With a few simple ingredients, you can transform vanilla cupcakes into adorable Easter-themed cupcakes. Not only are the results delectably festive, but they will make for a fun-filled activity the whole family can enjoy!
Before you set up the decorating station, you’ll need a big batch of uniced vanilla cupcakes and a big batch of buttercream icing divided into three parts. As an optional extra, you can use different coloured cupcake liners when baking the cupcakes, if you aren’t opting for store-bought instead.
3 Tips on how to bake flat even cupcakes perfect for decorating:
While there is nothing wrong with the taste of domed cupcakes, they can be a little more difficult to decorate when compared to flat cupcakes, especially if you are going for more of a refined look.
Firstly, make sure your ingredients are all at room temperature to start with. Plunging fridge-cold batter into a hot oven can cause cupcakes to dome and even crack in the centre during baking.
Secondly, be cautious not to overfill the cupcake liners. As tempting as this may be, the batter should only really come just above the halfway point on the cupcake liner, to achieve a cupcake with a flat even look.
Thirdly, lower the temperature of the oven by 10-15°C and bake the cupcakes for about 2-3 minutes longer, or until fully baked and a skewer comes out clean to make sure your cupcakes are flat and ready for decorating!
How to decorate Easter-themed cupcakes:
Most importantly, before we get into how to make each different Easter-themed cupcake, remember to have fun! It doesn’t matter if you end up with a wonky bunny or funky-looking chick, they will all taste good in the end and you’ll have some good laughs in the process.
Bunny cupcakes
What you’ll need:
Large white marshmallows
Pink sugar (add a few drops of pink food colouring to white sugar or you can use fine desiccated coconut that has been dyed pink with some food colouring)
Pink Speckled Eggs
Confectioners’ googly eyes
Fine desiccated coconut
To start off with, cut each of the white marshmallows in half diagonally lengthwise and dip the cut side into the pink sugar. The sugar will stick to the marshmallow and create nifty little DIY bunny ears!
Then using 1/3 of the buttercream and a small ice cream scoop, top 1/3 of the vanilla cupcakes with a dollop of buttercream icing. Slightly flatten out the buttercream dome with a small pallet knife so that you have a flat iced surface to work with.
Add the prepared marshmallow “bunny ears” to the top of each of the iced cupcakes followed by a pair of eyes and a pink Speckled Egg, as the snout, just below the eyes. Sprinkle the remaining buttercream with a small amount of desiccated coconut, to finish the bunny cupcakes off.
Nest egg cupcakes
What you’ll need:
Cocoa powder
Speckled Eggs
1 Flake, crumbled
Start by adding some cocoa powder to 1/3 of the buttercream icing, and beat until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add a touch of milk to thin it out a bit.
Using a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and filled with the prepared chocolate icing, pipe the icing onto 1/3 of the cupcakes in a circular motion. Start on the outer edge and then move towards the middle to fully cover the surface of the cupcake.
Sprinkle with the crumbled flake and top with 3-4 Speckled eggs, or any mini Easter eggs of choice.
Cupcake chicks
What you’ll need:
Yellow food colouring
Yellow sugar (add a few drops of yellow food colouring to white sugar)
Confectioners’ googly eyes
Orange Jellybeans
Add some yellow food colouring to 1/3 of the vanilla buttercream icing and place the prepared icing in a small piping bag. You can also use a ziplock bag instead. Cut the end of the bag so that you can pipe a large swirl in an upwards motion. You want to create a swirl with a bigger base and a small peak on top.
Once you have piped swirls on 1/3 of the cupcakes, to the top small peak of the swirl, attach a pair of eyes and just below the eyes stick on an orange Jellybean as a nose. Dust with yellow sugar to add a final flourish to the cupcake chicks!