Fun Easter Cupcake Ideas
Just when you thought Easter couldn't possibly get any cuter, the most amazing Easter cupcakes pop up everywhere you look, each one more fun than the last. The following Easter cupcakes are really easy to make, and so incredibly beautiful that you'll almost feel guilty for eating them. This recipe is for making a collection of chic, mini Easter baskets, pretty butterflies, and gorgeous, tiny flowerpots.
Ingredients
You will need the following ingredients: 1 package (18.25oz) Pillsbury yellow cake (or brand of your choice); 1 cup water; 1/3cup vegetable oil; 3 large eggs; food coloring (various colors); 1 16-ounce can of vanilla frosting.
For the decorations, you will need the following: gummy candy rings of assorted colors; gumdrops; decorators' sugar; coconut flakes; jelly beans; licorice; crushed chocolate cookies; gummy worms; chocolate candy pieces.
Preparation
Take 24 muffin cups and line them with paper liners. Decorative liners are available if you want to give your cupcakes cool packaging. Look for those that are decorated in bright, spring colors. If you don't have individual muffin cups, you can use two 12-count muffin tins lined with foil/paper cups. Bake the cupcakes according to the cake box instructions with the eggs, oil and water. You can doctor the cake mix if you want to make it extra-moist. Some people swear by adding a box of instant pudding mix and an extra egg. Others use applesauce instead of oil.
Bake the cupcakes and allow them to cool. Add food coloring to your frosting to make green, pink, red, yellow options. Keep some of the frosting plain white. Add food coloring to the decorators' sugar as well, making a few different colors. Frost the cupcakes. Now you're ready to sculpt!
Decorating
To make exquisite, little flowerpots, you'll first make the flower heads. Take your gummy rings and, using small scissors, go around the entire outer edge of the ring, making little snips as you go. Take one of the gumdrops (use a different color) and stick it into the center of the ring. Stick a toothpick into each ring. This will be the stem. Add a few drops of green food coloring to the coconut flakes. Frost one of your cupcakes with white frosting. Sprinkle some green coconut flakes on top to represent grass. Stick the toothpick flower into top of the frosting!
To make lovely spring Easter egg baskets, frost a cupcake with frosting color of your choice. Sprinkle the top with different colored coconut flakes. Place a few jellybeans on top. Take a small piece of licorice and bend it over to form the basket's handle, and stick into both sides of the cupcake.
To make butterflies, frost one of the cupcakes and coat it with crushed cookie wafers. Halve the gummy worms and lay them at the top of the frosting to form the butterfly antennae. Stick two gumdrops into the frosting to form the top half of the butterfly, and stick two jellybeans at the bottom to form the bottom half of the butterfly.
Feel free to add other elements to your cupcake sculptures to make them really personal. You can also use different cake batter if you wish. Either way, they are sure to be the best cupcakes around.
