This Easy '70s-Era Bunny Cake is The Most Fun Easter Dessert

easter bunny cake

There's nothing more enjoyable on Easter Day than a fun cake. And this Easter weekend, why not elevate your celebrations with a low-effort, high-reward dessert that the whole family can pitch in on?

Made with almost all store-bought ingredients and super easy to assemble, this cute bunny cake is a classic recipe pulled from a 1970's ad for Baker's Coconut. More than 50 years later, bakers on Reddit turn back to it every single Easter. And while I don't have an Easter celebration to attend this year, I'm always in the mood to bake. So, I cranked on my oven to give this cutesy dessert a go.

Get the recipe: Easter Bunny Cake

Ingredients for Easter Bunny Cake

This cake requires a few ingredients that can either be store-bought or homemade. You need two 9-inch cakes, canned frosting (or one recipe for homemade frosting), candy for decorating (see tips below), sweetened, shredded coconut and red or pink food coloring.

How to Make Easter Bunny Cake

Start by making your cakes. I decided to make my cakes from scratch and buy my frosting, but you do you. Set one cake round aside. Cut two football shapes from the top and bottom of the other cake round (as pictured below). These two pieces are the bunny ears. The shape in the center of that cake layer will be the bow tie.

Now it's time to assemble the cake. Place the uncut cake round in the center of a serving board. Place the football-sized cake pieces above the cake round to create bunny ears and the bow tie-shaped cake piece under the cake round. Frost the cake pieces on the tops and sides, then attach them together with a bit of frosting.

After frosting your cake pieces, sprinkle the cake with coconut. Dye a scant 1/4 cup of coconut with one drop of red or pink food coloring (I used magenta). Mix well and sprinkle on to create the middle of the bunny's ears.

Now comes the creative part: decorating your Bunny Cake! Using Easter-themed sprinkles and jelly beans, add a pattern to your bow tie. Jelly beans can also be used for the bunny's nose and eyes. Whiskers and eyebrows can easily be made with Pull 'N' Peel Twizzlers, cut in various lengths. Of course, use what you have on hand and play around with the placement of the candy until you fall in love with his little bunny face. 

Related: 20 Easy and Adorable Easter Treats for Kids That Go Beyond Peeps

What I Thought of Easter Bunny Cake

I knew as soon as I saw this cake that it was going to be fun to make. And, of course, I will find any excuse to bake my very favorite vanilla cake recipe from Magnolia Bakery—it bakes up perfectly golden and tastes delicately moist with just a hint of vanilla. I wanted to maximize my decorating time, so I decided to go the store-bought route and picked up two cans of Duncan Hines vanilla frosting.

I was skeptical of the directions for this one because I'm not the most confident in my cake-cutting skills. But visualizing this as two footballs (and sketching it out on a round of parchment before cutting) made the process a lot easier.

Overall, this bunny cake sparked so much joy; I found it fun deciding what color and shape candy to use for the bunny's facial features. I think it would be an excellent festive baking project to work on with kids.

Although I may not have grand Easter plans this year, I'm betting that my friends and neighbors won't complain about getting a piece of this hoppy lil' guy.

Related: Easter Bunny Bark Recipe

Tips for Making Easter Bunny Cake

1. Buy extra ingredients. The recipe I followed suggested two cans of frosting and one bag of coconut, but I made sure that I had extra on hand—and I'm glad I did. I used just over one bag of coconut (I had to cover up some mistakes) and used every last drop of frosting from both cans.

2. Play around with your candy. Think of the possibilities when you go down the Easter candy aisle. Robin's eggs, jelly beans, sprinkles and my personal fave—Cadbury Mini Eggs—would all be delicious and very cute on this cake.

3. Buy a big board. I knew I didn't have a serving platter large enough for this bunny, so instead, I grabbed a large piece of foam core for $3 at the craft store. It was a cinch to decorate on, is easy to transport and when I'm finished with it, there's zero clean up.

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