Build-A-Bunny!!
Easter's here--or near. Here's our latest creation for the holiday--Easter Basket cupcakes complete with chocolate bunnies, jellybeans and green grass. Perfect for an Easter morning surprise!
Recipe: (Makes 12 cupcakes)
- 12 vanilla cupcakes baked in green paper liners
- 1 can vanilla frosting
- Green and yellow food coloring
- 18 peanut butter sandwich cookies (Nutter Butter)
- 1 bag (14 ounces) dark cocoa candy melting wafers (Wilton)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
- 24 mini chocolate chips
- 12 white non-pareils covered gummies (champagne bubbles) or mini marshmallows
- 1/2 cup assorted speckled jellybeans
- Spoon 3 tablespoons of the vanilla frosting into a freezer weight ziplock bag, press out the excess air and seal the bag. Tint the remaining vanilla frosting bright green with the green and yellow food colouring. Spoon half of the green frosting into 2 freezer weight ziplock bags press out the excess air and seal the bags.
- For the ears, cut 6 of the peanut butter cookies in half lengthwise with a serrated knife. Trim 1/4 inch from the bottom of one short end of each cut cookie (this will be the side that goes against the head cookie). For the heads, cut 6 cookies in half crosswise using a serrated knife. Using the remaining 12 cookies, make angled cuts with a serrated knife on one short end.
- Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Arrange the cookies into 12 bunny shapes on the waxed paper (see photo).
- Spoon about 1/4 cup of the candy melts into a ziplock bag. Microwave the melts, massaging the bag every 5 seconds, until smooth. Seal the bag. Snip a small corner from the bag and pipe some of the melted candy where the cookies meet, to glue them together. Refrigerate until set, about 10 minutes.
- Place the remaining candy melts with any excess melted candy from the bag and the shortening in a measuring cup deep enough for dipping the cookies. Microwave, stopping frequently to stir, until smooth, about 1 minute. Dip the chilled cookie rabbits, ear end down, into the melted candy and use a spoon to coat any exposed cookie on both sides. Allow the excess to drip back into the bowl. Return the cookie to the waxed paper. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until the candy coating is set, about 10 minutes.
- Make a small slit in the top of the cupcakes. Insert the bottom tapered end of the bunny cookie, pressing into the cupcake to secure. Snip a small corner from the bags with the green and white frosting. To make the grass, pipe small dots of green frosting using a squeeze-stop-pull motion to create little peaks, to cover the top of the cupcake. Add the non-pareils candy as the tail and scatter a few jellybeans in the green grass frosting. Pipe a small dot of vanilla frosting on either side of the head. Add a mini chocolate chip, flat side out, to make the eye. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.
Have a Happy Easter!
by: Karen and Alan