Carrot Cake Bunnies

I recently discovered Ferrero Raffaellos. For some reason they never appealed to me when I've seen them, but I happened to finally try one on the recommendation of someone else, and, like, what the heck?! How have been missing out on these my whole life?! Now, if you don't like coconut, you won't like these, but if you do like coconut get ready to have your mind blown. So good! So good!

Okay, so obviously after my Raffaello awakening I knew I had to incorporate them into something. Easter is surprisingly close so I thought little bunny cakes with little Raffaello tails would be just the thing.

These were so easy to make! I whipped up a batch of carrot cake bars. This carrot cake bar has  the consistency of cake, fluffy and delicious. To make these even easier, you could use a carrot cake mix. I topped it with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, cut them out into little bunnies and added little Raffaellos onto their little bunny butts.

Voila! So adorable.

CARROT BAR INGREDIENTS

makes 18 bunnies
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups butter, melted and cooled
8 ounces baby food carrots, or pureed carrots, strained (~4.5 ounces strained)
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
18 Ferrero Raffaellos

CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INGREDIENTS

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cups (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

CARROT BAR INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two 9" x 13" cake pans with parchment paper. 

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs. Add in melted butter and strained carrot. Add in sugar and continue mixing until incorporated.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated. 

Divide up the batter into the two prepared pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, switching the pans halfway through baking.

Let cool in pans for 15 minutes and then take out and let continue cooling on a cooling rack. Meanwhile, make frosting (recipe below).

Once completely cooled, using an offset spatula frost the top of the carrot bars. Make sure the frosting is evenly distributed and as smooth as you can get it. You want to take your cookie cutter and make sure your bars with the frosting are shorter than it. You have to be able to hold the edges without digging your fingers into the frosting when cutting out the bunnies.

Cut out your bunnies with the bunny cookie cutter. Then take the Ferrero Raffaellos and place one each onto the bottom of each bunny.

CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INSTRUCTIONS

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.

In a large bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cinnamon. Add to cream cheese-butter mixture and continue mixing until light and fluffy.

Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.