I had a lot of fun coming up with and making these cupcakes for Easter. I wanted to do something a little bit playful, something that would delight both kids and kids-at-heart. As always, taste is the important thing to me.
I made chocolate cupcakes, which is old hat at this point. The recipe that I have been using lately is surprisingly from Hershey's: the "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. It's easy, moist, foolproof, and best of all, inexpensive. I can make it on a whim, because it does not require butter at room temperature. The only change that I make is to add only 1/2 C of boiling water instead of the full cup that the recipe calls for.
So, that done, I could play with the frosting and toppings. I have had a jar of Raspberry Marshmallow Fluff in my cupboard for years, and I never knew what I wanted to do with it. It occured to me that it would be great in a frosting - almost like an ode to Peeps.
I made a cream cheese frosting with 2 sticks butter, 1 pkg cream cheese, about 1/2 box of powdered sugar, then mixed in the entire jar of fluff. It made a beautiful frosting - bright, happy pink, and a wonderful texture.
For the Easter grass, I really wanted to achieve that artificial, bright green color of the stuff you find in Easter baskets. I had recently bought a food color gel in "Electric Green" and I added some of that to about 1/2 bag of sweetened coconut and mushed it around until it turned the right color.
I frosted the cupcakes using a round tip on my piping tool, added the grass, and topped them with 4 Jelly Beans. I used ones that I had found at Williams-Sonoma, which are really delicious and infinitely better than the ones you find at the drugstore, but much less strong in flavor than Jelly Bellies. They come in Pineapple, Cotton Candy, Blue Raspberry, and Key Lime, which worked well with the Raspberry Fluff frosting.
Fun to make, fun to eat - that is what cupcakes are all about!
