Easter Weekend!

Special thanks to the other decorators:Margaret,Anna,Nate and Mathew.

Yesterday,my two sisters, brother in law and nephew all helped to decorate these lovely cupcakes to go along with our Easter weekend dinner for today. We all gave our special touch to these designs which represented spring or Easter.Some of the decorated cupcake designs were in categories of nature,animal,and patterns.The cupcakes look so beautiful and interesting that they almost look like you shouldn't eat them, but I know they will be devoured pretty quickly and I hope they will.

These are absolutely lovely simple to do Easter chocolate cupcakes with little equipment and clean up.The cupcakes are chewy and soft along with a sweet, chocolaty flavor. The recipe is very easy to follow in directions, which is adapted from "The Big Book Of Baking". I also have used this book a lot in this blog only because I love the recipes so much and the photographs that are so intriguing to look at.

 

Cupcakes are tasty sweet treats for any age and they are always a great recipe for kids to get involved with.Getting them to take part in making the batter,filling the liners,making the icing and most of all decorating their cupcake.It really raises their learning skills,self-esteem and most of all there imagination in creativity to decorate. I always loved to help bake cupcakes when I was little and decorate my own treat anyway I liked.I still love it at age nineteen to decorate cupcakes,cookies or cakes and it never has an age limit to be part of the fun of baking. So Enjoy!

What I Did And What We Did:

• Made only eleven cupcakes instead of the twelve asked in the recipe because I wasn't as careful with the filling the liners.

Easter Cupcakes ( Adapted From Easter Cupcakes, The Big Book Of Baking)

Printable Version

8 tbsp butter,softened or soft margarine

Generous 1/2 cup superfine sugar

2 eggs,lightly beaten

Generous 1/2 self rising flour

Generous 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Topping:

6 tbsp butter,softened

1 1/2 cup confectioner sugar

1 tbsp milk

2-3 drops of vanilla extract

9 oz/250g mini candy shell chocolate eggs

1.Preheat 350F,

2.Add 12 paper liners into a shallow muffin pan ( be sure to fill liners half way so you have enough for 12 cupcakes. Carefully and evenly fill the muffin liners).

 2. In medium bowl,beat butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy( cut butter in pieces).

3.Add eggs one at a time,beating well after each addition.

4.Sift in the flour and cocoa to prevent lumps and use a rubber spatula to fold dry into mixture.(Cut in the mixture to see if all ingredients are well combined.)

5.Spoon batter into paper liners ( be sure to fill liners half way so you have enough for 12 cupcakes). (Carefully and evenly fill the muffin liners).

6.Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen, firm top and toothpick test come clean.

7.Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Butter Cream Frosting

1.Beat butter in a medium bowl until fluffy.

2.Sift in the icing sugar, add milk and vanilla extract, beat well.

*For color, use food coloring. Scoop some icing and place in small bowls to mix colors.Follow food coloring box directions.

Decorating

When the cupcakes are cold.You can decorate anyway you wish

For egg nests: place frosting in a pastry bag with a large star tip( or make your own pastry bag with small sandwich bag and place the large star tip at one of the corner and snip the tip large enough for it to fit through)

Pipe a circle around the edge of each cupcake.Place chocolate eggs in the center of each.

* We all decorated our cupcakes differently, we didn't just do egg nests directed in the recipe. We also used extra icing to decorate previous made spritz cookies.Extra toppings for use such as variety of sprinkles