the bunny cake

I'm the designated pastry chef in the family. As such, I usually get assigned the dessert for major holidays and this holiday, Peter and Suzanne really threw down the gauntlet - a bunny-shaped cake. At first look, it seemed pretty straight-forward. After all I have hosted nearly 10 cookie decorating parties in the past 5 years, so I must know my way around icing tips right?! 

I sure am glad I took Suzanne's advice and made a test-run cake first because there proved to be challenges: baking strategy (had to fill the pan to the rim and trim the top to get a clean middle seam), the assembly (let cool for 2 hours, glue together with icing, refrigerate for 2 more hours), and finally icing the basket (in theory criss-cross weave should be easy, it's not though).

One test bunny and three days later (about 15 hours of labor all told) the final product was complete. The best comment I received at easter brunch was, "I never though people actually MADE the cakes from the molds at Williams Sonoma..." - I guess I'm proof positive people do!