests after baking.
- Transfer the sliced phyllo pieces onto the baking sheet, separating as you work. Spray your favorite cooking spray over the top to help with even browning.
- Bake at 350 degrees approximately 10 minutes.
Best Frosting for Bunny Cake
So many delicious options! Of course you can always grab tubs of frosting at the store, but making your own frosting is easy too!
Serving Suggestions
- Go old school and use food coloring for tinted coconut for the “grass” under the bunny butt.
- Put him in dirt. Crush Oreos and mix with chocolate pudding to line the platter.
- Add small Easter egg candies or jelly beans around the base of the cake for an extra cute touch.
How to Store
- At Room Temperature – Store this cake tightly wrapped on your counters for up to 3-4 days.
- Refrigerate – You can refrigerate this cake in an airtight container for up to one week.
- Freeze – Store leftover cake in an airtight container up to six months. Will lose freshness over time.
Dietary Considerations
- Vegetarian
- Dairy Free – if you choose a dairy free cake mix and frosting
- Nut Free
Bunny Butt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box cake mix mixed as instructed on box
- 4 cups icing (2 tubs)
- cotton candy substitute large marshmallow
- pink icing
- phyllo grass
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Prepare your cake mix as instructed on the box. Pour batter into 2 greased unlined muffin tins and into a greased oven safe mixing bowl.
- Bake cupcakes 17 minutes and cake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes and shave off top of cake until almost flat. Place cake on a platter or cake stand as if the bowl was upside down and set cupcakes aside until completely cool.
- Cut the sides off of cupcakes to create bunny feet. Refrigerate or freeze if necessary to ice without crumbs.
- Ice cake and then ice the underside of the “bunny feet” to adhere to the cake. Using an icing tube, add little pads to the bunny feet.
- Adhere bunny tail. A touch of cotton candy or an iced marshmallow work well.
- Optional: garnish with phyllo grass
Tips
- You can use tubs of icing, but I made the girls’ favorite marshmallow icing. It’s light, fluffy and so good! I also love this easy buttercream icing recipe. You can add a little milk or heavy cream if needed to make it even easier to work with. A hint of cream cheese is also another delicious twist to try.
- You can find white cotton candy at Chuck E Cheese, often near the checkout of Home Goods, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, or anywhere that makes cotton candy.
- In lieu of cotton candy you can use a cupcake or large marshmallow for the bunny tail.
- I recommend putting the cotton candy on just before serving as being exposed to air will make it evaporate. Save a little icing to help it adhere.
- If you’d like, you can even add a little food coloring to this Easter bunny cake.
How to Store
- Room Temperature – Wrapped in plastic wrap 3-4 days.
- Refrigerate – Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- Freeze – Freeze in an airtight container up to six months.
Video
Estimated nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed.
lots of cool ideas, the cake is just too cute!!
This is such a cute idea! My dad used to always make a bunny cake for Easter, but never an adorable bunny butt cake like this! Parker would love it!
Super cute and relatively simple to bake. Love this.
– Greta
http://www.mintyfrosting.com
So fun!! I love recipes like this, you made a traditional cake look so cute and updated.
Adorable bunny butt cake, indeed! It really doesn’t get cuter than this! I also had no idea you could bake in a pyrex bowl, but it makes total sense. Great idea and beautiful dessert, friend.
xo Michael