Chicken and Egg Easter Cupcakes

In honor of Easter, I decided to make an Easter cupcake for my first recipe.  I’ve always admired people who could make such decorative toppings on their cupcakes.  My amateur swirls of cream cheese frosting seem so drab in comparison.  There are several components to this dish – at the end of this, you should have a cupcake resembling this picture:

Things Needed to Assemble one Chick & Egg Cupcake:

• A vanilla cupcake (recipe below)
• Cream cheese frosting (recipe below)
• Green coconut grass (recipe below)
• Colored candied malt balls, M&Ms, or jelly beans
• A chick peep
• White airhead candy

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake tin with paper liners.  Using a mixer or food processor, mix sugar and butter until light and fluffy (sometimes I like to just use my hands).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition, then add milk.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly pour the flour mixture into the wet mixture.  Evenly fill the cupcake tins to about 3/4 of the paper liner and bake for 18-25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: Mix the cream cheese and butter until creamy.  Add in vanilla, then slowly stir in confectioners sugar.

Coconut Grass

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 1-2 teaspoons green food coloring
• 1 teaspoon yellow food coloring

Directions: Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  Put coconut in a shallow bowl and add food coloring until the right color is reached.  If color is too dark, dilute it by adding a few tablespoons of water.  Drain the coconut of the water and coloring, then spread it on a lined baking sheet.  Place coconut in the oven until its dry (about 10 minutes).

ASSEMBLY OF THE EASTER CUPCAKES:

1. Frost cupcake with the frosting.
2. Press coconut grass on top of the frosting.
3. Press the peep onto the center of the grass (to help the peep stay put, I actually cut off the bottoms of the peeps so that the sticky layer is exposed).
4. Cut a white airhead into a half oval shape.  Trim one side so that it has the cracked egg jagged edge.  Stick that in front of the chick peep.
5. Nestle the egg candies (M&Ms, jellybeans, or malt balls) on the grass in front of the cracked egg.

Adapted from: Chicken and Egg Easter Cupcakes from The Food Network and Vanilla Cupcakes from Joy of Baking.