Easter Cupcakes

Holidays themed baking is becoming a must for me. I'm trying to not bake at the moment as I am currently "dieting" (or should I say, WAS!), but holidays only come once a year. Do I really want to wait another whole year to make my current holiday inspiration? Not really. Because then I'll be passing up the opportunity for next years idea!
I wanted to make my cupcakes very...can I say elegant? Atleast that's what I aimed for... Easter is a time for chocolate, and while I could have done chocolate flavoured cupcakes, I didn't feel like it. I came up with chocolate bunnies! You would not believe the trouble I went through to get these. I was originally going to buy a chocolate mould off the internet, but the next day I was told that they were selling chocolate moulds at the Warehouse in Porirua. I checked the Johnsonville Warehouse just incase, and they weren't there. On Thursday, on our way up to Levin for the weekend I dropped into the Warehouse in Porirua. But I couldn't find them there, and people were hectically buying Easter Eggs so I had to floor it out of there. I went to Palmerston North on Saturday, searched around the Plaza but couldn't find any kitchen stores. As we were leaving I stopped at the Warehouse Extra...Couldn't find no moulds...But as I was about to leave and give up all hope, I found Rabbit Muffin Moulds! I don't know who would make Rabbit shaped muffins...But it worked perfectly for me! Anyway, enough from me. Onto the cupcake bizzo... The frosting recipe comes from the book "Christmas Cupcakes" by Annie Rigg. Use whatever flavour cupcake you wish.

Marshmallow Frosting

• 250g Caster Sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 4 egg whites
• a pinch of salt

1. Put all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
2. Whisk slowly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is foamy. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches atleast 60°C (140°F) on a sugar thermometer.
3. Immediately pour the frosting into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use an electric whisk and mixing bowl) and beat on medium speed until it stands in stiff glossy peaks - this will take about 3 minutes.

For the chocolate bunnies you can basically use whatever mould you like, and whatever type of chocolate you like! I have used Whittakers Creamy Milk, and White chocolate. Simply place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of boiling water. Stir constantly until the chocolate has melted and is a smooth texture. Pour into your mould, and place this in the fridge. When they have set, remove them. You may want to place them in the freezer for awhile to set them properly.

The Marshmallow Frosting tastes best once it has set, so serve them the day after.

Christmas Cupcakes

 

So I made these cupcakes at Christmas time, but I never got around to posting them! As you can see, my green is very light, and my red is more like pink. I only had supermarket bought basic food colouring colours, and also didn't want to put too much in. Too much food colouring is definitely not good for you!

 





I used a plain butter cream for the icing, and my vanilla cupcake recipe (see here)

To do this icing, I split the mix into two bowls. Then I added green food colouring, and red to the other, until I was happy with the colour. You need 3 piping bags, and one nozzle. Take one bag, and fill it with one lot of icing. Take another piping bag, and fill it with the other icing. Flatten them out a little, so that the icing reaches the opening. Take the two bags, and slip them into the third. You need the ends to be even, or it will only pipe out one colour. Put on the nozzle, and test.