This easy tutorial will show you how to make bunny ears out of modeling chocolate for a cute and fun Easter cupcake topper.
When I originally made Bunny Ears Cupcakes a couple of years ago, I meant to write this How to Make Easter Bunny Ears for Cupcakes tutorial at the same time. It didn't happen. Then it didn't happen again last year and it almost didn't happen again this year.
Between my husband's crazy work schedule and my over-booked cake schedule plus kitchen remodeling, church events, and all the other "stuff" that comes with homeschooling 6 kids... I just feel like I haven't sat down for 3 weeks.
But I'm here now and although it may be too late for most of you, I'm going to share!
These little ears are ridiculously easy to make and are super cute! When I first made them back in 2012, I used homemade marshmallow fondant (with a little tylose kneaded in) but let me tell you - the best way to make them is the way I'm about to show you... with modeling chocolate!
Are you ready? Please note that I had no idea what I was doing when I took this "what you need" picture because I don't use half of it and I use a few things that aren't here at all... but nevertheless... here are the tools you'll need, sort of:
Supplies
- White & Pink Modeling Chocolate or Candy Clay (see how to make it in this Craftsy class or here)
- Small Rolling Pin
- Lily Petal Cutters (from this set) or football shaped cutters (shown)... or get creative with what you have!
- Shortening and a mat to roll out your chocolate on
- Plate and/or cookie sheet for your chocolate to set on if it gets warm
- Xacto knife or disposable scalpel (not shown, but scalpels are my new favorite cutting tool of choice!)
Okay.... these are gonna take about 2 minutes to make, so let me show you....
How to Make Bunny Ears Cupcakes
First, roll out the white modeling chocolate on a smooth surface. I coated a cutting board with a thin layer of shortening first so it wouldn't stick!
Use the Wide Lily Cutter from the Wilton Gum Paste Flowers set to make the cut outs.
Roll out the pink chocolate (I colored my modeling chocolate with Americolor Electric Pink). Use the Narrow Lily Cutter (from the same Wilton set) to cut out the "insides" of the ears.
You can see there that I was also doing some with the football cutters but I chose some that were way too big and they looked cra-ZEE so I didn't put those in the tutorial!
Lay the pink over the white... with it offset enough that it looks like bunny ears. The pink will hang off the bottom, but we'll fix that here:
Just trim off the excess at the bottom... this part will be stuck into the frosting on the cupcakes, so it doesn't have to be perfect.
Use your fingers to curl some of the ears down. I like to have some floppy-eared bunnies and some not - so mix them up!
I have hot hands so I can't handle modeling chocolate a lot without it getting too soft. If your hands and/or the room you're working in are very cool, the ears will stay put without any problem. Because of my hot hands, I use the lip of a cookie sheet to keep mine curled until they cool off again.
After just a couple of minutes, I took them off the cookie sheet and they were set!! How AWESOME is that!!?! SO much faster than waiting on fondant or gum paste to dry/harden!!
And then... here's the easy part:
Add the Bunny Ears to Cupcakes
Stick the ears into a white frosted cupcake! This was cream cheese frosting... I wish I had used vanilla buttercream so it wouldn't have had that yellow tint next to the white ears and cupcake liners... oh well!
Easy Peasy!! See some of my other most favorite Easter treats here.
If I forgot something and/or you have any other questions, leave them in the comments!! Happy Caking!
nicole
is there a way to make this without fondant? If so please email me.
Rose Atwater
Modeling Chocolate would work 🙂
Paula
How much do you charge for cupcakes for a wedding?
Rose
My minimum for cupcakes is $20/dozen. The can be more depending on design, flavor, etc.