Most years I’m assigned dessert for our Easter gathering. It’s hard to know what to fix, especially with so many different tastes gathered in one house. Cake is a good choice, as it’s a party staple. I’ve found that by making half chocolate and half vanilla cake, everyone is pleased. Yes it does mean twice the work, but you have the rest of the batter to make into more cakes/cupcakes and freeze for a future potluck event or snack time cravings! If you have 2 gatherings to go to, even better, just volunteer for dessert for both! You could go with one flavor if for example you don’t need the leftovers or your family is devoted to chocolate.
One of the best ideas I’ve come across so far actually comes from the Kraft foods website many, many years ago, so it’s not my own creation, but certainly has become the norm in our family. For each finished cake you need a cake mix (or your own homemade batter) pre-baked and cooled into two 8″ round cake pans (or you could be really sneaky and get plain frosted cakes from the bakery), frosting, coloring if desired, and candy decorations (licorice for whiskers, M&Ms, skittles, jelly beans or similar for features.)
There are 2 ways to do it, one is pictured below, basically you cut one cake in half, rounding off the ears if desired, place them at the top of the other round cake, frost entire cake, and add ‘features’ to your heart’s content. If you want pink ‘innies’ on the ears, be sure to separate a bit of the frosting and tint it with coloring before adding. The kids can really get involved in the decorating. Who cares if the bunny is blue with purple jelly bean eyes if they’re having a good time? Anything goes! The one below even had ‘what’s up doc’ sized buck teeth– in green!
Another awesome feature of this cake, besides letting the kids in on the fun and being a sure fire winner on the ‘cute’ scale (and hey, you don’t have to be artistic about it for it to be cute!) is that the family can each pick which ‘bit’ they want. Pretty much every piece is both an outside and inside piece. Because you’re not doing any fancy rosettes, no one gets ‘more’ icing, so basically the choice is what ‘decoration’ you get. The kids almost always go for ears (or bowtie on the 2nd option) since it’s covered in candy!
The second option is fairly easy to understand, instead of cutting the 2nd cake in half for ears, instead you divide it roughly into thirds, with the middle being a ‘bowtie’ shape, and the ears being made out of the rounds from the outside of the cake and the ‘hollows’ of the bowtie. Place the ears above, the bowtie below, frost and decorate as desired. Personally, I like a LOT of decoration on my bow ties! Just like my ‘paint’ creation below, if it’s a little jagged, just fill in with some frosting. Everyone’s going to be so impressed that you made the effort and focus on the decoration that they’ll gobble it up! Please pin this using the ‘save/share’ button at the bottom of the post page if you enjoy it!