Carrot Cookie Cupcakes
Last year I made bunny cookies popping out of a cupcake, this year I’m making their companion – a giant carrot!
The carrot cookies are made with real carrots and taste great on their own, but dipped into a cupcake, well that makes holiday dessert even better.
ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
green white chocolate curls
carrot sugar cookies (recipe, here)
Bake and frost the cupcakes.
I love these colored white chocolate curls, they are beautiful and taste really good – a must when it comes to decorating. No one wants a pretty cupcake that tastes awful.
Sprinkle the tops with the chocolate curls.
These carrot cookies looked so good the kids had to take a second look to make sure they weren’t real.
Using a knife, cut a slit into the top of the cupcake so that the cookie will gently push through.
There you have it, a SWEET little garden of carrots ready for Easter!
Carrot Sugar Cookies
For Easter I had a vision of cupcakes with little carrot cookies coming out of the top of them. Per the usual I wasn’t in the mood to mess with frosting, so I made up some sugar cookies using whole wheat flour, some orange gel dye and yes – carrots!
They turned out adorable and VERY delicious! Sweetest veggie ever!
ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons finely grated carrot
pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons lemon juice
orange gel dye
1/4 cup green tea cookie dough (recipe, here)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpat liners.
I used whole wheat flour to make these cookies a little more healthier, but hey – they’re still sugar cookies, what can I say.
In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat flour, baking powder, carrot and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until combined. Add the egg and lemon juice.
Add a few drops of orange gel dye – I like gels better than liquids because they have stronger colors and incorporate easily.
Slowly add in the flour until combined. The dough will form quickly, and when it starts to pull away from the bowl, it’s done!
Split the dough into two discs and keep the fridge until you are ready to use.
I used the same idea as the ‘Matcha Cookie Trees‘ and rolled out the orange dough, then used a carrot cookie cutter to cut the cookies…
…cut off the tops, and then rolled out green tea (matcha) cookie dough and added the green tops back on the carrot! Use a small paring knife and gently press it into the dough to get the ‘lines’ on the sides of the carrot.
Lay the cookies on the prepped cookie sheet (doesn’t it look like a little garden?!) and bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
These cookies are a (sort of) healthy, fun alternative to regular cut out cookies and a perfect way to eat your ‘veggies’!
Easter treats!
This Sunday is Easter!
Here’s a list of some sweet treats to celebrate!
Chickie Eggs (recipe, here)
This is a favorite of mine, it’s so simple yet so hilarious. I like to put these eggs in the kid’s lunches just for a laugh.
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Cinnamon Vanilla (bunny shaped) Pancakes (recipe, here)
We eat pancakes 24/7 around here so to make them into cute bunny shapes make them a little more special on the holidays!
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Peeking Easter Bunny Cookie Cupcakes (recipe, here)
Cute pop up bunnies surprise you on Easter morning. And you get a double treat, a cookie AND a cupcake!
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Bacon + Egg Salad Sandwiches (recipe, here)
The perfect breakfast combo – but in a sandwich! Salty bacon and creamy egg salad – the best Easter lunch!
Really Devilish Eggs
Bacon? Yes. Hot sauce? Yes, please. What SoCal family doesn’t have a stash of Tapatio in their fridge? Well, you should. It’s not as hot as Tabasco, and adds just the right kick. Feel the burn indeed.
ingredients:
6 eggs
2 slices of bacon
3-4 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon pickle relish
dash onion powder
dash paprika
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper
2 Tablespoons Tapatio hot sauce
First cook the bacon (I use the oven – recipe here) until crispy. Let drain, then crumble and set aside for later.
On to the eggs! Carefully place your eggs in a pan. 6 will fit in a saucepan, you are going to slice them in half eventually to get 12 to serve. Gently cover the eggs with about 1-2 inches of water.
Bring the pot to a boil – obviously watch it, don’t go far it will be boiling before you know it. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat OFF. Cover with a lid, and let it sit there for 12 minutes.
Prep a bowl filled halfway with ice water, set aside. When the 12mins are up, drain the eggs and place them in the ice water to cool. Keep them in the fridge til you are ready to use them.
Once the eggs are cooled crack and shell them. If there are little pieces of shell stuck I like to run the egg under water and then dab it with a paper towel.
Cut the boiled eggs in half. Pop out the yolks into a small bowl, set the whites aside.
In the yolk bowl add the mayo, relish, onion powder, paprika, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
Using a small spoon scoop the yolk filling back into the egg white pockets. Top with the crumbled bacon, then add a few drops or five – of Tapatio sauce.
