Tomorrow, we are heading to my mom’s for an early dinner with my family to celebrate Easter. In addition to the cutout cookies, I wanted to make something else that fit in with the spring/Easter theme.
I had seen photos of birds’ nest cupcakes, but the “nest” part was always made with toasted coconut or chow mein noodles. I wanted to make my nests with frosting. I made up a batch of buttercream and used one of my decorative frosting tips to swirl a little “nest” on the top of each cupcake. Topped with three peanut M&Ms as the eggs, these came out really cute (and tasty, too).
For the cupcake itself, I decided to try out a homemade confetti/funfetti recipe. The almond extract gives them a really nice flavor. Although totally different than the funfetti in a box, these were really good.
As you can see, I used Easter sprinkles in the cake to make it festive looking.
I did run into a bit of a problem with this cupcake recipe. The recipe states that it makes 12 cupcakes. When I divided the batter evenly among all of the cupcake liners, I noticed that they were really full. Against my baker’s instincts, I decided to just go with it and trust the recipe. I thought perhaps they wouldn’t rise too much.
Wrong. The cupcakes all overflowed, and as a result, I had really crispy edges, and really FLAT cupcakes. They were ridiculous looking. To decorate them, I ended up trimming off the overflowed edges, which worked out, but was a pain. So, in the end, the cupcakes didn’t look the way I had hoped, but I was able to salvage them for this purpose.
Lesson learned! I have modified the recipe below… this will probably make about 18-20 cupcakes instead of 12. Just use your best judgment. Next time I make them, I wouldn’t fill the cups more than 1/2 – 2/3 full.
Confetti Cupcakes(Source: Slightly modified from Baking Bites)
Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup milk
– 3 large egg whites
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 1/4 tsp almond extract
– 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
– 1 cup sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 6 tbsp butter, soft
– 1/4 – 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (base amount on your preference)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a measuring cup, whisk together milk, egg whites and extracts. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl if you prefer to work by hand), combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine.
4. Cut in butter with the paddle attachment at low speed (or cut in by hand), until mixture is coarse and sandy.
5. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds. Stir in sprinkles.
6. Fill prepared muffin cups 1/2 – 2/3 full. Bake for for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
Makes 16-20 cupcakes.
I couldn’t let Easter pass by without making a few cute cutout cookies!
When I made all of the bug cookies for the baby shower a couple of weeks ago, I made an extra batch of dough and stuck it in the freezer. This week, I used half of it to make 18 Easter/spring cookies. I still have half a batch of dough left for something else!
The bunnies are my favorite.
This was my first opportunity to use such pretty and bright colors for cookies. I love the blue! (Figures, right?)
The Easter eggs were fun to do. Each one was unique. Plus I got to use all of the colors on one cookie!
We’ll be taking some of these with us to my in-laws’ place tomorrow, and the rest to my mom’s on Sunday. So festive and cute!
As always, I used this recipe. Enjoy your holiday weekend!
For a couple of days now, I have been struggling with the decision about whether or not to blog about this story. After all, I was not a follower of the blog, I did not know any of the background on this little girl and her family, and it felt a little bit like I would be overstepping a boundary.
But at the end of the day, a baby has unexpectedly died. She developed a cough (a cough!) over the weekend, and passed away on Tuesday. And because of the power of the internet, people from all over the world are pouring their love and support into this family. On Twitter, thousands of people–including Jimmy Fallon and Alyssa Milano–have “tweeted” about little Madeline Alice Spohr.
Through the tragedy, we are reminded of how wonderful we can all be to one another. In lieu of flowers and gifts, Heather & Mike Spohr have asked people to donate to the March of Dimes in memory of their daughter (who was a preemie herself). They were already raising money and planning to participate in the March for Babies later this month, and their original fundraising goal was $3,000. Thanks to the thousands of mourners who have been called to action following Maddie’s death, Heather & Mike’s total is now over $21,000 raised for the March of Dimes. Amazing, and for such a good cause.
In a strange twist of the internet version of the six degrees of separation, Heather, Mike and Maddie Spohr are real-life friends of Matt and Madeline Logelin, who I have written about before.
