It’s easy to make cute little bunny cupcakes for Easter! These chocolate cupcakes are frosted with dairy free buttercream icing and topped with eyes, ears, and a little pink nose. These treats are gluten free and vegan, so everyone can enjoy them.
My kids are still at the age where they like a festive dessert for the holidays.
They’re big fans of gingerbread men for Christmas and heart cookies for Valentine’s Day.
We’ve often made bunny sugar cookies for Easter, but this year I wanted to make some cute little bunny cupcakes, too.
These are so easy to make, and so delicious! I used my usual chocolate cupcake recipe with vanilla buttercream frosting, and they turned out perfectly. Enjoy Life makes white chocolate chips, and those worked well for making the bunny ears.
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan Buttery Spread – I use Earth Balance Soy Free Vegan Buttery Spread. You can most likely use a different brand, although I haven’t tried that. For the cupcake batter, you could use coconut oil or canola oil. For the frosting, you could use palm shortening.
- Dairy Free White Chocolate Chips – I used Enjoy Life white chocolate chips, and they worked really well for making the bunny ears. PASCHA also makes dairy free white chocolate, although it has more of a cream tint to it, so the color of the ears will be different.
- Applesauce – Unsweetened applesauce works well as an egg replacer in this recipe. You could also use dairy free yogurt or a mashed banana instead. If you can eat eggs, you can use one real egg in this recipe.
- Jelly Beans – I used Surf Sweets jelly beans, but any brand of jelly bean that works for your needs would be fine. You could use any pink or red round candy for the nose, like Choco No-No’s, Smarties, or Giggles.
Special Equipment
You really don’t need any special equipment to make these bunny cupcakes! We like to keep things as simple as possible around here.
I do like to use parchment paper cupcake liners when baking gluten free cupcakes because they don’t stick to the cupcakes. But you can use any type of cupcake liner you like.
The bunny ears are made by simply spooning melted white chocolate onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet, and using the tip of the spoon to make a teardrop shape. It’s quick and easy to make these little ears.
Storage
Store these cupcakes in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for about 3 days. If you want to make the cupcakes ahead of time, you could make the cupcakes and freeze them before frosting and decorating. Then just thaw them out when you’re ready to frost and decorate them.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Recipe
Easter Bunny Cupcakes (Gluten Free, Vegan).
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 ½ cups gluten free flour blend
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- â…“ cup vegan buttery spread melted – or you can use canola oil or coconut oil
- â…” cup water
- 3 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
For the frosting:
- ¼ cup vegan buttery spread
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water or non-dairy milk
For the bunny faces:
- â…” cup dairy free white chocolate chips
- 14 jelly beans
- 1 Tablespoon mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Make the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with parchment paper cupcake liners. This recipe makes 14 cupcakes, so you can either use two cupcake pans, or make the last two cupcakes after the first batch is done.
- Measure â…“ cup of vegan buttery spread and put it in a small bowl. Microwave for about 20 seconds until it is melted. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the melted vegan buttery spread, water, applesauce, vanilla extract, and vinegar, and mix until smooth and combined. (You can use a mixer, or just do it by hand. Either way works).Â
- If the batter seems too thick or dry, add more liquid. Some gluten free flours really soak up the liquid, so adjust the amount if needed.
- Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about â…” full.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 19-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool.
- Repeat with remaining batter (you will have enough for 2 or 3 more cupcakes).
Make the bunny ears:
- Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.
- Place the dairy free white chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, then stir. Microwave in 10 second intervals until melted. Be careful with this step. I find that dairy free white chocolate burns really easily.
- Take a small spoon, and spoon a small dollop of melted white chocolate on the waxed paper. Use the tip of the spoon to pull the chocolate down, so it makes an upside down teardrop.
- Repeat this process until you have 28 ears. Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to allow the ears to firm up.
Make the frosting:
- Cream the vegan buttery spread in a large bowl. Add some of the powdered sugar and continue to mix on low speed.
- Alternate adding the sugar water or non-dairy milk until the desired consistency is reached. The frosting should be thick but spreadable.
Assemble the cupcakes:
- Frost the cooled cupcakes using an offset spatula or a knife.
- Press two ears into each cupcake. Add two mini chocolate chips for eyes, and one pink jelly bean for the nose. Enjoy!
Darryl
We love cupcakes at our house. These are so cute!