Easter Basket Cupcakes!

I remember this was one of the first treats I actually went out of my way to make. I had been telling my mom for about a month already that I was going to make the dessert for Easter (a carrot cake which I will post the recipe for later) and then I decided to include a group of special cupcakes. My mom had asked me to make a batch of basic cupcakes for the shop so I saved 6 (one for each of us here at home - this was before I developed my lactose intolerance) for me to decorate here. Naturally, I chose the 6 roundest, plumpest cupcakes. These cupcakes were also made from pre-packaged cake mix, so the main focus here is the decorating. 

I gathered my materials throughout the week leading up to Easter. I bought a pack of chocolate bunnies (wrapped in colorful foil depicting a bunny in detail), a bag of jellybeans (one of my 3 favorite kinds of candies!), a bag of Sweet Tart chicks, and a pack of strawberry Sour Patch straws. Those were nearly impossible to find! I knew I had seen them somewhere, but they weren't at Publix, CVS, WalMart, or Target. I had even succumbed to checking Winn-Dixie (I hate Winn-Dixie, it always smells funny). I finally checked Blockbuster and there they were! Yes, I went to Blockbuster with the sole purpose of buying a pack of Sour Patch straws. The guy at the checkout counter thought I was just as weird. Now I realize I could have easily used Twizzlers but, hey, you live you learn, right? 

This time I did dye the icing green. I slathered a generous amount of icing onto each cupcake and topped them with my sparkly green "cupcake pixie dust" (shh!). I then inserted each end of a Sour Patch straw into each side of the cupcake and proceeded to decorate them with the rest of the candy goodies. Like I've mentioned, I am a perfectionist. So each cupcake had 3 jellybeans - one pink, one orange, and one yellow - to represent Easter eggs and a blue Sweet Tart chick. The chocolate bunnies, still covered in their foil, were placed on the remaining area of the cupcake to make the finishing touch on my Easter bunny cupcakes! 

 

Since it was a special occasion, we ate at the dining room table and I placed a cupcake at each setting for decorative purposes. It was adorable :). PS - remove foil before eating chocolate bunny ;).