Easy Easter Cupcakes

I always love when I make a cupcake or cake that looks SUPER impressive, but is secretly incredibly easy to make. This is one of those recipes, so everyone should try this recipe and whip them out at your family's Easter dinner and wow your guests! :)

I had been looking for a good Easter/Spring recipe for this week, since Easter is this weekend. I also wanted a recipe that wouldn't be too labour-intensive since I'm super busy this week. Classes are ending so professors think it is a fantastic time for everyone to have papers and assignments due. Yay...

 You can use whatever colors your want, but I chose Green. Yellow, Pink, and Purple!

As you can see, I got pretty crazy with the colors. If you don't have food dye, or you don't want to put in the effort to dye batter different colors, it isn't a necessity to dye the cupcakes at all. 

I did have a bit of trouble with one of my dyes. As you can probably tell from the pictures, my purple cupcakes are SOOOO DARK! Like...almost black-looking. 

I don't know about you, but every time I use dye I find that the color gets really diluted and weak so you end up needing to use a TON of food coloring to get the color you really want. So that's what I ended up doing for the other cupcakes and it worked out fine, but then I got to the purple.

My mom had bought some special "Wilton" food coloring that, I was informed later on, is actually a gel food coloring that you only need a very little amount to achieve the color you want.....

Wish I'd know that earlier.

Anyway, it didn't matter since they all turned out delicious in the end. Topped with chocolate shaving and my favorite Easter (slash any-time-of-year) treat, Mini Eggs!

Like I said, these will impress your guests, kids will love them, and they'll be a hit for everyone.

Happy early Easter and enjoy your long weekend!

Last Month: Cinnabon Cake

Easy Easter Cupcakes
Bake Time: 15-20mins            Yields 18-20 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
Food coloring (optional)
1 cup salted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
6-8 Tbsps heavy cream
1 bag Mini eggs, or other candy coated chocolate eggs
Chocolate shavings (Made from a block of semisweet baker's chocolate)

Directions:
1) Make cupcakes according to directions on the box. Color cupcakes with food coloring as desired.
2) Let cupcakes cool completely.
3) While cupcakes are cooling, beat together butter, powdered sugar, and heavy cream until completely combined. When cupcakes are cooled, ice them, attempting to make a semi-flat surface on the top.
4) Make your chocolate shavings by shaving your chocolate block using a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Sprinkle some chocolate shavings on the top centre of each cupcake. Decorate with three chocolate eggs.


(Recipe adapted from Picky Palate)