Bunny Cake

I am very sorry it has been so long since my last blog!  It's been crazy with the kids off school and then I was in Delray Beach, FL for my nephew's Christening.  Took lots of pictures, ate lots of wonderful food and drank lots of good wine.  Planned on blogging all about it when I got back but then that funny thing called life got in the way.

Anyhow, since Easter is this weekend and I have mentioned this cake to a few people, I thought I would post this entry first. 

I am not going to get all preachy about making the cake and frosting from scratch.  For those of us cooking/baking this weekend, keep it as simple as possible.  If you want to use your own recipe, go for it - all the better.  If not, have Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines on standby. 

So - basically, mix up your cake mix and divide it into two greased 9 inch round cake pans.  (I cannot emphasize grease your pans enough.  As you will see from the following pictures, my cakes stuck.)  Bake according to your recipe and let cool completely.

Here comes the fun part.

Keep one round cake as is and in tact.  The second cake you will cut like so:

You want to cut two oval-ish ears and then the middle part is used as a bow tie.

Then, on a large platter, put your bunny together.  Like so:

Then, frost Mr. Bunny's head and ears white. You will need one can or the equivalent for the head and ears. 

The second can of frosting I divided and dyed 2/3 purple and 1/3 pink. 

The purple is for the bow tie and the pink is for his ears and to decorate his bow tie. Jelly beans were used for his eyes and nose and the whiskers are red licorice - Twizzlers pull and peel to be exact. (By the way, if you end up making this and are in my area, please call me.  I have an entire pack of licorice to spare.)  

Here is my finished product:

Ain't he cute?

Couple of side notes here:

First off - get creative!  If you don't have jelly beans, you can use icing or another type of candy for his eyes and nose.  Decorate his bow tie however you like.  If you don't want a bow tie on your bunny, leave it off and you'll have something to snack on while you decorate his head.  A really fun thing to do is after frosting, cover his head and ears with coconut.  Then, your bunny will look fluffy - it's very cool.

When you are coloring or dyeing the icing, I like to use the Wilton food coloring.  They come in small little jars and are great to work with.  They have the consistency of a thick gel and you only need a tiny bit to get the color you want.  This is what the jars look like:

The reason I like these, is because they add very little liquid and they do not thin out your frosting like some of the other liquid food colorings do.  Again - if you are in my area - give me a holla and I'd be glad to loan them out. I've got a rainbow of colors!

So, that's it!  The infamous bunny cake I grew up with!  Simple, festive and a fun tradition.  I know it wouldn't be Easter in my house without him.  Although - it will be this Easter since Mr. Bunny is already missing both of his ears.  What is it about those bunny ears that are so yummy?!

Have a wonderful holiday and I promise to write again soon!





Easy Hot Artichoke Dip

I had some friends over last week and had the whole menu planned out – mushroom quiches, mustard and thyme baked brie, white & red sangria, cake pops (more on that later) etc.  Then I realized – wait a minute – there’s no dip!

See – when us ladies get together – we gotta have us some dip.

I went into the overstocked pantry closet looking for some inspiration.  A  can of artichokes caught my eye – actually, they kind of fell off the shelf and almost hit my foot - but, nonetheless...

So, I threw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that and an artichoke dip was born.  Brings a tear to my eye. I'm such a proud Momma.

The girls asked me for the recipe and I told them I just kind of winged it, threw in some cheese, mayo, etc.  They stared blankly so I told them I promised I would forward the recipe. 

Since I wanted to get all my measurements and whatnot correct, I suffered through and made the dip again for Mike on Saturday afternoon.  Poor guy - such a tough time he has testing all my recipes.

Uh, yeah.

Anyway....

Here is what you need:

1 can artichoke hearts

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

¼ cup Provolone cheese, shredded

¼ cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 large clove or 2 small cloves minced garlic

Salt & Pepper to taste

4 dashes your choice of hot sauce

Here is what you do:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Drain the artichokes and chop them finely.  Or chop them chunky – they are your artichokes and it’s your dip so cut them to whatever consistency you like.

In medium bowl, mix together mayo, shredded cheeses (reserve about a Tablespoon of Parmesan to sprinkle over the top of the dip), minced garlic and salt and pepper.  I added 4 dashes of Tabasco – if you like it spicier – add some more.  If you don’t like it spicy – leave it out.  Your choice.

Toss in artichokes.  Pour the dip into an oven safe casserole dish like I have pictured below and sprinkel the reserved Parmesan cheese over the top.

Or, you can bake the dip in a hollowed out beer bread or large round bread – like a sourdough or pumpernickel loaf.   I did this for the party.  Unfortunately, we housed the whole thing before I could get a picture!

Bake the dip in the 375 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes or until it is heated through and bubbly around the edges. 

Look at that creamy, cheesy goodness.  Luscious and sexy - as any dip should be.

With this dip, feel free to get creative.  You can add some chopped scallions or onion if you’d like.  You can also squeeze a bit of lemon juice in  to give it a little fresh acidity.  You can substitute any number of cheeses.  Remember – make it your own and add what you like.

Oh, and I wanted to give a big thank you to Caron for the wine.  She knows I like my cute labels!

That guy has a lot of guts - not only is he running with scissors, but he's doing it naked.  I love it!

Go buy the wine, make the artichoke dip, have a fabulous night.  But please, do not run with the bottle - you might spill some.  And that, truly, would be a tragedy.