Easter Peep Cakes

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Princess’ Easter Party required special cupcakes, something eye catching, fun, delicious and enough to keep 23 First Graders fascinated enough to stay in their seats and eat their fruits and veggies first.

I do believe we succeeded and they were super simple and even the adults were ooh-ing and aaah-ing (me included)

You can use a basic butter cupcake recipe or white cupcake recipe[/donotprint]

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: Basic Butter Cupcakes

1. 2 1/2 C sifted cake flour
2. 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 1 1/2 sticks butter, unsalted (preferably)
5. 1 1/4 C sugar
6. 8 LARGE yolks
7. 1 tsp pure vanilla extract — not necessary
8. 1 tsp grated lemon zest
9. 3/4 C milk

1. Sift the cake flour 2 times — measure out 2 1/2 C and then add in the baking powder and salt. Sift these ingredients together a couple of times
2. In your mixing bowl beat butter and sugar together until pale gold and fluffy ( a couple of minutes)
3. In another bowl beat the egg yolks, vanilla and lemon zest together until thick and pale gold
4. Beat the egg yolk mixture into the butter mixture
5. Gradually add the flour mixture and the milk into the bowl — alternate the flour with the milk (3 additions of flour/2 of milk) Make sure that you beat well and scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition
6. Divide into lined cupcake tins and bake at 375 F for about 18 minutes or until they’re a lovely gold color and the tops spring back when pressed

* sub 1/2 tsp of almond extract for 1/2 the vanilla and leave out the lemon extract

 

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If you want to add a bit of fun to the homemade cupcakes — CakeSpy has a fabulous Funfetti cupcake recipe!

For the frosting, use the basic ButterCream Cheese recipe from the Strawberry Cupcakes and use your favorite Green coloring to color the frosting your favorite shade of green

I piped it onto my cupcakes in a swirl patter and then topped that with sparkling green sugar crystals, then I placed different colored peeps in the center of each cupcake, surrounded the cupcakes on a tray with ‘chicken’ eggs (Starburst jelly beans) and the kids went NUTS over them!

Super easy and an adorable afternoon of baking and eating for your and your favorite little bakers.

Happy Easter hunting, y’all!

linked up to Liz’s Cupcake Tuesday