Peeps, jelly beans, and chocolate are often found in every child’s Easter basket. One of my favorite Easter treats is M & M’s and carrot cake. I found some cute cupcake ideas on Pinterest involving both and decided to make these moist and carroty cupcakes. I used a recipe from Food and Wine magazine for Carrot Cupcakes, and added toasted coconut and M & M eggs to make these cupcakes a perfect Easter dinner dessert.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup canola oil (I used vegetable)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups finely shredded carrots

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tin.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl beat eggs and oil. Gradually beat in sugar until think. Beat in vanilla.

 4. Fold in dry ingredients, then fold in carrots.

 
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes and let cool. Transfer cupcakes to the freezer to chill before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting (This recipe made a ton of frosting. I am also making a carrot cake and needed a lot so I would cut this in half or a third.)

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened
2 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

1.  Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla.

2. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add until desired flavor and consistency.

Easter egg basket decoration ideas:

For the top of the cupcake, you can have your eggs sitting in a grass nest, or one that look like twigs. For grass, put coconut and green food coloring in a plastic bag and shake until coated. For twigs, toast coconut on a cookie sheet at 350 for 5-7 minutes. Be sure to keep a close eye on it and mix often, otherwise the coconut will burn.  

 

You can use jelly beans, peeps, or egg M&Ms to make you next complete.

 

Happy Easter!

Lucky Charms Cupcakes - They’re Magically Delicious!

As a kid, Saint Patrick’s Day was my dad’s birthday and wearing green to school. In college, it became green beer, green shirts, shamrock shakes, and State Patty’s Day (Penn State’s very own St. Patrick’s day).  This year, I decided to add to these Lucky Charms Cupcakes to my list of St. Patrick’s day indulgences. Lucky Charms cereal is a childhood favorite, and these cupcakes incorporate the cereal into the cake batter, the marshmallow frosting, and the decorations.  I modified a recipe from another baking blog found here. Instead of using a box cake mix, I made white cake from scratch and added the additional ingredients to keep the cupcakes moist (such as the sour cream).
 

 

Lucky Charms Cupcakes

Ingredients:

·         1 cup white sugar

·         1 ½ cups of flour

·         1 ¾ tsp baking powder

·         1/3 cup vegetable oil

·         ½ cup sour cream

·         ¾ cup milk

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         ½ cup finely crushed Lucky Charms (cereal pieces only)

·         Green food coloring

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pans.

2.      In a large bowl, blend the sugar, flour, and baking powder.

3.      Add the vegetable oil, sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Blend until incorporated.

4.      Mix in green food coloring until desired shade of green.

5.   Gently mix in crushed Lucky Charms until combined.

Crush cereal with a rolling pin.

6.      Fill cupcake pan and bake for 18-23 minutes. (my oven took 18 minutes)

Marshmallow Buttercream

Ingredients:

·         4-5 cups Powdered sugar

·         1 tsp vanilla

·         1 cup butter, room temperature

·         1 container marshmallow fluff

·         Sprinkles and Lucky Charm marshmallows

Directions:

1.      In bowl, beat butter with mixer until fluffy.

2.      Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and marshmallow fluff.

3.      Beat until smooth.

4.      Add milk if the frosting becomes too difficult to mix.

Final Touches

Once cupcakes have cooled, it is time to frost! Pipe cooled cupcakes with marshmallow frosting. I used green food coloring on half of the frosting so half of the cupcakes have a light green frosting. You can decorate your cupcakes however you like. I chose to use green sugar and Lucky Charms marshmallows.

I am excited to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow with friends, and share my Lucky Charm Cupcakes! Don’t forget your green!