Hops the Bunny

Owner of Flour Shop and baker extraordinaire Amirah Kassem shows us how to make an adorable and surprising cake perfect for Easter. The recipe comes from her cookbook The Power of and uses the Rainbow Explosion Cake and Magical Frosting as its base.

Amirah suggests only putting all six in the oven at the same time if using a convection oven. And if you don't have six baking pans, simply cool, wash, dry, and respray the two pans before refilling with batter.

Hops the Bunny Cake Makes one six-layer, 6-inch rainbow cake

Ingredients

For the cake: Nonstick cooking spray 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 1/2 cups granulated 3 large eggs 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1 1/3 cups milk Food coloring (blue, green, yellow, orange, pink)

For the frosting: 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 16 ounces (2 bars) cream cheese, cold 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 32 ounces confectioners' sugar

For decorating: 1/2 pound mixed sprinkle and mixture White nonpareils White for the ears 2 yellow sixlets Pink sixlet for the nose Edible gold paint Black frosting

Directions

1. Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for a convection oven) and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Spray six 6- inch round baking pans with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. You have to mix all the dry ingredients together first, so that there are no clumps in your batter, which will create white spots. Set aside. 3. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, blend the butter and sugar together, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until well combined and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl, until well combined.

4. In a small bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla. Set aside.

5. Mix about one-third of your dry ingredients into the butter-sugar-egg mixture, then blend in half of the milk, always mixing on medium speed.

6. Mix in the second third of the dry ingredients, then the remaining milk mixture.

7. Stop the mixer for a few seconds and use a spatula to push down anything sticking to the sides of the bowl as you go, then mix in the last of the flour mixture. Make sure it’s all mixed in from the sides and everything is smooth. You don’t want any lumps, but don’t overmix it—stop the mixer as soon as the batter is smooth.

8. In six small bowls, divide the batter evenly into six portions. They don’t have to be identical, but you want them to be close. (It’s about 1 cup of batter per bowl.)

9. Color the batter individually in pastel rainbow colors: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink. Start with a tiny drop of food coloring, stir it in completely, then add more until it is your desired color. (The baked cake will come out pretty close to what you see—the outside will be a little brown, but that gets covered with frosting.)

10. Pour the batter into the pans. Bake the cakes two at a time for 8 minutes without opening the oven door. Then rotate each pan so the front faces the back. Bake for another 8 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it into the middle of the cake. (Cakes are very sensitive. The less you open your oven, the better your cake will come out.)

11. Let the cakes cool in the pans 5 to 10 minutes. (When they’re warm, they’re really fragile, and that’s when they tend to break.) Flip them over onto a baking sheet or cooling rack and let them cool completely before frosting them.

12. When the cakes are ready to be frosted, make the frosting: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, blend butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend together until there are no lumps. Add the vanilla. Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula to push down anything sticking to the sides of the bowl.

13. Mix in the confectioners' sugar a little bit at a time on the lowest speed. Use the spatula to push down anything sticking to the sides of the bowl, making sure it’s all mixed in from the sides and everything is smooth. Use right away. Technically the frosting will last at least a week in the refrigerator, but fresh frosting is key. In a small bowl, combine a small amount of frosting with pink food coloring and place in a piping bag with a star tip.

14. Decorate the cake: Using a 2-inch round circle cutter, punch center out of blue, green, yellow, and orange cakes, washing the cutter in-between layers. Leave the pink cake intact.

15. Using a piping bag filled with frosting, pipe 3 rings of frosting between layers of cake and stack the cakes in order of blue, green, yellow, and orange. In the center of the cakes, pour sprinkles. Pipe 3 rings of frosting on the orange cake and top with the pink cake flipped upside down.

16. Coat the outside of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, if time allows. Finish coating the outside of the cake with frosting and smooth with an offset spatula or cake scraper. Cover in nonpareils. Decorate with white chocolate ears, held on by pink frosting swirls and a yellow sixlet in the center of each swirl. Add a pink sixlet for the nose. Draw on whiskers with edible gold paint and pipe on eyes with black frosting.

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