Easter Cupcakes

Pin It

Do you have some special tradition for different holidays, specifically food related?  Perhaps you always make wassail on New Year's or prepare a special cake for someone's birthday?  Well, the special Easter tradition for David is these cupcakes.  He absolutely loves them and they're super easy to make.  Plus, they're too cute to resist!

First off, grab a chocolate cake mix and prepare cupcakes according to the box's directions.  I used Devil's Food for this batch, but any chocolate mix will do.

While your cupcakes are coooling, grab some coconut and green food coloring.  Squirt some food coloring on top of the coconut and mix until you get the desired hue of "grass" that you want.

Next, you'll want to make your icing.  This is the buttercream icing I always use when frosting a cake, cupcakes or whatever.  It's fool-proof and super quick and easy to make.

Buttercream Icing
Makes 3 cups

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups (approximately) confectioners sugar (you can sift or no, I don't normally)
2 tbsp milk

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer.  Add vanilla.  Gradually add the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.  I suppose you could add more at a time if you don't mind a white cloud of confectioners sugar, heeheehee.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl regularly during mixing.  When all the sugar has been mixed in, the icing will appear slightly dry.  Add milk and beat on high until light and fluffy. 

Keep covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.  Refrigerate when not in use.  Rewhip before icing.

Now, at this point in this particular recipe, I added a good squirt or two of green food coloring to the icing.  Keep adding and mixing, again, until the desired shade of green is achieved.  If you'd like, you can also add some mint extract/flavoring if that floats your boat. 

Now, the fun part.  Ice the cupcakes with the icing, then, dip the cupcake upside down into the bowl of "grass," turning it a little to get some attached all the way around.  Then, grab some jelly beans and plop three right in the middle of the cupcake.  Tada!  Cuteness galore.

I didn't quite mix up enough coconut for the entire batch of cupcakes, so the ones we kept around the house look a bit sparse.  But, they're still pretty darn cute and awfully tasty.