Easter Chick Cupcakes

This is a quick and easy treat to whip up for the holiday weekend.  Although super cute, these cupcakes are a cinch to make and are a great way to get the kiddos involved.

We made some with brown eyes and some with blue eyes.

All my children from ages 2 to 6 helped and had a blast.  Bonus, these cupcakes are a good old fashion Betty Crocker recipe, so they taste great.  Here's the skinny...
Ingredients  
For cake:
(makes 12 cupcakes)
1 1/4 cups flour {or 1 1/2 cups cake flour}
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 drops yellow food coloring

For decoration:
1 container white frosting {I used Betty Crocker's Whipped Cream Cheese frosting, or you can make your own, you'll need about 1 cup}
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 package mini M & Ms
1 package peach rings
yellow food coloring



Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tin with festive paper cupcake liners.
Measure all ingredients for the cake into a bowl.  With electric mixer blend on low speed for about 30 seconds scraping bowl constantly.  Beat on high for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
Fill cupcake liners about half way with batter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until middle is set and toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.

In small bowl combine coconut and bout 4 drops of yellow food coloring.  Stir until all the coconut is coated and yellow all over.

Using scissors, cut peach rings into small triangles for the beaks.

Sort M&Ms so that you have only the brown and blue ones.

Frost the top of each cupcake.

 

Turn upside down and gently press into the coconut.

If you need to add a little more coconut once you turn it over, gently pressing the coconut into the frosting so that it will stay put.

Gently press in the eyes and beak.

And that's it.  Your ready to gobble them up, or just look at them for a while because they're so stinkin' cute! Enjoy!

*This cake recipe is perfect for a small 8x8 or 9x9 inch cake as well.  You can withhold the yellow food coloring to keep it a basic white cake.

An Easy Valentine's Treat

This is a super easy way to make Valentine's Day cupcakes.  All you'll need is a heart shaped cookie cutter & colored sugar or sprinkles.

 

First make your desired flavor of cupcakes & frosting.  I like how chocolate cake looks with red & pink so I chose it.  I would suggest using white frosting because it makes the color sugar/sprinkles pop.  But you can get creative.  Heavily frost the cupcakes.  Then set the cookie cutter on top & lightly press down.

Next pour in a bit of sprinkles/colored sugar.  You don't need to fill the whole thing up, just enough to coat the space inside the cookie cutter.

Gently holding the cookie cutter in place swirl the sprinkles around until the entire space is coated.

Continue holding the cookie cutter in place & pour out the excess sprinkles.

Remove the cookie cutter and viola, the heart shape is there.  You can use all kinds of shapes & colors.  Whatever floats your boat.  This is super easy, but looks like you took all day to make them... you supreme baker you!