This Easter, no young vegans should be left out, so here’s some fun easter bunny creations to make for the kids: Easter bunny carrot cake muffins! You can adult them by omitting the bunny face, but where’s the fun in that!?
RECIPE:
Inspiration for this cruelty free creation came from the mini muffin recipe of @vivacharity and Ms. Cupcake.
Ingredients for 12 small or 8 large.
cake
- 200ml soya milk (1 cup)
- 20ml cider vinegar (4 tsp)
- 200g self raising flour (1¾ cups)
- 200g caster sugar (1 cup)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch of salt
- 80ml rapeseed oil
- 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- 2 small carrots, peeled and grated
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice
- 50g pecans or walnuts, finely chopped
icing
- 75g vegan margarine (Pure, Vitalite, dairy free Flora)
- 75g vegan shortening (Trex in the fridge with the margarines)
- 750g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- 1 tsp orange extract
- A little plant milk just for mixing (I normally use soya or oat)
decoration
Now here’s the fun bunnies I added to this vegan recipe.
- Dandies Mini Marshmallows (any flavour) (Online and most vegan shops, but other vegan marshmallows also work. Vegan Mallows can be found in Sainsbury’s)
- Panda original liquorice (Available lots of places, including Holland And Barrett)
METHOD:
cake
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C with fan or gas mark 4 and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
- Mix the soya milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to work its magic.
- In another large mixing bowl, stir together all your dry ingredients, then add your grated carrot, nut pieces and cinnamon.
- Add the soya and cider vinegar mix to the dry, followed by the oil and your two extracts.
- Stir everything with a metal spoon (Important!) and make sure not to over stir because this will activate the baking ingredients too much. Just stir until all is combined.
- Ms. Cupcake’s top tip is to tap the bowl on the work surface to prevent the raising agents working too quickly. You should see little bubbles popping in your mixture.
- Pour the mixture into the cases ¾ up to the top. Tap the tray again.
- Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven.
- Leave the muffins to cool before decorating.
icing
- Whisk together the margarine, vegetable shortening, vanilla and orange extracts.
- Add the icing sugar, a quarter at a time along with the plant milk until combined. Make sure to add the plant milk gradually in teaspoon amounts. Your icing wants to be stiff, so that it does not fall off of your spoon.
- You can make your icing stiffer by adding more icing sugar, or runnier by adding a little more plant milk, but we careful how much plant milk you add.
decoration
Now onto the fun part – the bunnies!
- Cut the top off of your muffins as you would making butterflies cakes.
- Cut the top in half, then shape your bunny ears.
- Now ice your muffins and stick on your bunny ears.
- Take a piece of liquorice and separate the strands of liquorice. You may have to slice them in half. Stick these to the muffin in the shape of whiskers and a mouth piece as shown in the image above.
- Take a smaller piece of liquorice and make little dots to form the eyes.
- Place a marshmallow in the middle of these for the bunny nose.
- If you’re feeling really creative, dab some icing sugar onto a marshmallow and attach it to the back of the muffin for a tail.
Ta-dah! Easter bunny mini muffins for all the vegan kids and grown-kids!
