SWEETS: Cupcakes

Cooking101

Aside from Halloween, Easter is a greatly anticipated holiday for any true candy lover. We all have our favorite festive treat that we hope will be left by the Easter Bunny. Temptation rears its ugly head, luring us to consume chocolate eggs, jelly beans and marshmallow peeps — but there may be an even more delicious way to enjoy the day. Instead of gorging on just store-bought munchies, try a different approach by incorporating them into creating your own fun and festive spring treat. These Spring Bud Cupcakes are a perfect way to blend candy cravings and delicious desserts into one.

Spring Bud Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 bag M&Ms milk chocolate candies for Easter
1 bag 3 Musketeers minis for Easter
1 18.25-oz. box yellow cake mix
2 12-oz. cans whipped vanilla frosting
Red, blue, yellow and purple food coloring
24 paper cupcake liners
Cupcake pan
4 piping bags or resealable plastic bags
4 star tips, optional

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake cups with the paper cupcake liners. Unwrap and chop two cups of the 3 Musketeers minis. Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions and fold in the chopped candy. Divide the batter between the cups and bake until golden (about 17-21 minutes). Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Divide one can of vanilla frosting into quarters, tinting one pink, one blue, one purple, and one yellow. With the remaining vanilla frosting, cover the tops of the cupcakes. Fit the plastic bags or piping bags with star tips. Spoon one color of tinted frosting into each bag. Pipe yellow frosting centers and then pipe colored frosting rosettes around the edges. Decorate the cupcakes with coordinating colors of M&Ms to the tops of the rosettes.

Source: Brightideas.com