Let’s take our basic vanilla cupcakes and change them into fabulous Easter looking cupcakes. These two ideas are real simple and do not involve a lot of time or hard work.
First start off by making your vanilla cupcakes. Below is a reminder of my previous recipe I posted.
BASIC VANILLA CUPCAKE – recipe
INGREDIENTS
210g castor sugar
125g butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
280g cake flour
2ml salt
10ml baking powder
250ml milk
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases
2. Mix the sugar and butter together until creamy and light in colour. Beat in the eggs one by one and whisk together.
3. Sieve in the flour, salt and baking powder, then add the milk and mix well.
4. Spoon into the cupcake holders placed in a greased muffin tray and bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 C. Once cooked, allow cakes to cool.
While your cupcakes are cooling down, get started on making your buttercream icing. Below is a reminder of my previous recipe I posted.
I have changed up the ingredients slightly for my Easter Cupcakes by adding peppermint essence instead of vanilla essence, and I have added green colouring as I want to go for a GRASS appearance.
BASIC VANILLA BUTTERCREAM ICING
INGREDIENTS
175g butter
350g icing sugar
3 tbsp boiling water
½ tsp vanilla essence
METHOD
1. Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until soft.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients.
3. Beat until smooth and creamy.
After your cupcakes have cooled completely, using a multi-opening decorating tip (that’s the technical term), pipe you’re icing all around your cupcake.
To do this, hold your piping bag 90 degrees straight up, squeeze your bag to form your grass then stop the pressure and pull tip straight up and away. This will give it the appearance of GRASS.
Unfortunately I did not have this tip so I used my closed star decorating tip. Does not have that REAL grass effect but worked out just fine. Place three SPECKLED EGGS on top of your beautifully iced cupcake, and there you have it, Easter Eggs in the grass.
The other decoration you could use for your cupcakes is an Easter Nest that will hold your Speckled Eggs. Below is how I made my Nests
NESTS
INGREDIENTS
Dark Chocolate
Corn Flakes – any cereal will work well
METHOD
1. Place a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water, put the chocolate in the glass bowl and allow the chocolate to melt until smooth.
2. Remove the glass bowl of melted chocolate from the heat and mix in the Corn Flakes, making sure that every piece is covered in the chocolate.
3. Line a baking tray with wax paper & spoon the mixture onto the tray in blobs and shape it into a nest.
4. Place in the fridge to harden and cool.
Place some speckled eggs into your nests and it’s done. You can use these to put on top of your cupcakes or you could just serve them just as they are as another treat.
