Easter Bunny Cupcakes (GF)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (fan).
2. If you have a stand mixer, simply place all the cake ingredients in the mixer bowl and whizz until you have a smooth cake mix. Not to worry if, like me, you don't have one – this gluten free cupcake recipe can be made just as well using human power! In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until smooth. Then add the eggs one at a time, combining well after each. Finally, sift in the flour, baking powder and xanthan gum and mix for a few minutes until everything is perfectly smooth.
3. Line a cupcake or muffin tray with cupcake cases. For these Easter bunny cupcakes, some pretty Easter themed or green-coloured cases would be perfect, but any design is fine.
4. Divide the gluten free cupcake mixture between the cases, so that each is filled to about 2/3 of the way up the case. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until your cake tester comes out clean from the centre of your test cupcake.
5. Take the gluten free cupcakes out of the tin and transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Leave to cool completely. Once the cakes have cooled, you can go ahead and decorate them.
6. To make the vanilla buttercream, simply beat the butter in a bowl or stand mixer until pale and smooth. Then add the sifted icing sugar and the vanilla. Mix well until smooth and fluffy. Add the milk and beat again, as this with ease the buttercream consistency and make it easier to pipe/spread. 
7. Set 1 tbsp of buttercream aside in a small ramekin (we will use this for the red flowers later). Add the green food gel to the remaining buttercream and whisk again to distribute the colour evenly. Your buttercream should now be a light green colour and easy to spread/pipe, however if it is still a bit crumbly or stiff in texture, add a tsp of milk or two to make it a bit easier to work with.
8. With the 1 tbsp of buttercream you set aside, add the red food gel, one drop at a time, until you have a nice strong colour for the icing flowers.
9. Now either use a small palette knife to spread the green buttercream on top of the cooled gluten free cupcakes, or get fancy and use some piping nozzles. Grass nozzles are ideal as you can create a buttercream grass effect for your bunnies to sit in, but I used a star tip for these, allowing me to pipe little clumps of "grass" instead.
10. Use a small round tip to pipe little red flower dots onto the green icing. Finally, nestle a chocolate KitKat bunny (or your topping on choice) into the icing and there you go, fantastic Easter bunny cupcakes :D.