Cute Easter bunnies are diving butt-first into carrot cupcakes searching for carrot treats.
Bunny Butt Carrot Cupcakes
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
If you are looking for the most adorable Easter bunny cupcakes ever, you have come to the right place.
I decided to make these this month since the theme for the #FantasticalFoodFight was about carrot cake. I’ve been meaning to bake a carrot cake for awhile, and also this kind of cupcake since I have seen similar concepts on Pinterest. Having cute baked things for Easter is always a plus, since most of the things you can buy will be hot cross buns or Easter candy. Or occasionally market bakeries will have the bunny head coconut cake.
I’ve always loved carrot cake- especially since it was a favorite snack when I worked at York steak house about 40 years ago. If I worked early shift for food prep, I might have a slice of it at break as a breakfast of sorts (I know! Healthy, right? LOL!) along with orange soda. Well, hey, they didn’t have orange juice. And the flavor did go with the cake. So if you make these for a party, keep in mind the orange pop or orange flavored punch as they work well.
This might well be the best carrot cake I have ever made (I think it is) but some of that might be due to dabbling in mixing together extracts in my baking to bring out more of the flavors I want. The cupcakes are very moist and have all the requisite junk in them, like coconut, walnuts, pineapple and raisins. I love all that. It’s kind of how I make pumpkin bread too- loaded with the extra bits.
Other recipes I have seen looked like they might have ready-make sugar candy paws but I decided on snipped marshmallows dotted with icing. There may even be other ideas for the paws around, but this worked out easy for me as I had both. Those little carrot candies are Wilton- I just used a couple to bring out color in the photo. You can buy them in the baking aisle.
Usually I like to give you a head’s up on what recipes are coming, but I have had such a bad track record of late, I feel a little hesitant, as if I might jinx myself. But I do have a little time between now and Easter to get several things up. If you have anything you are looking for your Easter dinner, let me know and if I have it I will try to post. I have a few hundred recipes back-logged that haven’t been posted here and there. I do have Muffin Monday coming up next week and have some Banana Nut Muffins ready. And I was hoping to get something up for Passover as well, but nothing specific yet.
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Bunny Butt Carrot Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 30 large marshmallows
- 60 white M&M’s chocolate candies
- 1 bottle Wilton Pink Cookie Decorating Icing
- 1-1/2 cups Sweetened flaked coconut
Cupcake Ingredients:
- 30 cupcake liners
- 8 ounces soft butter
- 1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 8 ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
- 1/2 cup shredded flaked coconut
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 cups finely grated carrots (6-8 ounces)
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 6 ounces butter, at room temperature
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 5-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
Method:
- Prepare bunny paws: compress marshmallows into an oval shape and snip off ends; place sticky side down on waxed paper or something similar.
- Warm pink cookie icing to a drizzling consistency; apply to marshmallows and allow to completely dry (45+ minutes).
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place cupcake liners into muffin pans.
- Cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, about 2 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time, then mix in vanilla.
- Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and flour, mixing into a smooth batter.
- Then fold in the pineapple, coconut, raisins and walnuts.
- Divide batter among cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter, and bake cupcakes for 25 minutes or until springy to the touch.
- Cool completely.
- Stir together the frosting ingredients until smooth.
- Frost cupcakes and then roll in flaked coconut.
- Dab a little frosting underneath the paws and tails (M&Ms) to get them to stick on top of the cupcakes, then allow cupcakes to dry on top.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com
#FantasticalFoodFight
March 2018: Carrot Cake
Be sure to check out the other Fantastical Carrot Cake recipes this month!
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These are super adorable! What a cute idea and perfect for spring/Easter!
So cute! I know some next door kids that will love these!
These are TOO cute, Sue. Thanks for sharing.
These are adorable! A few hundred recipes back logged? You are amazing!
Nah, what would be amazing is having time to post them all. LOL!
So much fun Sue….just adorable.
Super cute!! My kiddos would love them!
Super adorable! Those paws look really cute…
I have made bunny butt cupcakes, but with piping melted chocolate and it was a mess. The marshmallows look so much easier. Also love that they are CARROT CAKE. Yes! That’s just perfect.
Yes, the marshmallows are pretty quick and they don’t dry too hard either sitting out to let the pink spots dry. I am all for anything easier.
Oh, how utterly cute! Pinning to share the cuteness!
Adorable!
So dang cute! Pinned! Thanks for sharing at Friday Frenzy!