DIY Rabbit Cake for “New Girl” Theme Party

Jessica Day’s cell phone is so darn cute you just want to eat it up. Well, NOW YOU CAN.

Here is a cake I made for my friend’s New Girl themed birthday party. If you’re a fan of the show, you may recall Jessica Day’s infamous rabbitty cell phone:

Here’s what it takes to make this fun and scrumptious dessert.

Ingredients

Cake ingredients

• Two boxes Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix or other similar brand (you will make 2 cakes)
• Ingredients listed on back of cake mix box. This may include:
  • 1 ¼ cups water (per cake)
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil (per cake)
  • 3 large eggs (per cake)
  • butter and flour (for greasing and dusting the pans)

Frosting

I recommend using a whipped frosting such as Duncan Hines whipped cream cheese frosting or whipped vanilla frosting. I found that the sugar icing I made for the cake in the photos was far too liquid to hold its shape, and required multiple layers to create a smooth surface. The creamy homestyle frosting I used as a backup grabbed at the cake too much, tearing it apart as I applied the frosting. Whipped icing is definitely the way to go.

• 2 containers whipped frosting (about 24 oz. total)
• Wilton red icing color (not food dye) for a deep red hue (I used food dye and got a pink cake, as seen in the photos!)
• A tube of decorating icing with a tip for piping in the details. I used purple Wilton icing.

Materials & Tools

• mixer
• 40″ x 60″ foam board ($1 at your local dollar store)
• wax paper
• X-Acto blade to cut foam board
• cutting knife
• icing spatula
• serrated bread knife
• 8″ x 8″ baking pan
• 13″ x 9″ baking pan
• mixing bowls

 

How to Make It

Step 1 – Bake the cakes

Grease both baking pans with butter and dust with flour to keep the cakes from sticking to the pans.

Using one cake mix, prepare the mixture and bake in the 13″ x 9″ baking pan according to the ingredients and box instructions (use these instructions for Duncan Hines mix). This will be the body of the rabbit cake.

Using the other cake mix, prepare the mixture and pour about half of it into the 8″ x 8″ baking pan. Bake according to the box instructions. This will be used for the rabbit ears. You only need half the recipe to create the rabbit ears, so you can use the remaining mix to make 12 cupcakes or another 8″ x 8″ cake.

Let the cakes cool in the pans.

 

Step 2 – Prep the cake board

Use an X-Acto blade to cut the foam board down to 30″ x 60″.  Place a long sheet of wax paper on the foam board, and place the 13×9 cake on top of it. To get the cake out of the pan without dropping or breaking it, I found it easiest to first place a wire rack over the entire top of the cake, and then flip it upside down while holding the rack and pan against each other to catch the cake. With the cake now upside-down on the rack, place the wax paper and foam board over the top, and then flip it upside down again so that it lands on the wax paper against the foam board. Use the same technique to get the 8×8 cake out of the cake pan, and place it onto its own sheet of wax paper on top of the cake board.

 

Step 3 – Prep the cake pieces

Use a serrated bread knife to slice off the top of the cakes until they are level and not rounded.

 

Use a cutting knife to cut ear shapes into the 8×8 cake.

 

Each ear will use about one third of the cake. I free-form cut my ear pieces but you can use this outline as a guide.

Arrange the ears next to the body of the cake so that it looks like this:

 

Step 4 – Add the frosting

Add white frosting to the center of the cake, leaving about a 1½ inch border of cake without frosting.

Add the red icing dye Ice the rest of the cake

Mix red icing color (not food dye) into the rest of the icing until you get that deep red you’re looking for. (I used food dye instead of icing color, and as you can see, my icing turned out more pink than red.) Spread the red icing over the remainder of the cake.

Use another color of icing (I used purple) to pipe in a border around the white portion, and personalize it however you want!

 

Step 5 – Have a Happy Birthday!

And of course, no New Girl theme party would be complete without some wise words from Nick.

 

Advertisement