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Hey again! It’s Chelsea back from Chelsea’s Messy Apron. Can you believe Easter is this Sunday? April has just flown by for me, I can’t believe it’s already Easter this Sunday. I have some incredibly simple Easter cupcakes in case you need a last minute dessert for this weekend! The great thing about these cupcakes though, is they are perfect for all of Spring and would even make a great Mother’s Day treat. Plus, they require minimal ingredients to decorate – no fancy icing bags or tips needed!
For these cupcakes I used a cake mix and doctored it up a bit. That’s my favorite way to do cakes or cupcakes. It’s simple, but the cake still tastes rich and dense. I use a cake mix that already has pudding mix in it and then add an additional pudding mix. The double pudding makes for some super dense and fudgy cupcakes. I also add in some sour cream and Greek yogurt to the mix which adds to the density of the cake. A couple extra eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and some buttermilk and the cake is ready to go into the oven.
A lot of the times I’ll use a substitute for buttermilk. I hate buying a whole container to just throw it away if it goes bad and I don’t use it all. All you do is get a scant cup of milk (I like to use 2% because of the creaminess) and add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. I prefer vinegar, but both will work. Stir together and allow to sit for 5-7 minutes before adding to the mixture.
Once these cupcakes are baked and cooled, it’s time to decorate!
I frosted each cupcake with dyed cream cheese frosting. You can make your own frosting, but I wanted to keep these simple so I just used it from a store-bought tub. Slather on the frosting and then immediately top with 1-2 tablespoons of dyed coconut.
Dying coconut is super simple – just stir around the coconut with a few drops of food dye until the color you desire is reached. Sometimes I will knead the coconut and dye with my hand if I want it to really pick up the color. But, be warned, your hand will be dyed too!
Finally, arrange the “flowers” by frosting the bottom of peanut M&M’s (or another similar candy) and pressing them in a flower form on to the cupcake. And there you go – super simple, last minute cupcakes for Easter, or Mother’s Day! Enjoy 🙂
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Spring Flower Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 1 box Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix 15.25 oz.
- 1 package chocolate fudge pudding mix 3.9 oz., dry
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt or plain
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Decorating:
- 1 container cream cheese frosting
- Green food dye
- 1-1/2 cups sweetened coconut shredded
- 1 bag spring-colored peanut M&M's
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together the pudding and cake mix.
- In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk (check post for a substitute) and vanilla extract.
- Mix wet and dry until combined (do not over-stir or beat in too much air)
- Fill up the liners 3/4ths the way full and bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove and let cool completely.
Decorating:
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the vanilla frosting with the green food dye. Mix until you reach the desired shade of green.
- Generously frost each cupcake with the green frosting.
- In another bowl, combine the coconut with several drops of green food coloring. Stir and mix with your hands to thoroughly dye the coconut green.
- Place a tablespoon of dyed green coconut on each cupcake and press it into the frosting to ensure it will stay.
- Slightly separating the coconut from the frosting, attach the M&M's in the shape of a flower. If needed, use extra frosting to attach the M&M's and get them to stay in place.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My son and I are making these! He’s insane for the dough — can’t imagine how great the cupcakes are going to be! :))
Less messy way to dye coconut… put coconut & food coloring into small, resealable baggie + shake / knead = tinted coconut