Ravenous Rabbit Cupcakes are sure to delight this Easter.

Spring has come early here in Ohio. Over the weekend the sun shone brightly and warmed the air so that it was comfortable to be outside without a jacket. I did take some time to enjoy the great outdoors, but more of my time was spent in my kitchen. The next two months will be jam packed with blogging, chocolate making, and traveling, so I'm trying to get ahead and created 6 different Easter recipes. I couldn't wait to share this one with you. 

You will, over the next few weeks, notice a theme this Easter, as I've gotten a bit obsessed with bunny butts. Yep, I said bunny butts! Isn't the one on the cupcake just adorable? 

I am starting out with the most challenging of my Easter recipes. These cupcakes will each require quite a bit of time to hand sculpt the bunny and all those carrots. I'm not saying you should run screaming from this project, I just want you to be aware of the work involved before you decide to make these the night before you need them. Unless you, yourself are the Energizer bunny, you'll want to give yourself plenty of time to make all the modeling chocolate pieces, but the end result it so worth the effort.

Ravenous Rabbit Cupcakes (makes 12)

Before you begin, you will need to make 1 batch of white modeling chocolate. Click here for the recipe and directions on adding color, as well as, troubleshooting information. 

You'll need:

12 baked cupcakes

1 1/2 - 2 cups frosting

1 recipe white modeling chocolate (or use about 20 ounces white fondant)

orange, green, pink candy coloring

Wilton White Picket Fence Cupcake Wrappers
powdered sugar to dust work surface
corn syrup to glue the modeling chocolate pieces together (or use water)

Supplies needed:
 #12 round pastry tip and # 6 round pastry tips, optional
rolling pin, optional
fine tip paint brush (food only)
toothpick
knife
pastry bag and large round decorating tip, optional

Instructions:

Optional: Pinch off about two tablespoons of white modeling chocolate and color it light pink. Note: The pink candy coloring is vibrant, so use just a tiny amount of it to make your pink. Lightly dust work surface with powdered sugar. Roll out the pink modeling chocolate as thin as possible. Press the small end of the #6 round pastry tip into the clay, twist, then pull up. Continue doing this until you fill the pastry tip with small rounds of pink modeling chocolate. Turn it upside down and allow rounds to fall out. You'll need 72 tiny rounds. Do the same making 24 larger rounds using the #12 tip. 

Alternately: you could just pinch off very small amounts of the pink modeling chocolate and roll them into balls then flatten to make your circles. This will take more time, though.

Pinch off teaspoon size pieces of white modeling chocolate. Roll into balls, then flatten into an oblong shape creating 24 bunny feet. 

Dip a fine tip paint brush or toothpick into corn syrup. Brush onto the center of each foot. Press one pink round onto each foot. Brush three small dots of corn syrup around the edge of each foot and press on three tiny pink rounds. You can use water instead for this step. I think the corn syrup will hold the larger pieces in the next step a bit better than the water, though.

Pinch off 12 pieces of white modeling chocolate (a little less than a tablespoon) and roll them into balls for the bunny bodies. Pinch off 12 pea size pieces of white and roll them into balls for the tails.  Pinch off 24 slightly smaller pieces and roll into balls, then flatten on either side to make little legs. Brush the top of each large ball with a dab of corn syrup. Attach a tail. To make your tails look fuzzy, use a knife to jab at the ball pulling out little tufts of modeling chocolate all around it. Attach two legs with corn syrup then attach a foot on each leg.

Allow your bunnies to dry for a while before handling them.

Pinch off and color some modeling chocolate green. Color a large amount orange. Pinch off pea size pieces of orange and roll into balls. Then roll into carrot shapes. Pinch of tiny pieces of green and roll into very thin logs. Cut into 1/4" or so pieces. Use a toothpick to create a hole in each carrot. Dab a bit of corn syrup into each hole. Insert a green log into each carrot. Flatten and cut the green to look like leaves. Use a knife to make indentations across each carrot. You will need a lot of carrots to cover your 12 cupcakes. All of the carrots pictured above went onto one cupcake. You don't need green on each and every carrot, as you'll want to put some on your cupcake, upside down.

Wrap cupcakes with picket fence cupcake wrappers.  Frost cupcakes using a pastry bag and pastry tip or with a spoon. Set one rabbit in the center of the frosting. Surround the rabbit with lots of carrots.

Your cupcakes are ready to serve. Store in an airtight container for up to a few days.

If you like this idea, please share it with others by using the share buttons below. I really appreciate being Stumbled Upon and Pinned, and am always grateful to those of you that share my ideas on your website. I do request that you don't post my entire tutorial, but rather share a picture with a link. If you make this recipe, I'd love for you to send me a photo to beth@hungryhappenings.com so that I can share it in my Reader's Gallery. I link my recipes up to lots of websites that are listed here. Thank you for visiting Hungry Happenings - Beth 

Items used to create this project found on Amazon.com