Easter bunny frosted lemon & orange Pimm's cake (with step-by-step instructions)

Did you give up anything for Lent? My housemate and I decided to do coffee (her) and chocolate (me), and whilst I was all "yeah as if you'd be able to go without caffeine for two months muahaha".... it turned out I couldn't go without cocoa for two days.

But I digress. This easter cake has no chocolate. It's orange and lemon and teeny bit of Pimm's in it, because, why not, and spring is almost (sort of) here (sometimes)! Hurrah!

However, the ingredients do call for a large quantity of icing sugar. Like, about 2 kg of the stuff.

Two days later, I've still got the sugar shakes.

*shakes about the room a little*

So I made the cake for a charity bake sale at work, and obviously being quite fond of this one I brought it in and put it on the table quite happy at myself, until, I was browsing at the other cakes and found that there was another cake with a bunny on top. And they had used chocolate. 

You know when they say about girls turning up somewhere and wearing the same dress? 

It could have gotten vicious. 

It could have gotten nasty.

Well, thank goodness with cake you share and slice and everyone stuffs their faces and it's alllll gooooood =D

I hope you a great and relaxing Easter holidays (whether you celebrate it or not, surely it's just an excuse to eat more chocolate??)! I know that I am very, very much looking forward to it =)

Again, thanks to Sous Chef for helping me with the photography for this one! 

Step by step instructions below including the bunny (full recipe at the end):

First, make your cakes (Pimm's cake recipe below, see here for my Pimm's cake!), but you can use any normal sponge here, and fill with buttercream.

Cover cake with a base layer of buttercream icing. This makes the piping easier to work with and you don't end up with crumbs sticking to the outer layer.

Messssyyyyy!

To make the ribbed edge, I cut a side off a cardboard box (the icing sugar box actually!) and drew semi-circles around the edge, which I then cut off. You then need to spread an even thick layer of icing around the edge, and go round it with the stencil

Piping the edge in a cross-cross pattern. I used a youtube tutorial which I now can't find but essentially you just pipe loads of short squiggles (technical term).

I used green icing mixed with a bit of white to leave the colour lighter for the leaves. Then I used leaf cutters to cut leaves of two sizes. On top of the cake, you need to pipe a round circle (this will form the base to rest your leaves). Once the leaves are in, pipe a smaller round circle - the eggs and bunny will sit inside here.

This is how your make the bunny! You will need: yellow royal icing / golden marzipan, white icing / white marzipan and melted chocolate.

Place bunny on top and ta da! You are done. Of course you can mix and match and customise the buttercream to whatever you want (add some Pimm's to it, perhaps?) but hopefully this gives you an idea if you plan on any Easter baking!

I'm entering my cake in to the Easter Bake & Make Competition over at The Pink Whisk (so cute and so pink!) in conjunction with Two Little Fleas. Wish me luck!

Have a great week!

Easter bunny frosted cake (orange, lemon and Pimm’s cake) Serves about 15 Takes: a while! For the sponge cake 225g / 8oz butter 170g / 6oz caster sugar 4 eggs, beaten 225g /8oz self-raising flour Fined grated zest 1 orange and 1 lemon 50ml (that's one shot glass full!) Pimm’s (optional) For the buttercream icing 450g / 16oz softened butter 1kg / 2 lbs icing sugar For the bunny and leaves About a handful of yellow royal icing / golden marzipan Thumb sized piece of white royal icing / white marzipan 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate (for the eyes and whiskers) Green royal icing To decorate Wafer daises Other small decorations, I used tiny butterflies (made from icing) Mini-eggs Two 20" round cake pans Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Grease and line with cake pans with greaseproof paper and butter.  In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in the beaten egg. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently stir till smooth, then stir in the orange and lemon zest. Stir in the 50ml Pimm’s, then pour the mixture into the prepared  pans. Put into the oven and cake for about 20-25mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Whilst you’re waiting for the cake to bake, take the juice of your orange and lemon and stir it into the remaining Pimm’s. Make the buttercream - put the butter and icing sugar in a big bowl and beat until smooth (an electric whisk is a godsend here). Cover with clingfilm and leave to one side - you won't need it until the cake it cool. Once your cake is baked, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen it, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Leave the cake to cool completely.  Once cool, sandwhich the cakes together with the buttercream icing (make sure the cake is cool otherwise the icing will melt!) and ice the sides thinly too. Once that has set (about 30 minutes), you can begin decorating! First I iced the top with another layer of buttercream. Then I spread the remainder of the buttercream icing around the sides an ran a ribbed stencil along it to create a ribbed effect. Then I piped swirly things around the top. Before  the buttercream sets, you can stick in things like wafer daises and flowers and butterflies or anything else you fancy. Make the bunny (see purple diagram above) and leaves and sit on top of the cake with the mini-eggs. You are done! Treat yourself to a mini-egg.