Easter Bunny Cupcakes

[Guest guest]

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

       

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa or dutch processed cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon Salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1 ~ 16 ounce can creamy vanilla ready to spread frosting

3 3/4 cups sweetened coconut flakes, { color tinted }*

assorted  Easter candies; jellybeans, mini eggs candy, candy coated

eggs,  mini robin eggs, semi sweet chocolate chips

33 thin pieces strawberry flavored licorice twists

Heat oven to 350°. Line muffin cups with paper bake cups. Stir

together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in

large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of

electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water { batter will be thin },

fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

 

Bake 20 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out

clean. Cool completely. To make Easter baskets, frost each cupcake with

vanilla frosting. Immediately make ''nest'' on top of each cupcake with

tinted coconut; place assorted candy in nests.

 

For handle, insert wooden pick in each end of strawberry twists; press

down into each side of each cupcake, bending to form handle. Makes about

33 cupcakes. Serve cup cakes on a platter of Easter grass.

 

*NOTE: To tint coconut, drop several drops food color with 1/4 teaspoon

water into a zip lock bag; add to 1 ~ 1/2 cups coconut. Shack until

coconuts evenly tinted. Repeat using blue, pink or yellow food color.

[Guest guest]

My mom used to make cookies and decorate them like this. One round

cookie cut with a biscuit cutter, iced, topped by another cookie cut

with the biscuit cutter and the little insert that makes it donut

shaped. I remember the coconut grass. She used pipe cleaners for the

handles rather than candy and when I tried to make the cookies, I kept

cracking them trying to put the pipe cleaners on. Eventually I figured

out to make the holes for the pipe cleaners as soon as the cookies came

out of the oven, before they cooled enough to ice, while they were

still a little bit soft.

 

How many of those Easter candies are vegetarian? I have had trouble

finding jelly beans without gelatin, so I wonder about many of my old

favorite candies now. :-(

 

-ginger

 

 

> assorted  Easter candies; jellybeans, mini eggs candy, candy coated

> eggs,  mini robin eggs, semi sweet chocolate chips

> 33 thin pieces strawberry flavored licorice twists