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!