The Free-Range Butter Company

Ingredients

For the sponge cakes:

• 125g/4oz soft margarine
• 125g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 125g/4oz self-raising flour
• 2 tbsp raspberry or strawberry jam
• 1x13cm/5in bought, round Victoria Sponge cake
• 4 bought Madeleine cakes
• 4 sponge finger biscuits

For the yellow butter icing:

• 150g/6oz ANCHOR Butter
• 300g/10½oz sifted icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• A few drops yellow food colouring
• 150g/5oz desiccated coconut

For the decoration:

• 700g/1lb 8oz ready-to-roll white icing
• Green food colouring (liquid or paste)
• Orange food colouring (liquid or paste)
• Sugar flowers
• 1 white marshmallow
• 1 liquorice cartwheel
• 2 round white Mint Imperials
• 1 tube red writing icing
• 1 brown Smartie
• 2 mini white marshmallows
• a few strands of uncooked spaghetti
• 2 small fluffy Easter chicks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
2. To make the 20cm/8in sponge cake: cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding 1 tbsp of flour with the second egg.
4. Add the vanilla essence and fold in the remaining flour.
5. Line and grease a 20cm/8in sandwich tin and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until golden.
7. Allow the cake to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.
8. To make the yellow icing: beat the butter with half the sugar in a bowl until smooth, add the remaining icing sugar with the milk and 2–3 drops of the yellow colouring. Beat until creamy.
9. Colour the desiccated coconut using 3–4 drops of the yellow food colouring, stirring until the coconut is evenly coated.
10. Cut the 20cm/8in cake in half and sandwich together with a little of the yellow butter icing on one half and the jam on the other. Stand the cake upright with the rounded side up to form a tall semi-circle.
11. Cut the 13cm/5in bought Victoria Sponge cake in half, using one half to form a tall semi-circle. Stand upright, with the rounded side up, and cut one end off at a slant so it fits the larger cake to form the bunny’s head.
12. Coat both the cakes with the yellow icing and sprinkle all over with the desiccated coconut, pressing it lightly onto the icing.
13. To make the ears, coat two of the Madeleines with yellow icing and sprinkle with the coconut, pressing it in evenly. Combine a Madeleine with half a sponge finger to make each of the back haunches, and use two sponge fingers, with one end cut at a slant, to make the front legs. Cover all of these with yellow icing and the coconut.
14. Colour 600g/1lb 5oz of the ready-to-roll icing green by kneading in some green food colouring. Roll out the icing to cover the cake board and trim the edges.
15. Colour the remaining icing orange and mould to form a carrot, using the off-cuts of the green icing for the leafy carrot top.
16. To assemble the cake: place the body and head of the rabbit in the centre of the board. Attach the ears to the head using cocktail sticks stuck halfway up each ear.
17. Place the front and back legs in position and attach using a little of the yellow icing.
18. Add a Smartie for the nose, two mini marshmallows for the teeth and spaghetti for the whiskers.
19. Attach the white mints for the eyes and add a blob of red writing icing in the centre for the pupils. Make eyelashes using 1 cm strips of liquorice, cut in half again. Add the marshmallow for the tail.
20. To finish, place the carrot in front of the rabbit and decorate the board with a few sugar flowers and the little Easter chicks.

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