Easter Cupcake Project for Kids

This is a fantastic Easter cupcake project to do with kids because it is simple and fun. All the kids I know love to bake and decorate, the trick is finding projects that match their attention span, and this one fits the bill. All of the ingredients and decorations can be store bought, and you could even use store bought muffins if you didn’t have time to bake up a batch of cupcakes.

I made these cupcakes with my neighbor, Grace, and she took them to school to share with her class. The idea for these Bunny Cupcakes comes from the book, Cupcakes Year Round by Sara Neumeier. I love this book! It came out even before the cupcake craze and has so many amazing recipes and tips. I make the Hot Buttered Rum Cupcakes every year for Christmas and this book also has my favorite Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe.

To make the Bunny Cupcakes you will need the following:

~ 24 Cupcakes

~Two Containers (about 4 cups) Store Bought Creamy Vanilla Frosting

~Green Food Coloring

~ 24 Bunny Peeps

~ Narrow  Ribbon  (about 5 feet – 3″ per bunny)

If you want to go the extra step of making your cupcakes and frosting homemade, I suggest carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. It seems like the perfect fit for Bunny Cupcakes.

Step 1  – Make your cupcakes and let them cool completely.

Step 2 – Add drops of green food coloring to your frosting to get the desired shade.

Step 3 – Use an offset spatula to frost the each cupcake.

Step 4 – Tie a 3″ length of ribbon around the bunnies’ necks to form a bow tie. If the ribbon is a bit long, just trim it. Grace added her own touch by giving some of the bunnies bandanas instead of bow ties.

Step 5 – Use the spatula to put a small dollop of green frosting on the bottom of your bunny and place the bunny in the center of the cupcake.

Voila! Now you have delicious and delightful Easter Treats to share!

Be creative and feel free to make variations on this project. I decided to make some similar cupcakes using the classic yellow chick Peeps and grass. I used grass tip 233 to pipe grass onto a cupcake. Note: Buttercream is best for this. You can use store bought frosting to do this but you will need to put the prepared (filled with tip and icing) into the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour so that the icing will set up enough to get good results with the grass tip.

I use lavender sugar pearls to dot the grass and place a big yellow chick Peep on the top of the mounded grass.  Then I piped additional grass around the chick. To avoid the white exposed marshmallow spots that you will see when you cut the Peeps apart, cut two little ovals off of another Peep and stick these on to cover the white spots and serve as wings.

Another variation uses colored coconut as the grass. For this, put some flaked coconut in a bowl and add a few drops of food coloring. Stir the coconut and food coloring until the coconut is the desired shade.

Now frost your cupcakes using an offset spatula. Now the fun part…turn the frosted cupcake upside down and dip it into the bowl of coconut so that it is completely covered. Now you have a grass covered cupcake and all you need to do is add a topper. Peeps come in so many different colors and shapes, you can chose any color combination you want.

Use the offset spatula to add a dollop of frosting the the bottom of your Peep and place the Peep in the center of the cupcake. Using your fingers grab a small amount of the coconut to cover any exposed frosting around the Peep.