These are deviled eggs with a little something extra, your party will never be the same.
Chickie Eggs
I saw these in The Manga Cookbook
The thing that caught my eye about these were how cute and SIMPLE they were, using very few ingredients – and you can make a momma and a hatchling! I think these eggs would be so cute for Easter!
ingredients:
eggs
black goma (sesame seeds)
1 carrot
If you are afraid of boiling eggs, don’t be. You don’t need a special boiler or one of those floaty things that tells you when it’s done – just do it the old fashioned way, plain and simple.
Carefully place your eggs in a pan. (I usually do 6 in a saucepan, if I do more I use a large pot.) Gently cover the eggs with about 1-2 inches of water.
Bring the pot to a boil – obviously watch it, don’t go far it will be boiling before you know it. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat OFF. Cover with a lid, and let it sit there for 12 minutes.
Prep a bowl filled halfway with ice water, set aside. When the 12mins are up, drain the eggs and place them in the ice water to cool. Keep them in the fridge til you are ready to use them.
Once the eggs are cooled crack and shell them. If there are little pieces of shell stuck I like to run the egg under water and then dab it with a paper towel.
Now to prep the other ingredients let me first tell you, quite obviously you won’t need a whole carrot. Just an itty bitty tiny piece. Cut a slice of carrot, cutting out a small wedge shapes. Set aside.
As far as Black Goma is concerned finding black sesame seeds can be hard, but usually an asian market would be your best bet. You can find them online too
For the momma chicks:
Take a toothpick and poke two holes for eyes. Place the black sesame seeds in.
Poke a hole with a toothpick and insert the carrot for the beak.
For the baby chicks:
This time slice the egg in half – carefully so you don’t tear the yolk – then do the same for the eyes and beak.
So simple, it’s hard to not want to make an army of baby chickie eggs!
Peeking Easter Bunny Cookie+Cupcakes
I wanted to do something different for Easter Cupcakes so I started sketching some ideas. One that stuck was using cookies along with the cupcakes. (I guess it’s still on my mind since I just did that with Praline Cupcakes.
I thought it’d be cute to have little cutout bunnies peeking out of ‘grass’ in a flower pot. (yet another one of my cupcake ideas revisited…)
They turned out just as I had hoped and as always the cookie + cupcake combo was deeelicious!
ingredients:
cupcakes (I used fresh strawberry cupcakes: recipe, here)
buttercream
green gel dye
bunny cut out cookies
Use any sugar cookie recipe and cut out bunny shapes, bake cookies and let cool.
While the cookies are cooling I made a simple mixture of powdered sugar and water, with a touch of gel dye.
Using a clean paintbrush (I have a set just for baking) I painted the ears and the face.
For the eyes I used the same technique with the paintbrush just using cocoa powder, powdered sugar and water. Set aside the bunny faces to dry.
Bake your cupcakes and while they are cooling tint your buttercream green. I didn’t want fancy piping, I just wanted it to look like crazy grass, so I frosted them then tapped at the top with a spatula until the frosting became spiky.
I added more green to the leftover frosting and added touches here and there = that gave contrasting grass colors.
Place the frosted cupcakes in the ceramic pots. You can get these at your local craft store for under a dollar. These 2″ pots are the perfect size.
Instead of just jamming the cookie in the cupcake, I cut a small slit so the cookie will be stable. Not too deep, just enough so the cookies sit nicely.
Carefully place the cookies, being careful not to break the ears off!
I added a few sugar flowers and wafer leaves which make the flower pots even cuter. Once the cookies are in you are ready to serve!
These would make cute little place settings for a lovely easter brunch!
Cinnamon Vanilla (bunny shaped) Pancakes
My mom used to make me shaped pancakes on a Sunday morning, and let me tell you, it certainly makes you more interested in eating your breakfast. Here’s how I made these bunny ones for the kids on Easter.
Similar to my cinnamon vanilla waffle recipe, this one for pancakes is just as popular with my kids. Especially when you form them into fun shapes to eat.
ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1-1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all the ingredients together until just combined. If you need more milk, go for it – just don’t let it get runny. You want to be able to shape these things.
Heat a pan over medium high heat, I like to melt some butter in there for flavor, but you certainly don’t have to. To make the bunny – use a large Tablspoonspoonful of batter and start with the head – making a nice oval shape.
Then use half the Tablespoon and pull up one ear.
Then the other. Once you know the pancake is ready to flip – gently turn it over and you should have a nice little bunny head.
I used small pink heart quinns for the nose and black POKER quinns for the eyes.
Obviously, you can make any shape, but bunnies are easy and fun…and recognizable!!
