[1] A simple Bundt or tube pan cake into a delightful Easter cake. While any chocolate bunny will do, you may be able to find one with “personality” (photos © Betty Crocker).

[2] Another easy Bundt or tube Easter cake: sprinkle with powdered sugar and fill the center with chocolate or malted milk eggs (photo © Freestocks).

[3] It’s easy to decorte with store-bought Easter eggs and shredded coconut. If you want to tint the coconut, here’s how (photo © Mackenzie Limited).

[4] If there are young children, an assemblage of Peeps rabbits or chicks will delight. Here’s the recipe for this “Easter garden” sheet cake (photo © Foody Schmoody Blog).

[5] You don’t have to be good at icing or frosting to make a naked cake like this one or the one below. The “rustic” look is just fine (photo © Good Eggs).

[6] Just two layers, some frosting, and some decorations (photo © Cutter & Squidge).

Here’s an easy Easter cake for people who don’t have the time or the gift to create an elaborate one. This Easter Bunny Bundt is simple, and can even be a lesson in baking for kids (and adults) just starting out. Make it in a tube pan if you don’t have a Bundt*.

You don’t need to know how to ice a cake (the drippy icing in photo #1 doesn’t require skill with an icing spatula).

You don’t need to know how to use a piping bag.

You just need to know how to mix flour and sugar, or buy a boxed mix.
 
 
DECORATIONS FOR YOUR EASTER CAKE

Before we get to the recipe, here’s a tip for people who don’t even want to turn on the oven.

Just buy an iced cake, and decorate it yourself with your choice of:

 
 
RECIPE: EASTER BUNNY BUNDT

This dark, moist chocolate cake from Betty Crocker tastes like it took hours to make, but it’s ready in just about an hour.

While it’s easy to use fresh mint sprigs to add a green touch, we tinted shredded white coconut bright green. Here’s how to color the coconut.

Prep time is 30 minutes, total time is 3 hours 20 minutes.

Ingredients

For The Cake

 
For The Icing

 
For The Decorations

 
Preparation

1. HEAT Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Generously spray 12-cup fluted tube or Bundt cake pan with baking spray with flour. Sprinkle with cocoa to coat pans; tap to remove excess cocoa.

2. BEAT the cake mix, eggs, butter, and water in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed, for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Stir in the chocolate.

3. SPOON the batter into the pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

4. PLACE a cooling rack or heatproof serving plate upside down over the pan; turn the rack and pan over. Remove pan. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

TIP: Once the cake is cool enough to tip out of the pan, you can speed the cooling process by placing it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

5. MAKE the icing. Beat the powdered sugar, corn syrup, cream, and peppermint extract on low speed in a medium bowl, until blended. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add just enough milk to the icing to make it thin enough to stick to a spoon, dripping off of the spoon slowly when tipped down toward the bowl.

6. SPREAD the icing onto the cooled cake with a spatula. Place a bunch of mint sprigs in the center of the cake. Decorate: Press one chocolate bunny onto opposite sides of the cake. Press malted milk eggs around the bottom border of the cake. (Instead of mint sprigs, we sprinkled coconut around the top rim of the cake.)

TIP: To get that beautiful icing drip, make sure you test your icing for the perfect consistency by placing a small spoonful on top of the cake, then waiting to see if it will gently flow down the side of the cake after a minute or so.

If it stays on top of the cake, thin the icing slightly with a bit of milk.

If it runs down the sides of the cake in puddles at the bottom of your plate, add powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the icing mixture to thicken it up.
 
 
MORE TO DISCOVER
 
> The history of cake and the different types of cake.
 
> The difference between icing and frosting.

*Why is Bundt capitalized? Bundt refers to the pan or the cake baked in it. The name is derived from the German word Bund, which means turban. All German nouns are capitalized, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bundt should be capitalized in English as well.