Easy Easter Bunny Cupcakes

I’m going to make these cupcakes for my daughters class as they are so quick and easy, and use Peeps, which every child seems to love!

Take a chocolate cupcake (so it looks like dirt) and cut the center out with a knife.

Make sure you leave enough cupcake around the edge so you can ice it with green icing to look like grass.  Save the cupcake that you cut out.


Rough ice around the whole in the cupcake with green icing and then pop the rabbit in the hole. 

Crumble some of the left over cupcake center around the rabbit to look like dirt it’s burrowed up.

Then because I love sprinkles I added a few flowers around the rabbit and a butterfly on it’s ear. 

They were really quick and easy so they make the perfect cupcakes for a class party.

Easter Egg Crispy Treats

I had some crispy treat mixture and some icing left over from different projects so I thought I’d try to make an Easter egg.

I shaped the crispy treat roughly into an egg shape and then I dipped it in candy melts so that it would hold together.  It’s very hard to get the candy melt smooth, but I knew I could cover any bumps with the icing.

Then I just covered the egg shape with different colors of icing using different piping tips.  It looked pretty, but I’m not sure it looked very ‘egg’ like.  I would be a good way for children to practice their piping technique.

Cupcake Nest

I had one little cupcake left over from a batch I’d made and while my daughter and her friend were decorating chocolate crispy nests and chocolate pretzel nests, I decided to try to make a cupcake nest.  I only had a green cupcake left but I would probably have used a vanilla or chocolate cupcake. 

First I cut out the center.

Then I piped a ring of icing around the edge so I’d have something for the sprinkles to stick to, and it would cover the green cupcake.

I put flower and heart sprinkles around the edge, but you could use anything.  Then I filled the hollow in the cupcake with eggs and tried both the oreo truffle chicks on top.  I still think the brown eyed chick is cuter.

My children all fought over who got to eat the cupcake nest, so it was obviously good.

Crispy Treat Nests

I try really hard to make our favorite baking ideas applicable all year round, and Easter nests are one of my favorite things.  I hosted a dinosaur party a couple of weeks ago and was trying to think of a dinosaur themed crispy treat.  I was also in my Easter mode and so nests were on my mind and then I thought why not make ‘pterodactyl nests’.  I made fruity pebble crispy treats as they seem to be all children’s favorites.

But instead of putting them in rectangular cake pan and cutting them out with cookie cutters, I piled a spoonful of the crispy treats into muffin cases. 


Once they were cool I used a spoon to flatten out the center to make a nest shape.  If you try to do that when the crispies are hot, they will just stick to the spoon.  I could have left the nest just like that and filled them with eggs and chicks for Easter, but because it was for a party I needed the nests to be very durable so I could get them to the party and then the children could get them home as favors, without them falling apart.  I melted some white candy melts and used a basting brush to put a layer on top of the nests.

Once it was dry, I turned the nests over and coated the bottom to make them really strong and taste extra sweet.


I piped a ring of icing around the nest and covered in with flower sprinkles to make a pretty dinosaur nest and then I added some big flowers made from mini M&Ms glued onto a mini nilla wafer with icing.

At the party the boys put more jelly beans around their nests to look as if they were built from rocks and they made ‘man eating’ flowers.  We also topped the nests with pterodactyl cookies.  So you can now make Easter nests year round and make them dinosaur, lizard, snake or birds nests. 

Chocolate Crispy Nests

As a child I always remember making chocolate rice crispy nests at Easter and I’ve never made them with my children.  I was determined to this year as they are so easy. 
First I melted the chocolate chips on 50% power in the microwave. I put it in for a minute, stir it and then put it in for another 45 seconds on 50% power and that is usually enough to melt the chocolate.


I’m not sure the exact quantities I used because I tend to throw in what looks about enough and hope for the best. I think about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of rice crispies will make one nest, so just increase your quantities for however many nests you need. You can also use corn flakes instead of rice crispies.
Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the rice crispies and spoon into muffin cases.
 
Cupcake cases aren’t quite big enough. If the nest is too small you can’t fit many eggs inside or the chick on top. Use a spoon to flatten the center to make room for the eggs and chick.

My daughter decorated the nests for me and for some reason I don’t have a photo of the chocolate crispy nest with a chick in it.  If you don’t want to make the oreo truffle chicks, you can buy any kind of chick to go in the nest.  Peeps work really well but you could just put a toy chick in too.  I just always prefer something I can eat.


And just to prove that decorating crispy treat nests isn’t just for little girls, my step son made a minimalist ‘manly’ chick.

Chocolate Pretzel Nests

Last year I made chow mien marshmallow nests (it sounds really yucky but actually they were pretty good) with peeps chicks in them but this year I wanted to try something different.  I made the oreo truffle chicks so they needed nests to sit in.  I had lots of chocolate chips, so I started with those – white chocolate would have done just as well.
First I melted the chocolate chips on 50% power in the microwave.  I put it in for a minute, stir it and then put it in for another 45 seconds on 50% power and that is usually enough.


Then I put some pretzel sticks in the bowl too and crushed them a bit with a spoon so that the sticks weren’t quite so long.


Then I mixed the pretzels well so they were covered with chocolate and put a large spoonful into muffin cases.  I used the spoon to press down in the center to make a nest shape.

When the chocolate was dry my 3 year old daughter and her friend decorated the nests for me using flower sprinkles stuck on with a blob of icing, and then filled them will chocolate eggs and jelly beans.  We topped the nest with one of the little truffle chicks.


It was a cute little craft for the girls and really easy for children of any age.  I had my son’s preschool class decorate nests last year, so even with very little icing experience it’s a lot of fun.

Easter Cross Cupcake

I wanted to make a religious cupcake but with a pretty twist to it and I suddenly thought that tootsie rolls could be make to look just like crosses.

I started off with a cupcake rough iced to look like grass and then I cut three tootsie rolls in half and stuck them together to make crosses.

I made the center one slightly taller.

Then to make it pretty, I added some flowers and the final touch was a butterfly on Jesus’ cross.

Is it bad that my children loved eating the replica of the cross that Jesus died on?  Any thing that gets them to remember his sacrifice is good with me.

Sheep Cupcakes

I grew up on a farm and sheep are my favorite animal.  Unfortunately I’m not so good at making sheep out of icing. I started off with a cupcake rough iced to look like grass.

Then I covered an oreo truffle in white chocolate and placed it on the cupcake.
 
I’d had a long day and just wanted to be done with cupcakes (sometimes even I get to that point and I LOVE cupcakes), and so I was in a rush piping his legs.

As you can see his front right leg is a bit deformed, but other than that, he was quite a sweet little sheep.  I only had one truffle ball left, so I couldn’t redo his leg without messing up the grass on the cupcake, so I just left him as he was.

He looked fine from the other side with his funny leg obscured.  Once again I realized how many attempts the people who publish cake decorating books must have to make before they get the perfect cupcake design, I just don’t have the time to make 10 sheep and chose the best one.  I piped a ball of icing for his head and used a mini marshmallow cut in half for his ears and put some flowers around him.  The flowers are Wilton flower sprinkles I found at Joann and I piped a dot of icing in the center and put a white pearlized sprinkle in the middle.