READY IN 4+ hrs

Aunt Mary's Delicious Bunny Cake

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"This cake is great to make in character pans such as a Santa Claus, train pan, or bunny mold. Buttercream frosting is great but you can use other frostings if desired. Color your frosting with desired shade of food coloring." — Dabney

Directions

Place a rack into the lower third of oven.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Grease and flour a cake mold pan (such as a bunny cake or train cake mold) using vegetable shortening.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Mix 1 1/3 cup milk, lemon extract, 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, and orange extract in a separate bowl.
Beat unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until butter is creamy and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in white sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 more minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating each egg in thoroughly before adding the next.
Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture in several additions, alternating with milk mixture; begin and end with flour mixture. Do not overbeat. Scrape bowl occasionally.
Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, 30 to 45 minutes.
Place cake in pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes before inverting pan to remove cake. Allow cake to completely cool on wire rack, 3 to 4 hours.
Beat vegetable shortening, 1/2 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract in a bowl until frosting is smooth and creamy.
Pack the frosting into a heavy resealable plastic bag; force the frosting into one corner of the bag. Clip a small corner off the plastic bag, seal the bag, and pipe the frosting onto the cooled cake in desired pattern.

Kitchen-Friendly View

PREP 45 mins
COOK 30 mins
READY IN 4 hrs 30 mins

Footnotes

Cook's Note:
For fondant style icing, bake cake in a round cake pan slightly smaller than a springform pan. Fit fondant inside of springform pan. You can put a layer of wax paper on the inside round portion. Place cooled cake into springform pan inside frosting and put in freezer. Take out of freezer and use a hair dryer to melt the icing onto the cake. It may start to leak out - this is okay, I think. Keep drying and then take springform pan off. You should have a smooth layer of icing.