They seem a little labour-intensive, but they're actually not that tough. I found the idea on Martha Stewart's site, where (of course) they look perfect. I think if I make them again I'll use mini eggs for the bodies, because I had frosting issues. Of course, I also bought minimal ingredients, and instead adapted it for what I had lying around, so you get what you put in...but they still taste delicious! The cake recipe is from here, and is one of my favourites, and I used my usual buttercream recipe from Bakerella. Enjoy!
Baby Bird Easter Cupcakes
Makes two dozen
Cupcake Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
3 3/4 cups icing sugar
1-3 tbsp. milk or cream
Decorating extras:
1 cup coconut (try for longer pieces and unsweetened, which I wish I had done)
food colouring - yellow, blue, and any other colour you might want
2+ tbsp. of cocoa powder
tiny bit of melted chocolate for birds' eyes
Alright, first up, it's time to toast your coconut. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F, spread the coconut out in a thin layer on a baking sheet, and bake it until it's golden brown. This should take 5-8 minutes or so. Don't do what I did and forget it. Luckily the boy mentioned it smelled good, or I would've set off the smoke alarm and needed a trip to the grocery store for more! Once it's nice and golden brown, set it aside to cool.
Next, the cupcakes. The oven will already be preheated from the coconut, so leave it at 350˚ F, and put your paper liners in your cupcake pan. Sift your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of your mixer. Then, add the butter, milk, and vanilla.
Mix on medium for about two minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Once that's combined (yes, it's supposed to look like that), add your eggs, and mix for another two minutes. It'll be quite a thick batter, but that's normal.
When I'm making cupcakes, I pour the batter into a large ziploc freezer bag, cut off a corner, and use it to divide the batter between the cups - it makes way less mess than a spoon, at least for a disaster-prone person like me. Fill your liners about half full, and they'll bake up to be nice level cupcakes.
Bake for 20 minutes. I like to rotate the pans about halfway through, just so everything cooks nice and evenly, but I also have an older, temperamental oven, so do whatever works best for you. When they're done (insert a toothpick, if it comes out clean they're done), cool them in the pan for a couple minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.
While you're waiting for them to cool, prepare your buttercream. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and vanilla until smooth. Add your icing sugar, a little bit at a time. Wait until each bit is creamed together before adding more. Once all your sugar's in, add milk (or cream) a teaspoon at a time, until it's the consistency you'd like. I don't like mine to be too runny, because I get frustrated when it doesn't stay where I put it. For these cupcakes, don't make it too runny, because you'll also be adding food colouring to some.
Once your icing's the right texture, divide it up. Put a couple spoonfuls in a bowl, and tint it a nice yellow colour for the birds' beaks. Put several spoonfuls into another bowl, and tint that a blue colour, or whatever other colour you might want to make your birds. I really didn't measure mine out, I just eyeballed it, based on how many cupcakes/birds I had to do. Put the coloured frosting into (separate) small ziploc bags, squeeze the air out and seal, then cut one corner off. I did a bigger hole for the blue, and a smaller one for the yellow. (If you'd like, you can go all out and using proper piping bags and tips instead...I just work with what's lying around!)
The rest of the buttercream is going to become chocolatey. I added about 2 tbsp. of cocoa powder to it, and a bit more milk to get it back to the right texture. I didn't really measure though, I just added cocoa till it looked (and tasted) right to me, so experiment a bit!
And now for the decorating! First, lightly frost the cooled cupcakes with your chocolate buttercream:
Then, pipe two or three little blobs onto each cupcake with your blue frosting. These will be the little (in my case deformed) bodies of your birds:
Next, use your yellow frosting to make tiny little beaks. This takes a lot of patience, so don't get frustrated. I just did two little dots/lines/triangles, one for the top and one for the bottom beak, on each little mutant bird:
Here's the really frustrating part - the eyes. You could probably skip this step, but I wanted to torture myself. I didn't bother with toothpicks or melted chocolate like Martha suggested; instead, I just a dark blue icing "scribbler" and a fork. I would totally recommend not using my method. Once you're through giving your birds the power of sight, just sprinkle the toasted coconut around them, on top of the chocolate buttercream, and you're done!
And there you have it! A cute little springy Easter cupcake! I can vouch for them being zero fine motor skills, and mine still resembled baby birds. Have fun, and if you're feeling untalented (or lazy), go ahead and use blue mini-eggs for the birds' bodies - might even make it easier to do the beaks/eyes!
Happy Easter, everyone!
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