Easter Yummies

Easter treats would not be complete without Cadbury Eggs, so this year I decided to put them inside cupcakes - and they were oh so delicious. So simple too! The only thing that definitely wasn't "simple" about these was the frosting I decided to do to go on them, but let's deal with the actual cupcakes first.

You'll want to freeze your Cadbury Eggs beforehand so they won't just turn to mush in the oven. The recipe I found on Pinterest used a much more dense looking cupcake batter, so I decided to do a pink velvet cake, and once again, I used good ol' Martha's recipe. I'll list it below.

First, whip up your cupcake batter.

 

 

Next, fill your cupcake tins about 1/4 full and stick those little eggs in the middle, heavier side down.

 



 

Continue to poor the batter on top of the eggs till your batter is at normal cupcake volume (about 3/4 full). You'll see the tips of the eggs poke out just a little bit on the top.

 

 

 

Then just bake your little beauties, that's pretty much it for the cupcake part. For those that would like to copy Martha's Red Velvet Cake Recipe - here it is:

 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

 

Now onto the craziness of my Easter Cupcake shenanigans - the "Magical Frosting."  I found this recipe on Pinterest from melskitchencafe.com, but it's apparently all over the internet in different variations. It's not actually a hard recipe, there's just a lot of waiting involved, and patience is definitely not one of my callings. Here's the recipe, with some of my own notes.

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1% with stellar results)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 24 tablespoons (3 sticks) butter, cut into 24 pieces and softened at room temperature

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk until the mixture is smooth. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium saucepan and pour the milk mixture through the strainer into the saucepan. Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and is thick enough that it starts to become difficult to easily whisk. The batter should be thicker than cake batter, more like brownie batter. This step can take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes depending on your stove top.
2. Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl and cool to room temperature – this is extremely important! If it is even slightly warm, the frosting won’t beat up properly. If you try to proceed with the rest of the recipe and the mixture is too cold, the butter won’t absorb into the frosting like it should. (This part seriously killed me - wanted to get it done and frost my cupcakes already!)
3. Once the frosting is completely cooled to room temperature (it should have no hint of warmth at all!), beat the mixture with the vanilla on low speed until it is well combined, about 30 seconds (a stand mixer will work best for this). Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat the frosting until all the butter has been incorporated fully, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and let the mixer work it’s magic. Beat the frosting for five minutes, until it is light and fluffy. Let the frosting sit at room temperature until it is a bit more stiff, about 1 hour. I actually threw it in the fridge at this point, so that it would stiffen enough for me to pipe on the cupcakes and sure enough, 1 hour in the fridge did the trick.

I piped half of the cupcakes with the plain white frosting and threw some pink in there for the other half. I did half of my cupcakes with caramel Cadbury Eggs and wanted a way to tell them apart. Pipe on your frosting and glory in the accomplishment of a successful cupcake.

 

 



 And voila! Done! Oh but the Easter Treats do not stop there. I also made a super yummy dip!

 

 

 

This dip is to die for! My favorite treats are cookie dough and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, so to have the two together in a dip rocked my world. I picked up this recipe from shugarysweets.com and it was seriously the biggest hit. I whipped up a batch of it and took half to my husband's side's Easter lunch and the other half to dinner with my side of the family, and the bowl was licked clean at both places. I brought along pretzels, shortbread cookies, and graham crackers to dip. They're all good, but the pretzels really do it for me with the salty and the sugary aspect. Here's the recipe!

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semi sweet mini chocolate chips
• 8oz pkg Reese's peanut butter cup Minis (or about 1 1/2 cup chopped Reeses cups)

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, add brown sugar and butter. Whisk until completely combined and butter is melted. Bring to a boil, remove from heat. Whisk in the peanut butter and vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until creamy (about 3-4 minutes. On low, add in brown sugar mixture (that has cooled to near room temp). Mix until combined. Fold in mini chocolate chips and mini Reese's cups. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Enjoy with pretzels, animal cracker and graham sticks.