Bunny Rolls... Check Out My Buns-ies

I just had to share these cute bunny rolls that I made for Easter dinner.  Everyone loved them they were a huge hit.  The dough recipe is from a previous post by my sister, Lynn, and since the recipe has been pinned over 250,000 times why use another?  She calls it Best Rolls Ever. 

Now, I can't claim that I came up with the bunny design all on my own.  Nope that's what Pinterest and Google are for.  Bunny design came from Taste of Home.

Though the design and a different recipe is used at Taste of Home they didn't have pictures of step by step instructions which I will include here.

After you make Best Rolls Ever recipe you will need to let your dough rest for 30-60 minutes. Punch down your dough and with a rolling pin roll out your dough to at least 20 inches long one way (see picture below). Using a pizza cutter you will cut horizontal 1/2 inch strips.  Then cut the strips vertically 10 inches, 5 inches, two 2 inches, and then one inch.  Body, head, 2 ears, and tail.

You can see from the picture below that I formed the 10 inch strip into the body, 5 inch for head, two 2 inch strips for ears, and then 1 inch for cotton tail.

Let rise for 15-30 minutes.

 

 Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Oh YUMMY!

The Easter bunny was pleased too.

Okay okay we didn't give any to the Easter bunny but if we did I'm sure he would approve.

 Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcakes always look so beautiful when you add a lot of height to them.  However, I'm not a huge fan of a ton of frosting.  To solve my dilemma,  I came up with the simple idea that you can have a little bit of frosting but then pile it high with flavored whipped cream.  You get the gorgeous look while keeping it light and airy.  These started out as an experiment but have been a HUGE hit with friends and family so I love to make them for special occasions.

If you have a chocolate cake recipe that you already like, feel free to use it.  I used to use box mixes for this but I recently fell in love with a recipe from my friend Ali's cookbook called "When Life Gives You a Chocolate Craving".  She has given me permission to post it here for all you fine folks.  Enjoy!

Ingredients for the batter:

1 c water

1 c butter

6 Tbsp cocoa

2 c flour

2 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp basking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c sour cream

Directions for the batter:
Boil the water, butter and cocoa in a small saucepan.  In a large bowl, layer the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Pour the sugar on top of the flour mixture.  Pour the boiling mixture on top of the sugar (this creates a fudge-like reaction as the two combine).  Add eggs and sour cream and mix until all ingredients are combined.

Other ingredients:
8.5 oz bag Andes Creme de Menthe Thins
1 recipe chocolate frosting (or buy premade from the store)
1 c heavy whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp pure mint extract
green food coloring

Other directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare your cupcake pan with paper cupcake liners, then fill the liners with cake batter to about 2/3 full.  Cut 24 Andes mints in half (widthwise), and push both mint halves down into the center of each cupcake.  Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes.  Once they've cooled, top them with a layer of chocolate frosting.  Use a star tip to pipe a pretty swirl.  In a chilled bowl, beat together the whipping cream, sugar, and pure mint extract.  Add a few drops of green food coloring to give it a minty color.  Put the flavored whipped cream in a piping bag already prepped with a large star tip.  Pipe the whipped cream on top of the chocolate frosting and top it off with a whole Andes Mint.