Bunnies and Eating Contests

So a few weeks ago on a trip to the San Marcos outlets I came across this $50 3-D bunny pan on sale for $14.. So clearly I had to get it!



I of course wanted to make the bunny cake for easter, and decided on a nice lemon cake with vanilla buttercream.

Ingredients for Lemon Bunny Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3⁄4 tsp. lemon oil
4 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat an oven to 325ºF. Grease the bunny!

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon oil. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Reduce the speed to low and fold in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour, beating until smooth and combined.



Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.



Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Set the rack over a sheet of waxed paper, invert the pan onto the rack and lift off the pan.

I actually ended up having to double this recipe because it didn't fill up the bunny all the way, and since i had some left over, I just made a few cupcakes:



Here is bunny cooling:



And here are where the issues start:



I COULD NOT get the buttercream to stiffen and stay on the bunny so I ended up just having to move the whole process INTO the freezer:



All issues aside.. he turned out great, and tasted even better!




On another note.. Last weekend was the Poteet Strawberry Festival. I had never been, so I decided to go with one of my co-workers, April, and her 2 year old daughter.

Here is Mikayla, adorable as ever:



As we were walking around.. we noticed that there was a Strawberry eating contest.
There was an 18-20 year old category.. and April jokingly said that I should enter... so I did... and I won!



Showing the judges I was done:



A proud moment :)