Easter smiles are guaranteed!

Hatch some sweet Easter fun with our adorable baby chick cake—a cinch to make with cake mix, coconut, ready-to-spread frosting and candy!

CAKE 1 pkg. (15.25 oz.)

yellow cake mix

3 eggs 1 cup buttermilk 1/3 cup oil 1/2 tsp. coconut extract

1 pkg. (14 oz.) sweetened, flaked coconut

FROSTING

3 cans (16 oz. each) vanilla frosting

Neon pink and yellow liquid food coloring

DECORATION 6" cardboard cake circle

1 cup blue, 1/2 cup yellow and 2 Tbs. orange small jelly beans, such as Jelly Belly

7 circus peanuts candies 2 brown Mega M&M’S

4"-long piece red fruit leather or roll, such as Fruit by the Foot

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 1 (9") and 1 (8") round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper. On low speed, beat cake mix with eggs, buttermilk and oil 30 seconds; on medium, beat 2 minutes. With spoon, stir in coconut extract, then 1/2 cup flaked coconut. Transfer 3 cups batter to 9" pan and remaining batter to 8" pan; smooth tops. Bake 8" cake 23-28 minutes and 9" cake 32-35 minutes or until lightly golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on racks. Transfer from pans to racks; cool completely. Freeze 9" cake 30 minutes to firm up before cutting.

STEP 1

● Place 9" cake on surface. Using small knife, starting about 1/3 down from top on side of cake, cut zigzag across cake, as shown;

smaller top cake piece should be about 7" across and no more than 3 1/2" tall at the deepest point. Remove smaller top cake piece; cut in half for wings. Larger piece will be used for cracked egg. Return wings to refrigerator.

STEP 2

● Tint 1 1/4 cups frosting pink with food coloring; transfer to microwave-safe measuring cup and reserve. Spread generous amount of remaining frosting over larger cake piece, making as smooth as possible. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. Line rimmed baking sheet with wax paper; top with rack. Place chilled cake on rack. Microwave reserved pink

frosting on High in 5-second intervals, stirring, until frosting is texture of slightly whipped cream, about 15 seconds. Pour pink frosting over cake, as shown, to cover completely. Refrigerate until frosting is set, about 15 minutes. Using wide spatula, transfer cake to large serving platter, preferably oval.

STEP 3

● For head, crumble 8" cake into large bowl. Stir in 1 cup coconut, as shown, then 1 cup of remaining white frosting until well combined. Spread mixture over cardboard circle, patting into mound about 1 1/2" thick in center. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.

STEP 4

● Tint remaining coconut yellow with food coloring. Spread head and wings with

remaining white frosting to cover. Press most of yellow coconut onto frosting to cover head and wings completely, as shown. Reserve remaining coconut. Arrange head just slightly above zigzag edge of egg cake on serving platter. Place wings just below each side of head. Fill in gaps between head and egg with reserved coconut to make chick’s body. Decorate egg with jelly beans.

STEP 5 ●

For feet, trim upper right-hand corners from 2 circus peanuts, as shown top left; reserve. Trim upper left-hand corners from 2 of remaining circus peanuts; reserve. Trim both top corners from 2 of remaining circus peanuts, as shown top center. For each foot attach 1 singletrimmed peanut on each side of doubletrimmed peanut and press together, as shown top right. Place feet at bottom of cake on platter. For beak, place remaining peanut on its side; on the diagonal, cut lengthwise in half, as shown bottom left. Turn thicker piece around and place wide ends together; narrow open ends are front of beak, as shown bottom right. Press into head. For eyes, attach M&M’S. For comb, cut fruit leather in half; cut a “V” from one short end of each piece. Insert into top of head. Makes 16 servings.