I’m crushed about the death of little Madeline, just as I would be hearing/reading about any other person losing their child. It’s one of the worst injustices in this world–people are not ever supposed to have to bury their children.
I don’t really feel like I can say much else. I just wanted to do my part in helping raise awareness about Maddie, and especially about the fundraising going on for March of Dimes in Maddie’s memory. If you feel so inclined, please visit Heather’s blog (I’ve read a few of her past posts, and she’s actually quite hilarious), although she has understandably not been updating it this week. For even more information, visit Meghan’s blog. She has been coordinating everything for Heather.
I leave you with a beautiful photo tribute that was put together on YouTube. For Maddie.
**rubbing eyes**
When I look at the date at the top of this post, I could swear it says April 7. And HA! That’s just funny.
What?
Oh. So, wait… it does say April 7?
How can that be? Surely, if it was really April 7, I wouldn’t have seen all of this when I was going into work this morning:
I mean, look at that. It can’t be April. Plus, I was rudely awakened by the sounds of a neighbor scraping ice off of his windshield this morning. That doesn’t happen in April.
Alright, alright… so it IS April, and we DID have snow and blustery cold this morning. I’m just choosing to live in denial half of the time, and the other half of the time, I’m being a bitter betty. Because frankly? This sucks. Unfortunately, it’s a reality here in Western New York.
People around these parts often talk about a legendary Mother’s Day snowstorm. (Yes, Mother’s Day. You know, that holiday that happens to take place in the middle of MAY.) I have no memory of such a thing, but they swear it happened. It’s possible that it was so traumatic, my brain has suppressed the memory to protect my sanity.
This past winter was particularly awful, so I’m trying not to complain about the seemingly-moody spring we are having. Anything is better than the winter we just had. But I’m having trouble here. I want warm weather so badly, it’s hard to focus on anything BUT the weather.
We’ve enjoyed occasional 60 degree, beautiful, sunny days for which I have been tremendously grateful. The problem is that more often than not, that weather is gone in an instant (literally overnight in some cases), and then we are blasted with another 30 degree, dreary, rainy/snowy day. NOT COOL, Mother Nature. NOT COOL.
Years ago, I was forwarded an e-mail titled, “You Know You’re in Western New York When…” One of the items that–according to the list–lets you know you’re in Western New York?
You can get sunburn and frostbite in the same day.
And I’m here to let you know that it’s true. SO true.
I started this post a month ago, and am just now getting around to finishing it. The story of my life! (Recently, anyway.)
Let me just start by saying that I loved this book. It’s been around for a while, and I’m not sure how I’ve managed to not read it until now. So if you haven’t read it? I urge you to do so.
The Kite Runner is told from the perspective of Amir. As a boy, he lives a life of privilege in Afghanistan in the 1970s, and we are witness to his very special friendship with Hassan, the servant’s son. The dynamic between the boys is interesting: Although Amir is the one with the money and the status, he often finds himself jealous of Hassan, and as a result, often treats him poorly. Still, Hassan is fiercely loyal to Amir. “For you, a thousand times over,” he says.
On one particular dramatic day, Amir is forced to choose between doing the wrong thing and doing the right thing. By the time he makes a decision, it is essentially too late, and Amir (and Hassan) must live with the consequences of his cowardly inaction for many years to come.
Life soon changes for all of the characters due to personal and political conflict. We follow Amir through the subsequent years of his life. After he and his father are forced to flee to the United States, Amir and his father must transition from the privileged lifestyle they lived in Afghanistan to one of “just getting by” in America. Even though he is worlds away from Afghanistan, the memories of his childhood and that one horrific night are never far from his mind.
The ensuing story is a lesson in family, loyalty, culture, and forgiveness. Throughout the journey of his life, Amir’s greatest challenge is not in forgiving others–but in learning to forgive himself.
I don’t want to say much else for fear of giving away the plot’s twists and turns. In the end, this is just a beautifully written, tragic, yet strangely hopeful story. I have Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns on my list of books to read soon, and I’ve heard it is just as great, if not even better than The Kite Runner. Needless to say, I look forward to reading it.
Have you read The Kite Runner? Want to discuss? Feel free to do so in the comments.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
