Vegan Lemon Viennese Whirl Bunnies
These Easter themed Lemon Viennese Whirl Bunnies are a fun, seasonal bake. They are perfect for spring time thanks to their bright, zesty flavour. Get the recipe below.
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Easter bunny themed bakes
Would it be Easter if you didn’t have chicks, eggs, bunny rabbits and carrots adorning cakes and other bakes? Easter time really is a fantastic opportunity for getting creative with your baking.
Most people associate Easter with chocolate but I’d argue that bright, zingy lemon is another perfect spring time flavour.
For this recipe I’ve taken the classic Viennese Whirl, flavoured it with lemon juice and zest then baked it in the shape of the Easter bunny.
How to make Vegan Lemon Viennese Whirl Bunnies
There are six simple steps to making Viennese Whirls:
- Make the dough using lemon juice and zest for flavour
- Pipe the dough into the shape of a bunny rabbit
- Chill the dough to make sure it holds its shape while baking
- Bake
- Make the lemon buttercream
- Sandwich the bunny rabbits together with the buttercream
Each of these steps is simple meaning anyone can make them!
Step 1 – beat
Beat the butter and icing sugar together before adding the lemon zest, flour, cornflour and lemon juice.
Step 2 – pipe
Once you’ve made the dough you need to pipe it into the shape of a bunny rabbit. This is the hardest part not just because the shape is tricky but because the dough is quite thick. You need to squeeze really hard to get it hard to get it to come out. Make sure you’re using strong catering piping bags rather than flimsy ones. Reusable piping bags are usually the strongest.
More help piping the Easter bunnies is set out below.
Step 3 – chill
Each of these steps is as important as the next – especially chilling the dough! I know it can be tempting to skip steps like this but if you don’t chill the piped dough you risk it spreading in the oven and that’s the last thing you want!
Step 4 – bake
The bake on these biscuits is quite short. They will cook in between 12 and 15 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when the edges are golden brown.
Steps 5 – make the buttercream
Beat together the icing sugar, butter and lemon juice until super smooth and creamy. You don’t want it grainy at all.
Step 6 – sandwich
Once they are completely cool, pipe the buttercream on to the flat side of one whirl then sandwich another whirl on top.
Now they’re ready to eat!
How to pipe Easter bunnies
To get the perfect Easter bunny you need to start by piping two ears, roughly 1 inch in length. Then pipe a rosette for the body just overlapping the bottom of the two ears so they will be one complete biscuit.
The recipe
Vegan Lemon Viennese Whirl Bunnies
Equipment
- 2 Piping bags
- 1 Star tipped piping nozzle
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 225 g vegan butter
- 75 g icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g plain flour
- 25 g cornflour
- 3 tbsp plant milk e.g. soy milk
- 1 lemon zest and juice
For the buttercream
- 100 g vegan butter
- 175 g icing sugar
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with grease proof paper and place to one side.
- In a bowl, cream together the butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy using an electric whisk.
- Whisk in the almond and vanilla extracts and 1 tbsp of lemon juice.
- In a separate bowl sift together the plain flour and cornflour then add the lemon zest.
- Add the flour and cornflour mix to the butter and icing sugar in thirds. In between each third of flour/cornflour, whisk in 1 tbsp of plant milk.
- Spoon the dough into a piping bag that has been fitted with a star tipped nozzle.
- Pipe 20 bunnies of equal size across the two baking sheets.
- Once piped, place them into the fridge for at least 30 minutes or in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- While the bunnies chill, pre-heat the oven to 180C / 356F /gas mark 4.
- Once the bunnies have chilled, place into the centre of the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.
- Remove them from the oven once the edges have become to go golden brown.
- Leave them to cool down on the trays.
- In the meantime, mix the icing sugar, butter and 2 tbsp lemon juice to make the buttercream.
- As soon as the bunnies are cold, fill a second piping bag with the buttercream and pipe a small amount of buttercream on the flat side of a bunny then sandwich together with another bunny.
- Repeat until all the biscuit bunnies and buttercream have been used
Nutrition
More Vegan Easter bakes
Easter recipe archive
Full the full range of Easter recipes on the blog, check out the Easter recipe archive.