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Hey everyone! Carrot cake is perfect for Easter Sunday for so many reasons. For one, bunnies are basically the mascot of Easter and bunnies love carrots. And also, carrot cake is a very springy dessert. All this make’s the perfect easter dessert. I wish I had the skill to make an entire easter bunny cake but I don’t. So let’s make easter bunny carrot cake cookies.
I did make a carrot cake roll last year along with a YouTube Video. And then I made sugar cookies later that year. Hey why not slap em together.
Let’s Break It down
Premade Options
You do not have to make this whole recipe from scratch. You can always use Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix and add the spices and carrot shreds.
And also what I used is Betty Crocker premade frosting.
Carrot Shreds
Carrot cake has carrot shreds in it. I know, crazy right? This entails peeling some carrots and then shredding them with a box grater. Check out the one that I use here. It’s great because it has multiple attachments.
The other option is to buy it already shredded from the store. The only downfall to this is it’s more expensive.
Once you grate your carrots, you will see that there is some water produced. You could ring out your carrot shreds or I just threw the carrot shreds into the dough, water and all and it worked out fine. It’s up to you.
How To Give These Easter Bunny Cake Cookies Tails
When thinking out how to do the bunny tails for these Easter bunny carrot cake cookies, I know that I wanted a tail that was raised above the main cookie. So just simple frosting or coconut flakes wasn’t gonna do it.
So after much testing and deliberation, what I landed on was tootsie rolls. Tootsie rolls are a stretchy, taffy-like, chocolate candy that I was able to roll into a ball when I heated them up for about 10 seconds in the microwave.
I then made a very simple cream cheese frosting to dip the ball in. Just a very thin coating. This was just to make the ball tacky so that the cocoanut flakes would stick.
Then, you guessed it. Just drop that ball into the coconut shreds and get those coated. I recommend shreds and not flakes because they look more like fur. These are the ones that I used, here . I then froze them until ready to assemble.
How To Form The Easter Bunny Cake Cookies
The one baking tool that I never have or always misplace is cookie cutters. So I developed a recipe for cookies that don’t need them. That way it’s not a problem.
So by the time your bunny tails and your frosting is finished, your dough has chilled for enough time.
Start by taking your dough and cutting it in half. Now, cut each half into 12 equal portions. I like to cut the half in half twice and then cut those pieces into 3 equal portions. In the end you will have 24 pieces.
Now, as for forming them. I think I’ll just show you.
So as you can see I just rolled the portion into a snake. Bent it in half, then twisted at the middle. Then I just twisted the 2 sides together, leaving a space to form each bunny ear.
Then they go in to bake for a cook time of 10 minutes at 350•.
Decorating The Easter Bunny Carrot Cake Cookies
Now, the fun and messy part. Making these cookies look like Easter bunnies. It’s all pretty simple.
I was going for a little bit of a “Peeps” feel here . So I used some sanding sugar. I used the colors green, pink, purple and blue but you should use any color you like.
You could also use colored frosting like pink frosting if you like. I just used white frosting. This is the sanding sugar that I used here. You could also use fondant or candy melt instead of the sugar.
You might be a little confused on how I attached the tail. I just took a little bit of the buttercream frosting that I used to frost the cookies and used that to attach the tail.
And that’s it! Leave me a comment for any questions that you might have and also let me know your favorite Easter treat. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , pinterest , twitter and snapchat to see what I’m up to next. Remember, don’t be afraid to “bake” a mess. And I’ll see you all next time. Happy Easter!
Easter Bunny Carrot Cake Cookies
Bunny shaped carrot cake cookies, frosted with cream cheese frosting, covered in sanding sugar and given a cotton ball tail.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 Cup of Shredded Carrot
- 1 Stick of Unsalted Butter
- 3/4 of a Cup of Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 1/4 of a Cup of Heavy Cream
- 1 Tsp of Vanilla Extract
- 2 Cups of AP Flour
- 1 Tsp of Cinnamon
- 1 Tsp of Ginger
- 1/2 Tsp of Nutmeg
- 1/4 Tsp of Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp of Salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8oz of Cream Cheese
- 1 Stick of Butter
- 2 Cups of Confectioners Sugar
Bunny Tails
- 24 Tootsie Rolls
- Shredded Coconut
- Cream Cheese Frosting
Decoration
- Sanding Sugar (assorted colors)
Instructions
Carrot Cake Sugar Cookie Dough
- Sift together the dry ingrediants: flour, baking powder,salt,cinnamon,dried ginger and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Peal and grate the carrots
- Place eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla extract into a smaller bowl and blend together. Set aside.
- Place the softened unsalted butter and the sugar into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Or you can use a hand mixer.
- Beat the butter and sugar until combined, light and fluffy.
- Add the heavy cream and egg mixture and beat until incorperated.
- Add the shredded carrot. Beat to incorporate.
- Add in the dry ingrediants little by little and fold them in until just incorperated.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until fully incorperated, light and fluffy.
- Add the confectioners sugar little by little and beat until incorperated.
- Add vanila extract,. Beat to incorperate.
Bunny Tails
- Unwrap the tootsie rolls and place them on a microwave safe plate. Prepare another plate for the finished bunny tails, and then one more plate of coconut shreds to roll the tails in.
- Microwave the tootsie rolls for 10 seconds to soften them.
- Roll each tootsie roll into a ball.
- Dunk each ball in the cream cheese frosting and get it coated.
- Roll the balls in the coconut shreds.
- Freeze the finihed cunny tails for about 20 minutes.
Making The Bunny Cookies
- Start by portioning the dough into 24 equal portions.
- Take one portion and roll it out into about a 6 inch snake.
- Take the snake and bend it in half.
- take the 2 ends and wrap them around each other twice.
- Take the excess dough left in the rope and form them into ovals with a pointed top.
- Repeat this for each cookie.
- Arrange them on a cookie sheet an inch apart.
- Place in the fridge for 2 minutes.
- Bake at 350• for about 10 minutes. or until golden rrown around the edges.
- Let cool completly..
Decoration
- Frost the top of each cookie.
- Sprinkle the desired color of isanding sugar all over the top.
- Apply a small amount of additional icing to attach the tail.
- Attach the tail. Wait for the icing to dry.
- Enjoy and refridgerate the excess.
If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below, message me on instagram, facebook or leave me an email.