Easy Easter and Spring Baking

I know it is early March but Easter will be upon us before we know it.  Should you have cake stalls, parties or Easter festivities to bake for - fear not! Here are my top Easter recipes to make and bake. 

Cupcakes

These can be decorated any way you like!  We baked and decorated some cupcakes yesterday afternoon after school with a spring theme.

110g butter or margarine, softened

110g caster sugar

2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

110g self-raising flour

1-2 Tblsp milk

For the buttercream:

140g butter, softened

280g icing sugar

1-2 Tblsp milk

food colouring

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs a little at a time whilst continuously beating then add the vanilla extract.  Adding the egg whilst continuously beating the mixture should help it emulsify and not curdle.  If the mixture does start to curdle, add a tablespoonful or two of flour and this will stabilise the mixture whilst you add the rest of the egg.  Fold in the flour, add a little milk until the mixture drops easily off a spoon.  Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper cases.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.  Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the buttercream icing:

Beat the butter in a large bowl until pale and soft.  Add the icing sugar a little at a time to avoid a dust storm of icing sugar.  One all the icing sugar has been incorporated add one tablespoon of milk and beat until smooth and creamy.  If the buttercream icing is a little too thick add another tablespoon of milk.  Add food colouring and mix until the icing is an even colour.  Pipe or spread the icing on to your cupcakes.

Chocolate Easter Nests

This recipe is brilliant for baking with kids, perfect for Easter cake stalls or parties.  You can use cornflakes instead of rice krispies if you like or a mixture of both.

2 cups rice krispies or cornflakes

200g milk or dark chocolate broken into chunks

Coconut threads/shredded coconut

Yellow food colouring

Chocolate mini Easter eggs

Mix a few drops of yellow food colouring with water until you have the shade of yellow that you want.  Gradually add the food colouring mix to the coconut threads and stir until the coconut threads have absorbed the colour but are not wet.

Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a bowl over simmering water or heat in the microwave in 30 second bursts until just melted.  Reserve 3 or 4 tablespoons of melted chocolate then pour the rest into the rice krispies or cornflakes and stir until they are evenly and totally coated in the chocolate.

Line a muffin tin with paper cases.  Spoon the chocolate coated cereal into the paper cases.  Make a slight hollow in the centre with a teaspoon.  Put a little of the yellow coloured coconut into the hollow, then arrange the chocolate eggs on top of the coconut.   Put in the fridge until the chocolate has set.

Other handy Easter recipes:

Hot Cross Buns - always popular and you can bake them in bulk and freeze until needed.

Mini Creme Egg or Mini Caramel Egg Muffins and Broken Easter Egg/Chocolate Chunk Cookies  - not just for leftover Easter eggs, you can make them as Easter treats too.

Easter Story Cookies - these have accompanying Bible verses and are fab to share the Easter story with your children.

I would love to see your Easter bakes and treats.  Link up your blog posts to the blog hop linky so we can all see your awesomeness!